One of the most beautifully situated wineries in Nagano, Azumino winery was established in 2007 in the Nihon Alps wine valley, in the shadow of the northern alps. Here, on…
Nagano region, Japan (6) Funky Château
Toyohiko (Toyo) and Micchi Kanehashi are running one of the top wineries in Nagano: Funky Château, in Aoki Village. They were working in Tokyo – Toyo as a music producer,…
Nagano region, Japan (5) Cave Hatano
Nobutaka Hatano started his career as a chef, and he fell into winemaking almost by accident. He applied for the chefs job at Villa d’Est in Nagano, but there were…
Nagano region, Japan (4) Rue de Vin
Hideaki Koyami is the man behind Rue de Vin. He began working in Yamanashi 20 years ago. Before that he was employed by an electric company. In 2006 he moved…
Nagano region, Japan (3) a tasting at Tomi Wine Chapel
In Tomi, there’s a wine bar and tasting room where you can sample many different Nagano Wines. It’s great to have a wine-focused place like this in town. We…
Nagano region, Japan (2) Gio Hills
The first winery visit of this year’s Nagano tour was at Gio Hills winery, which is owned by the Tomioka family: Masaki and his wife Yoko, and their winemaker son…
Nagano region, Japan, day 1
I’ve returned to the Nagano wine region, which I visited last March. It’s in the middle of Japan, which is quite a long, thin country stretching from 26 degrees south…
Nagano Wine Region: grand tasting and overall impressions
This was a chance to taste 28 of the leading wines from Nagano prefecture, which is one of the three main Japanese wine regions, and along with Hokkaido, is the…
Nagano wine region, Japan (10) – Shinshu Takayama Winery
The Takayama winery is an interesting project: it’s a collaboration between local vineyard owners (so in effect, a small co-op), with winemaker Eiichi Takano at the helm. He’s worked previously…