Premium Botrytized Wine
— A rare wine born from naturally occurring noble rot —
In 1993, browning was discovered on Chardonnay grapes whose harvest had been delayed because ripening was unusually slow. Noble rot, normally associated with varieties such as Riesling and Sémillon, had developed on Chardonnay. At the time, botrytized grapes were extremely rare in Japan and little information was available, so the winery began producing noble-rot wine largely through trial and error, from determining harvest timing to choosing a fermentation method. Fermentation proceeded exceptionally slowly and took two years. During winter, heaters were installed in the cellar to maintain a temperature of around 15°C. The result was an exceptionally rare botrytized Chardonnay wine, uncommon even on a global scale.
