Articles in English
8 articles have an English edition. The Japanese site carries more, and new pieces are translated as they go up.
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Japanese Wine
Syrah Ripens on the Ground Where a Castle Fell in 1433
The vineyard in Nirasaki, Yamanashi carries the name of a castle that fell six hundred years ago. I drank the wine somewhere else entirely — and following that discrepancy leads to a shochu company and the history of Japanese whisky.
23 August 2026
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Wine Festival
Do You Know a Town Called Komoro?
Twenty wineries on a hill in Nagano, fifty years after Komoro started growing wine grapes. Gio Hills sparkling and Chardonnay, Terre de Ciel red, and a bowl of miso ramen from a 350-year-old miso house.
28 September 2025
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Japanese Wine
Tasting Terre de Ciel, the Nagano Winery Everyone Is Talking About
A Terre de Ciel tasting at a natural wine shop in Tokyo — twelve wines, three tiers — plus what I learned afterwards about the difference between fibreglass and stainless tanks, and why a maker might choose one over the other.
11 August 2025
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Wine Festival
Bar Sendai — a Japanese Wine Festival, and the North That Deserves Your Attention
Thirty-plus wineries, most of them from Tohoku, in a park in Sendai. Riesling Lion from Iwate, a barrique Merlot, a Pinot Noir from Niigata's sand, and a sweet red made from Steuben dried for two months.
13 July 2025
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Notes
Rose Is a Word We Use About Wine. Did You Know There Are 20,000 of Them?
Tasting notes reach for the word rose constantly — but there are twenty thousand cultivars. So I went to Keisei Rose Garden to smell them one at a time, and matched each to the wine it reminded me of.
10 May 2025
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Wine Festival
A Festival in the Old Quarter of a Huge City — Nerima Wine Festival, 13 April 2025
Ten years after Tokyo Winery opened in Nerima, a small festival under a railway viaduct. Sakura Vineyard, Kentoku, Tokyo Winery, Shiojiri Minori and Kamakura Winery — poured in the rain, and mostly sold out by three.
5 May 2025
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Japanese Wine
Storing Strength in the Off-Season — the Vineyards of Katsunuma, Yamanashi
January in Katsunuma, where Japan grows more grapes than anywhere else. Pruned vineyards at rest, and tastings at three wineries — Iwasaki Jozo, Lumiere and Chateau Mercian — including a Koshu aged since 2001.
20 April 2025
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Notes
Getting Japanese Wine Known to the World — Starting Here
The first post on this site. Why one person who simply loves wine decided to start writing about the wines of Japan, and who this is for.
25 February 2025
The Wine Map
Every wine here is pinned on a map, with the ground it grew on and the original post on X. The map speaks English too.
Where to read more
A hand-picked list of English-language wine resources — starting with the ones that cover Japanese wine, so you can go deeper without reading Japanese.
More, in Japanese
The full archive lives on the Japanese site, and English editions are added as we go.