Vinoble Vineyard & Winery in Miyoshi, Hiroshima Prefecture, is producing Japanese wine that has earned international recognition.
Wines made by owner Takashi Yokomachi have attracted attention for quality said to rival wines from famous regions around the world. At the 2022 International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC), the winery’s Sauvignon Blanc 2021 won a Gold medal and became a major talking point.
Now Vinoble Vineyard, already trusted for its quality, is aiming for another Gold—this time with the “queen of wines,” botrytized sweet wine.
The winery recently launched a crowdfunding campaign to help make that dream possible.
What is behind this new challenge from a winery already attracting global attention?
Here are the details.
About Vinoble Vineyard and Takashi Yokomachi
Vinoble Vineyard is a winery founded by Takashi Yokomachi in Miyoshi, Hiroshima Prefecture.
Opened in August 2021, the winery handles everything from grape growing through winemaking itself.
Yokomachi trained at wineries including Miyoshi Winery and Katsunuma Jyozo before working as a winemaking consultant. He has also served as managing director of grapevine nursery company Rugphase, giving him experience across multiple areas of the industry.
Vinoble Vineyard first became widely known internationally through the IWSC 2022 wine competition.
Its Sauvignon Blanc 2021 won a Gold medal.
The result drew particular attention because only two wines—Vinoble Vineyard’s and one from a Marlborough winery in New Zealand—received a score of 95 points.
Yokomachi says he wants people who love grand vin to drink his wines and regards Champagne and Burgundy as competitors.
His winemaking skill is highly regarded, but his commitment to viticulture is also considered world-class.
A self-described clone enthusiast, he grows numerous clones of Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, and other varieties, vinifying them in ways designed to suit their individual character.
NihonWine.jp has previously interviewed Yokomachi about his personality, his approach to grape growing and winemaking, and how he felt at the time of the award. Those articles are also worth reading.
https://nihonwine.jp/winerys-voice/news/vinoblevineyard-interview/
https://nihonwine.jp/winerys-voice/interview/vinoblevineyard-interview-202307/
The Challenge of Botrytized Wine
Yokomachi’s new goal is to win Gold with a botrytized sweet wine.
Botrytized wine is a sweet wine made from highly concentrated grapes affected by the fungus Botrytis cinerea, or noble rot. Sauternes in Bordeaux, Germany’s Trockenbeerenauslese, and Hungary’s Tokaji Aszú are widely known as the world’s three great botrytized-wine traditions.
These wines are famously rare. Even obtaining suitable noble-rotted grapes is close to miraculous, enormous quantities of grapes are needed to make a single bottle, and the winemaking itself is extremely difficult.
Because botrytized grapes can only be harvested when the necessary natural conditions align, this is not a style a producer can casually decide to make.
Why would Vinoble Vineyard, already internationally recognized for wines including Sauvignon Blanc, take on this challenge? The answer lies in Yokomachi’s vision.
Making Use of the Terroir of Bihoku, Hiroshima
Miyoshi lies in Hiroshima’s Bihoku region and has an extreme basin topography that is strongly affected by radiational cooling.
In central Miyoshi, the Basen, Saijo, and Kawai rivers converge to form the Gonokawa River, which flows toward the Sea of Japan. Differences in water temperature among these rivers contribute to frequent fog, creating an unusual local environment.
That makes Miyoshi one of Japan’s rare growing environments suited to botrytized wine.
Yokomachi is passionate about making special wines that contain the story of this place, growing grapes with care in close relationship with the local natural environment.
He remembers walking to elementary school through autumn fog. It was bitterly cold, and as a child he recalls thinking the mist rising from the river looked warm.
That memory and landscape have fueled his strong desire to use Miyoshi’s climate to make botrytized wine.
Increasing Semillon Production and Aiming at the World
Because noble rot removes so much water from the berries, grape yield can fall to around one-third of that of normal grapes.
Pressing further reduces the volume of juice to roughly one-third, so increasing the harvest of botrytized grapes is essential if enough wine is to be produced for commercial distribution.
Vinoble Vineyard’s botrytized-wine production has been extremely small: 30 liters in 2022 and 70 liters in 2023.
The winery therefore decided to expand its vineyard and increase the amount of Semillon available for botrytized wine.
Semillon is one of the world’s classic grapes for noble-rot wines. Château d’Yquem, producer of one of Sauternes’ greatest examples, also relies primarily on Semillon.
Vinoble Vineyard also uses its Semillon for sparkling and barrel-aged wines. Its Semillon Sparkling has already demonstrated its quality: it was selected as the toast wine at a dinner for spouses of world leaders during the G7 Hiroshima Summit in May 2023.
The winery currently has only 20 ares of Semillon. Converting all of it into botrytized wine would be too risky from a business perspective, so expanding planted area is essential to increasing production.
For a botrytized wine with global ambitions, expanding Semillon acreage is an urgent priority.
About the Crowdfunding Rewards
Some of the rewards available through the crowdfunding campaign include:
- Sauvignon Blanc 2024
- Semillon Sparkling 2023
- Chardonnay & Pinot Noir Sparkling 2021
- Pinot Noir 2023
- Original T-shirts, stickers, and more
For full details, see the crowdfunding page.
Aiming for a Botrytized Wine That Can Surpass the World’s Best
Vinoble Vineyard produced one of the world’s highest-scoring Sauvignon Blancs at IWSC 2022.
Its next goal is “a Gold medal for botrytized wine.”
Yokomachi hopes to realize the project together with supporters and make a wine capable of taking flight globally into a source of pride for Japan.
This challenge could help change the future of Japanese wine.
If you are interested, take a look at the crowdfunding page.
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