In the Shadow of Mount Fuji

Most people know Sapporo, if at all, only as the site of the 1972 Winter Olympic Games. Aficionados of Japanese culture might have had the occasional beer of the same name. But wine? Surprisingly, almost 300 hectares on the large island of Hokkaido in the extreme north of the Land of the Rising Sun are planted with vitis vinifera. In terms of size, that is nothing, but its development has been a game-changer for domestic production.

Interestingly, it was Germans from Württemberg who first came here as flying makers, which is also why varieties such as Kerner, Zweigelt and Traminer are widely found on the island. Today, some such as the 2008 Lemberger Yoichi Fujimoto from Hokkaido Wine might even win a medal in Stuttgart.

From the new airport in Chitose, it takes almost two hours by car to reach the town of Otaru on the northwest coast, where the headquarters of the Hokkaido Wine Company is located. Although pioneering work had been done with hybrid grapes in the Tokachi subprefecture ten years before, in particular on a mutation of Seibel, 1974 is widely regarded as the birth year of viniculture on the island. Planting only began the following year, which is when Hokkaido Wine started its operations. Kimihiro Shimamura, whose father founded the company, studied enology in Weinsberg before returning home to produce his own wines. It was there where he met Gustav Grün, who is still an advisor to the company.

Nineteen seventy-nine was their first joint vintage, coinciding with the first Montana Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough on New Zealand’s south island. Coincidence? At the time, only a few hundred cases were produced, both here and there. Today, Yuki Kasai, the outwardly shy yet self-confident cellarmaster, produces almost two million bottles a year. When I visited last summer, he proved the ageworthiness of his Pinot Blanc by pouring me a surprisingly young 2000 from magnum.

It is humorous that the name of the nearby town of Otaru also means “small wooden barrel” in Japanese, as most of the wines here see only stainless steel. As is so often the case in Japan, the view from the window of Hokkaido Wine’s laboratory is largely one of grain fields, goats, forests and the endless ocean. Other than the small garden across from the tasting room, with a few token vines, there is no vineyard in sight. Almost all the grapes are from Tsurunuma, two hours by car from Otaru, where Koji Saito, the winery’s spritely vineyard manager, has planted over a hundred hectares of vines.

There are over 25 different varieties here because nobody yet knows for sure which are best suited for the area. Among the ones that I liked the most was their spicy yet elegant 2008 Zweigelt. However, only 3,200 bottles are made each year. Retailing at 3,100 yen (approximately 26USD or 22.5EUR), it is not a cheap tipple, but then nothing in Japan was until the yen began to tumble last year. Nonetheless, that is a price that even most Austrian winemakers in Burgenland, the home or Zweigelt, only fetch in their dreams. The best wine of the afternoon was a juicy, off-dry Traminer made from 25-year-old vines, which by Japanese standards is already vieilles vignes.

For the most part, vitis vinifera can only be planted on the northwestern side of the island because of the snow cover found there in winter, often several meters deep, which protects the vines against severe frost. In the southwestern part of the island, winter temperatures seldom fall so low, leaving the entire region of Do Nan ripe for exploration. To the east, however, in the snow shadow of the mountains, there is virtually nothing other than hybrid grapes. Even if frowned upon by connoisseurs, the Yama Sauvignon grown there does show promise. The red grape is a new variety, a cross between the indigenous Yama Budou, or mountain grape, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Furano is the leading producer here. Surprisingly, winemaker Katsuyuki Takahashi’s smoky 1999 Zweigelt, with its flavor of cracked black pepper, proves that under the right conditions vitis vinifera can not only flourish here, but its wines can also age.

Suntory’s Tomi no Oka property with Mount Fuji in the background

The Dream of Pinot Noir

Although Silvaner, Kerner and Zweigelt are more widely found in Hokkaido, and can all make interesting wines, it is primarily Pinot Noir that is responsible for the gold rush on the island. Nobody embodies this new wave better than Takahiko Soga in Yoichi. The small valley of Yoichi Nobori that lies just west of Otaru is celebrated in Hokkaido as something of a grand cru. Having moved here only a few years ago, Soga has now planted some two and a half hectares of vineyards on the slope behind his little house—and only Pinot Noir. However, as Japanese law stipulates that a winery must produce a minimum of 6,000 liters a year to be granted an alcohol license, Soga currently uses purchased grapes to produce Müller-Thurgau, Kerner and a Passetoutgrain, a blend of Pinot Noir and Zweigelt. His aim, however, is to soon be bottling nothing but Pinot Noir from his own vineyards. The charm of the 2012 vintage aged in an old Francois Frères barrel, the first from his own grapes, reminded me of Volnay. On the label, he proudly writes Domaine Takahiko.

His energy has also infected younger vintners like Ryosuke Kondo from Kondo, who had already planted pinot noir before Takahiko Soga moved north, and Kadzuko Sasaki from Norakura. The latter studied winemaking in Dijon. In spite of Sasaki’s success with purchased grapes, she will only release her first estate-bottled chardonnay from her own vineyards in the southwestern corner of the island near Hakodate late next year.