Hitomi Winery

The Producer

Hitomi Winery (ヒトミワイナリー) was founded in 1991 in Higashi-ōmi, Shiga Prefecture by Reizō Zushi (図師礼三), who had previously worked in apparel before pivoting to winemaking. The estate is one of the few significant wineries in Shiga and remains the regional anchor for Kansai-area natural wine.

The Nigori-Wine Breakthrough

In 1993, Hitomi began experimenting with "nigori-wine" (にごりワイン, "cloudy wine") after observing that unfiltered wines drawn directly from tanks tasted better than the filtered finished product. The cloudiness comes from suspended fermentation lees and grape solids; the resulting wine is fuller-bodied, richer in lees-derived flavor, and more savory than its filtered counterpart.

The decision to bottle cloudy wines was unconventional in early-1990s Japan, where mainstream winemaking emphasized clarity and stability. Hitomi’s commitment to nigori grew steadily over the decade and ultimately defined the estate’s identity. By 2006 all wines were bottled unfiltered.

Sumito Iwatani

Sumito Iwatani (岩谷澄人) served as Hitomi’s head brewer through the 2000s and was the figure most responsible for establishing the estate’s natural-wine trajectory. He pioneered the use of Delaware grapes from Yamagata for serious wine production, transforming what had been a table-grape variety into a credible natural-wine input. His "Acid Dela" — a Delaware natural wine made with semi-carbonic maceration over 40-50 days — defined a new style.

In the 2010s, Iwatani founded his own estate, Yellow Magic Winery in Yamagata, while maintaining a deep collaborative relationship with Hitomi. He is widely referred to as Japan’s "father of nigori wine."

Why It Matters

Hitomi Winery and Sumito Iwatani together established two of the defining categories of contemporary Japanese natural wine: unfiltered (nigori) bottlings and Delaware-based serious wine. Both ideas are now mainstream across Hokkaido, Yamagata, and Yamanashi natural-wine producers, but they began here.

Details

• Founded: 1991
• Location: Higashi-ōmi, Shiga Prefecture
• Founder: Reizō Zushi
• Notable winemaker: Sumito Iwatani (former head brewer, now Yellow Magic Winery)
• Key innovation: Unfiltered (nigori) wine; Delaware natural wine
• All-unfiltered: Since 2006