Beyond 90 Years of History: The Origins of Suntory Shinshu Shiojiri Winery

The appeal of visiting a winery may lie in the ability to experience on-site, firsthand, the reasons why a wine takes on its particular flavor.

On this visit, we toured Suntory Shinshu Shiojiri Winery and its estate-managed vineyards located in Iwatarehara, Shiojiri City.
Afterward, we traveled to Yamanashi Prefecture to visit Suntory Tomi no Oka Winery.

In this first part, we will focus primarily on Suntory Shinshu Shiojiri Winery.

Established in 1936, Shinshu Shiojiri Winery will mark its 90th anniversary in 2026. Ahead of this milestone, the winery's name was officially changed to "Suntory Shinshu Shiojiri Winery" this September.

While carefully preserving buildings from 90 years ago, small tanks, a new destemmer, and a state-of-the-art press are actively in operation. Meanwhile, in the vineyards, trials taking into account even the microorganisms in the soil are underway.

Preserving the old and taking on new challenges coexist in the exact same place. We report on Suntory's current Japanese wine making.

Tracing the beginnings of Shinshu Shiojiri Winery leads back to "Akadama Port Wine," which can be considered the origin of Suntory itself.

Launched in 1907, Akadama Port Wine became a massive hit. The Shiojiri plant was established in 1936 as a base to secure raw materials for it. Even today, grapes such as Niagara are brought in from the "Akadama Shipping Cooperative," continuing the production of base wine for Akadama Sweet Wine.

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On the premises, the "No. 1 Cellar" and "No. 2 Cellar" built in 1937 are also preserved.

These aging cellars were built semi-underground, utilizing natural insulation by piling excavated soil around the buildings. Despite being constructed before the era of air conditioning, the interior temperatures are said to have stayed below around 20°C even during summer.

Although they have now retired from active production due to aging and seismic concerns, the buildings are carefully preserved as symbols of the 90 years of history the winery has journeyed through.

Similarly, the former No. 2 Fermentation Room built in 1953 has transitioned into an aging cellar.

In the space where base wine for Akadama was once brewed in large open-top tanks, a temperature-controlled aging space has now been established, where barrel-aged wines and traditional-method sparkling wines quietly mark time.

Rather than demolishing buildings to build anew, they have preserved history while adapting internal roles and functions to contemporary winemaking. Past and present seem to exist in much closer proximity here through winemaking than one might imagine.

Meanwhile, brewing equipment has advanced considerably.

From 2011 to 2022, the fermentation room was renovated, introducing small tanks of various capacities. This enables grapes from contract growers and estate-managed vineyards to be fermented separately by vineyard and plot.

In red winemaking, primary emphasis is reportedly placed on thorough sorting.

A two-stage sorting process is conducted: selecting at the cluster stage, and selecting again at the berry stage after destemming. Furthermore, no pumps are used when transferring the selected grapes into tanks; instead, they are elevated via conveyors and loaded with minimal physical stress.

Inadvertently damaging the skins and pulp could lead to the extraction of unwanted bitterness or harsh flavors.

Our guide, Takashi Saito, General Manager of Suntory Ltd. Shinshu Shiojiri Winery, noted that implementing these processes since around 2021 has resulted in improved mid-to-finish continuity, finer lingering finishes, and greater quality consistency in the wines.

While carrying on history, investments are made in the equipment necessary to craft better wine.
What remains consistent is the goal of "making better wine," meaning methods and equipment naturally evolve with the times.

One piece of equipment of particular interest this time was the horizontal press for white wine introduced in 2022.

It is the same type used in Champagne, France, where internal plates move slowly horizontally to press the grapes gradually starting from low pressure. By utilizing internal angled plates, the grapes naturally break apart by gravity when pressure is released, conveying an image of gently "loosening" the grapes rather than "squeezing" them.

Consequently, the juice yield is lower than with conventional presses, but it operates on the philosophy that "while more juice could be extracted by pressing hard, we stop short of that to recover only the best juice." Incidentally, for Takayama Village Chardonnay from 2022 onward, this pressing method has reportedly allowed for an expression of more delicate fruit flavors.

While Shiojiri features flat terrain, its elevation exceeds 700 meters even in urban areas. Surrounded by mountains with relatively low rainfall and snowfall, the wine region spreads across multiple areas differing in elevation and topography.

Grape cultivation has thrived here since ancient times, with North American varieties like Concord and Niagara widely planted in the past. In the 1930s, major wine producers moved in seeking these abundant grapes, providing the backdrop for the founding of Suntory's Shiojiri Winery in 1936.

Today, the Shiojiri wine region is expanding even further. Vineyards are spreading to surrounding and higher-altitude areas. Spanning altitudes from the 700-meter range up to around 900 meters across areas with diverse topography and soils, "sub-regionalization" exploring each area's distinct character is underway. Despite being a long-standing producing area, Shiojiri continues to transform into a new wine region.

Iwatarehara, which we visited this time, is one such new area. It features well-drained soil where gravel carried by rivers from the Northern Alps has accumulated; once known as an area for lettuce and apples, vineyards for wine grapes have increased over the past 20 years.

At "Kuroshien," an estate-managed vineyard Suntory began overseeing in 2016, there is about 10 to 20 cm of Kuroboku (andosol) topsoil, beneath which a gravel layer appears almost immediately. With excellent drainage and good airflow throughout the day, it provides an environment where the area around grape clusters remains healthy even after rain.

Merlot is cultivated here. Across three vineyards including Kuroshien, it covers just under 1 hectare. About 10 years have passed since planting, and it is expected to serve as a core component of "Iwatarehara Merlot" going forward.

Also fascinating were the soil-building trials continuing at Kuroshien.
There are plots where weeds are intentionally left to grow abundantly. Here, wheat straw and cow manure compost are applied, deliberately leaving surface vegetation intact.

The goal is not simply to provide nutrients, but to enrich the soil microbiome.

Increasing surface vegetation increases root mass, which in turn increases associated microorganisms. These trials are conducted based on the idea that these microorganisms convert soil substances into forms more readily usable by vines, thereby contributing to vine health and grape quality.

When grapes from the trial plot and non-trial plots were fermented under identical conditions for comparison, many evaluators noted that wine from the soil-improved plot was "more complex, with more elements." Moving forward, they plan to verify these differences more scientifically and advance research in collaboration with vineyards in Yamanashi Prefecture.

Shinshu Shiojiri Winery was established 90 years ago as Shiojiri's production base to produce base wine for Akadama Port Wine. Buildings from the 1930s and 1950s still remain on the property today.

Yet inside those facilities, small tanks for plot-by-plot fermentation line the floor, destemming and conveying that do not damage the grapes are practiced, and the latest press designed to extract gentler juice has been introduced. Furthermore, cultivation trials that extend down to soil microorganisms are taking place in the vineyards.

Suntory Shinshu Shiojiri Winery is a winery where "inheriting" and "evolving" are naturally connected. That may very well be the reason why wines loved across eras continue to be created here.