Miyazaki

香月ワインズ

宮崎県綾町

PROFILE

Official Website

OFFICIAL WEBSITEkatsukiwines.com

Legal name: 合同会社香月ワインズ
Location: 〒880-1302 宮崎県東諸県郡綾町大字北俣 2381番地
Representative: 香月克公
Phone: 0985-40-1565
Email: info@katsukiwines.com

ABOUT

Katsuki Wines is located in nature-rich Aya Town near the center of Miyazaki Prefecture.

Aya is home to one of Japan’s largest evergreen broadleaf forests, and the entire town is designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. It is also known for organic farming,

and attracts many people from across Japan seeking a more human way of life close to nature.

FEATURE STORY

About

Katsuki Wines is a family-run winery focused on small-production, handmade natural wines.

Yoshitada Katsuki spent 10 years studying winemaking in New Zealand and Germany. Inspired by the family- and community-centered approach to wine he experienced there, he returned to his home prefecture of Miyazaki determined to take on the same challenge locally.

By adapting Japanese table-grape cultivation techniques to European wine-grape varieties, the winery grows wine grapes without agricultural chemicals in conditions once thought impossible for such varieties in this region.

Viticulture

Katsuki Wines has three vineyard parcels on the Nishikibaru Plateau, all on kuroboku volcanic soils. The vineyards grow varieties including Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer, and Black Olympia.

No pesticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers are used. Instead, diverse wildflowers, grasses, herbs, and other groundcover are encouraged as part of an approach designed to preserve the natural ecosystem as much as possible.

Winemaking

Everything from harvest through destemming, pressing, and bottling is done by hand.

To ensure the highest possible quality, foreign material and damaged grapes are carefully removed during sorting.

Fermentation relies on native yeasts naturally present on the grape skins and in the winery environment.

For clarification, no filtration machine is used. Instead, lees are allowed to settle naturally by gravity, and the clear wine above is carefully racked off. This process is repeated four to five times before bottling.

No antioxidants or fining agents are used.