Japan
An emerging wine country with a thousand-year viticultural history and a distinctive natural wine scene
The Country as Wine Region
Japan's wine history is longer than most Europeans realize. Grape cultivation in Yamanashi dates to at least 718 AD, and the Koshu grape has been grown continuously for over a thousand years. Modern wine production began when two Japanese winemakers returned from France in 1877 and established the country's first European-style winery.
Today Japan has over 300 wineries across multiple prefectures, with Yamanashi, Hokkaido, Nagano, and Yamagata as the leading production regions. The country received its first wine Geographical Indication (GI Yamanashi) in 2013.
The Grapes
Japan grows both indigenous varieties and international ones: - Koshu — Japan's signature white grape, cultivated for 1,000+ years in Yamanashi - Muscat Bailey A — Most widely planted red, developed in 1927 - Delaware — Table grape variety now used for pét-nat and skin-contact wines - Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Merlot — International varieties, serious quality in Hokkaido
The Natural Wine Movement
A small but passionate natural wine scene has emerged, concentrated in Yamanashi and Hokkaido. Producers are working with minimal intervention, indigenous yeasts, and no added sulfur — bringing Japanese precision to the natural wine ethos.
Why It Matters to Us
Japan is central to D-I Wine's work. We import Japanese wines and have visited producers there. The wines — particularly skin-contact Delaware pét-nat and precise Koshu — make sense in a way that few other wine countries do for the Japanese table.