Katsunuma Budō no Oka
Yamanashi’s public wine destination — taste 200 Yamanashi wines in one place, with hot spring and views of the Kofu Basin
The Place
Katsunuma Budō no Oka sits on a hillside above Katsunuma, looking south across the Kofu Basin toward Mount Fuji. It is operated by Koshu City as a public visitor destination and combines a wine-tasting facility, restaurant, hot spring (onsen), and overnight lodging.
How the Tasting Works
The signature feature is the underground wine cellar (試飲会場), which holds approximately 200 different Yamanashi-prefecture wines from roughly 30 producers. Visitors pay a flat entry fee (around ¥1,500–2,000 depending on the year) and receive a small "tastevin" tasting cup. They can then taste any wine in the cellar at their own pace. Most tasters move from white to red, sampling perhaps a dozen wines on a typical visit.
This format — flat fee, self-guided, hundreds of wines from competing producers in one room — does not exist anywhere else in Japan and exists only in a handful of locations globally. It is unusually democratic: a casual tourist can encounter the prefecture’s wine industry in a single afternoon, and a serious wine drinker can use it for systematic comparison.
What Else Is There
- Restaurant serving Yamanashi cuisine paired with local wine
- Hot spring (天空の湯) overlooking the Kofu Basin
- Lodging (Hotel Budō no Oka)
- Small wine museum and shop
The complex functions as Yamanashi’s wine-tourism anchor and a useful day-trip destination from Tokyo.
Why It Matters
Katsunuma Budō no Oka is the most accessible introduction to the Yamanashi wine industry. Its public-cooperative model — the city operates it as a service to the prefecture’s wine community — is one of the structural reasons Yamanashi has remained the country’s most wine-tourism-friendly region. For visitors, it serves as the first encounter with the breadth of Yamanashi wine; for the prefecture’s wine industry, it functions as a year-round shared marketing platform.
Details
- Location: Katsunuma, Koshu City, Yamanashi
- Operator: Koshu City (public)
- Wines available: ~200 Yamanashi wines from ~30 producers
- Entry fee: Approximately ¥1,500–2,000 (subject to change)
- Other facilities: Restaurant, hot spring, hotel, museum