Region
Regions
Wine regions and appellations, written from our experiences in the field.
Japan
Japan Alps Wine Valley (日本アルプスワインバレー)
Azumino and Matsumoto basin — the Northern Alps sub-region of GI Nagano, with Mt. Hotaka glacial scree and continental cool nights
The Japan Alps Wine Valley (日本アルプスワインバレー) is one of GI Nagano’s four official sub-regions. It covers the Azumino plateau and Matsumoto basin in the central-western quarter of the prefecture, immediately east of the Northern Alps (Hida Mountains). The terroir is shaped by glacial scree slopes, granite-derived soils, and continental cool nights moderated by the rain shadow of the 3,000-metre Alps.
Nagano
Tenryū River Wine Valley (天竜川ワインバレー)
Southern Nagano sub-region along the Tenryū River — the warmest of the four GI Nagano valleys, emerging slowly behind the prefecture's northern producers
The Tenryū River Wine Valley (天竜川ワインバレー) is the southernmost of GI Nagano's four official sub-regions. Following the Tenryū River through the Ina Valley between the Central and Southern Alps, the area is warmer and lower than the Chikumagawa or Northern Alps zones. Production is smaller and the regional identity is still emerging.
Nagano
Kumamoto
Kyushu’s wine prefecture — small but ambitious, with cool-climate experiments at Aso volcanic plateaus
Kumamoto Prefecture in central Kyushu has a small wine industry concentrated around Kumamoto Wine (founded 1977 in the Aso plateau region). The Aso caldera’s elevation provides cool-climate conditions atypical for Kyushu’s otherwise subtropical climate, supporting credible vinifera experiments.
Kyushu
Aichi
Nagoya’s prefecture — small but established wine industry centered on Aichi Wine and the Hazu / Atsumi peninsulas
Aichi Prefecture, anchored by Nagoya, has a small but established wine industry. Aichi Wine (founded 1981) is the prefecture’s anchor producer; total winery count is roughly 6–8, with plantings concentrated in the Hazu and Atsumi peninsula areas where the Pacific maritime influence moderates the inland summer heat.
Tokai
Oita
Northern Kyushu — Anpu Winery’s Ajimu plateau and emerging cool-climate Kyushu wine identity
Oita Prefecture in northern Kyushu hosts Anpu Winery (Ajimu, founded 2001) and a small but growing wine industry on the Ajimu plateau. Like Kumamoto, Oita’s wine identity is built on elevation-driven cool-climate sites that defy Kyushu’s general subtropical climate.
Kyushu
Shimane
San’in coast, Iwami Ginzan’s prefecture — small wine industry anchored by Shimane Winery and the Okuizumo Valley
Shimane Prefecture on Honshu’s Sea of Japan San’in coast has a small wine industry anchored by Shimane Winery (founded 1986) and several small producers in the inland Okuizumo Valley. Yamabudou, hybrid varieties, and small vinifera experiments characterize the prefecture’s identity.
Chugoku
Shizuoka
Mt Fuji’s southern foothills — small wine industry with serious sparkling potential
Shizuoka Prefecture, on Honshu’s Pacific coast in the shadow of Mount Fuji, has a small but serious wine industry concentrated in the Nakaizu area. The prefecture’s mild Pacific climate and volcanic soils have supported a steady expansion in sparkling-wine production.
Tokai
Furano
Central Hokkaido — extreme continental climate, the Furano Winery municipal pioneer, lavender-and-vine landscapes
Furano (富良野) is the central Hokkaido city most famous for lavender fields and ski resorts. Its wine industry, anchored by the municipal Furano Winery (founded 1972), is a smaller third pillar of Hokkaido production after Yoichi and Sorachi.
Hokkaido
Kofu Basin
The volcanic-bordered alluvial basin that is Japan’s wine heartland — geomorphology, climate, and why grapes are here
The Kofu Basin (甲府盆地) in Yamanashi is the geological foundation of Japanese wine. Surrounded by mountains including Mount Fuji, the basin’s alluvial gravel soils, dry continental climate, and high diurnal swing produced the conditions that allowed Koshu cultivation to thrive for over a thousand years.
Yamanashi
Hyogo
Kobe’s prefecture — small wine industry around Kobe Wine, leveraging Kansai food culture
Hyogo Prefecture, anchored by Kobe and the Hanshin metropolitan area, has a small but established wine industry. Kobe Wine (founded 1983 as a Kobe city economic-development project) is the prefecture’s anchor — producing approachable wines aimed at the Kansai food market.
Kansai
Iwate
Tohoku’s Yamabudou heartland — Kuzumaki and Edel Wein, where wild native vines became commercial wine
Iwate Prefecture in northern Tohoku has a wine identity built on Yamabudou — the indigenous Vitis coignetiae that grows wild in the prefecture’s mountain forests. Kuzumaki Wine, founded as a town economic-development project in 1985, is the country’s most committed Yamabudou specialist.
Tohoku
Tochigi
Tohoku’s southern edge — and home to Coco Farm, the social-enterprise winery that incubated a generation of Japanese winemakers
Tochigi Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, is best known in wine circles for Coco Farm & Winery (Ashikaga). Founded in 1958 as a vineyard project for adults with developmental disabilities, Coco Farm became the de facto training ground for postwar Japanese winemaking — including for Bruce Gutlove and Takahiko Soga.
Kanto
Miyagi
Sendai’s wine prefecture — Akiu in the hills west of the city, anchored by Fattoria al Fiore
Miyagi Prefecture, the cultural and economic anchor of southern Tohoku, has a small but distinctive wine identity centered on the Akiu hills west of Sendai. Fattoria al Fiore, our portfolio producer, is the area’s most internationally visible operation.
Tohoku
Okayama
Western Honshu’s wine prefecture — the Niimi karst plateau and a quiet but serious recent wave
Okayama Prefecture in western Honshu has a long table-grape tradition (Pione, Muscat of Alexandria) and a smaller but seriously-committed wine community in the Niimi karst plateau, where Domaine Tetta — D-I Wine’s portfolio producer — has built a strong reputation since 2014.
Chugoku
Niigata
Sea-of-Japan coast — Iwanohara’s 1890 origins and Cave d’Occi’s 1992 rebirth of Niigata wine
Niigata Prefecture, on the Sea of Japan coast of Honshu, is where Japanese wine grape breeding began at Iwanohara Vineyard in 1890. A century later, Cave d’Occi pioneered the Niigata Wine Coast at Kakuda — and Albariño, of all varieties, became a regional signature.
Hokuriku
Hakodate
Southern Hokkaido — Étienne de Montille’s Japan project and the future of Burgundian-quality Pinot in Asia
Hakodate (函館), at Hokkaido’s southern tip, hosts Domaine de Montille Hokkaido — Étienne de Montille’s Burgundy-meets-Japan estate, established in 2017. It is the warmest of Hokkaido’s wine zones and the one most explicitly aimed at long-term cool-climate Pinot Noir as Burgundy warms.
Hokkaido
Tokachi
Inland eastern Hokkaido — Ikeda Town’s 1963 municipal winery, Japan’s first municipally-run wine project
Tokachi (十勝) is the eastern Hokkaido plain centered on Obihiro and Ikeda. Ikeda Town opened Japan’s first municipally-operated winery here in 1963 — a regional revitalization experiment that became a model for postwar Japanese wine development.
Hokkaido
Sorachi
Inland Hokkaido — 10R Winery’s home and the engine room of Japan’s natural-wine generation
Sorachi (空知) is Hokkaido’s inland wine zone, centered on Iwamizawa northeast of Sapporo. More continental than coastal Yoichi, it is home to Bruce Gutlove’s 10R Winery custom-crush incubator and a growing cluster of natural-leaning small domains.
Hokkaido
Niseko
Western Hokkaido — Mount Yōtei foothills, deep snow, and a still-young cool-climate wine zone
Niseko and neighboring Rankoshi sit on the slopes of Mount Yōtei in western Hokkaido. The area has an emerging wine identity built around its extreme winter snowfall, cool growing season, and proximity to one of Asia’s most international ski-resort destinations.
Hokkaido
Chikumagawa Wine Valley
Nagano’s most dynamic sub-zone — low rainfall, gravel soils, and Burgundy ambition along the Chikuma River
The Chikumagawa Wine Valley (千曲川ワインバレー) covers the upper reaches of the Chikuma River — Tomi, Komoro, Saku, Ueda. Low annual rainfall, well-drained gravel terraces, and a wide diurnal swing have made it the most credible Japanese setting for serious Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Bordeaux blends outside Hokkaido.
Nagano
Kikyogahara
The plateau in Shiojiri where Japan first proved Merlot could rival the world
Kikyōgahara (桐ュ原), on the plateau above Shiojiri City in central Nagano, is the historical home of Japanese Merlot. Trial plantings in the 1950s and commercial breakthroughs in the 1980s established the variety here — and the region’s wines now appear on top sommelier lists worldwide.
Nagano
Katsunuma
The town in Yamanashi where Japanese wine, as a serious idea, began
Katsunuma in Koshu City, Yamanashi, is the historical heart of Japanese wine. Modern winemaking here began in 1877 with Japan’s first French-trained vintners. Today it hosts more than thirty wineries within a few kilometers of one another — the densest concentration of fine wine production in the country.
Yamanashi
Nagano
Japan’s number-two wine prefecture — four valleys, serious Merlot, and Burgundian ambition in the Chikuma
Nagano Prefecture became Japan’s third Geographical Indication for wine in 2021. With more than seventy wineries spread across four wine valleys, it is now the second-largest producer in the country and the most ambitious in its embrace of European varieties.
Shinshu Wine Valley
Osaka
Japan’s urban wine outlier — Edo-era table-grape roots, Katashimo at the helm
Osaka Prefecture is the smallest and most urbanized of Japan’s five wine GIs. Its winemaking tradition stretches back to early-20th-century table-grape boom years; today Katashimo Winery anchors a small but proud community of producers in Kashiwara and the Yamato River basin.
Kansai
Yamagata
Tohoku’s wine prefecture — Takahata pioneers, deep snow, surprising elegance
Yamagata Prefecture in northern Tohoku became a Geographical Indication for wine in 2021. Long known for European-variety experiments at Takahata Winery and a deep tradition in indigenous Yamabudou crosses, it is now Japan’s fourth wine GI.
Tohoku
Yoichi
Hokkaido’s Pinot Noir frontier — a fishing town turned cool-climate wine epicenter
Yoichi (余市) on Hokkaido’s western coast is Japan’s most-discussed cool-climate wine address. Domaine Takahiko, Domaine Mont, and roughly two dozen other producers have made it the country’s reference point for Pinot Noir, natural winemaking, and the future of Japanese wine.
Hokkaido
Hokkaido
Japan’s northernmost wine frontier — cold-climate viticulture on volcanic soil
Hokkaido is Japan’s most exciting emerging wine region. Lower humidity, cooler temperatures, and volcanic soils produce wines of startling freshness — from Austrian-rooted Kerner and Zweigelt to increasingly serious Pinot Noir.
Yamanashi
Japan’s wine heartland — home of Koshu and the oldest continuously producing wineries in the country
Yamanashi Prefecture, centered around the town of Katsunuma at the foot of Mount Fuji, is Japan’s most important wine-producing region. It is home to the Koshu grape, over eighty wineries, and Japan’s first Geographical Indication for wine.
Katsunuma / Kofu Basin
Japan
An emerging wine country with a thousand-year viticultural history and a distinctive natural wine scene
Japan has been growing grapes for over a millennium, but serious wine production began in earnest in the 1870s. Today the country produces wines of genuine distinction — particularly from the Koshu grape in Yamanashi and a growing natural wine movement in Hokkaido and Nagano.
France
Champagne
The world’s most celebrated sparkling wine region — and an unlikely hotbed of natural winemaking
Champagne is both the most industrial and potentially the most natural of wine regions. Six atmospheres of pressure, heavy glass, and high acidity create ideal conditions for minimal intervention — a paradox that a new generation of grower-producers is exploiting to extraordinary effect.
Vallée de la Marne
Champagne's Pinot Meunier heartland — where the Marne river shapes terroir
The Vallée de la Marne is the westernmost of Champagne's five major districts, following the Marne river from Épernay toward Paris. It is the heartland of Pinot Meunier — the early-ripening grape that dominates this frost-prone valley. Legrand-Latour farms four biodynamic hectares here in Fleury-la-Rivière.
Champagne
Aÿ
Grand Cru Champagne village — where Pinot Noir reaches its fullest expression in the valley
Aÿ is one of Champagne's 17 Grand Cru villages and historically one of its most prestigious. Located at the eastern end of the Vallée de la Marne, its south-facing slopes produce Pinot Noir of exceptional depth and structure. Romain Henin farms Grand Cru vines here.
Champagne — Vallée de la Marne