Katsunuma Winery, Yamanashi, Japan

The last winery we visited in Katsunuma was the luckily named Katsunuma Winery.

Katsunuma Winery

I wonder if they opened their doors first or if there was a lottery to decide who could call their winery in Katsunuma City, Katsunuma Winery?
The same goes for Yamanashi Winery in Yamanashi Pefecture (the area where Katsunuma is situated).

Anyway, this winery is down a long, peaceful little residential road and appears on your left in a fairly non-descript building amongst the houses and other buildings.

First we had a look upstairs where they have a large selection of Riedel glasses on display around some long tables where I believe you can sit, drink some wine and smoke one of their equally large selection of cigars.

Upstairs at Katsunuma Winery

We skipped this option and headed downstairs to the tasting room. As with many of the wineries we visited on our trip we were the only people here (although some locals turned up later to stock up on their wine), and so we had the place to ourselves and the full attention of the winery assistant.

They had kind of a self-service policy for the wine tasting where you pay a set amount (can’t remember how much, but it wasn’t a lot) and you could try their recommended wines from a wine dispensing machine.

Self-service Wine Taster

I seem to remember the selection was mainly whites with some sweet wines, a couple of reds and a Madeira style wine.
This was my first taste of Madeira wine and I wasn’t overly struck on it.

Madeira Wine

Madeira wine is a fortified wine from the Madeira Islands. Distilled alcohol made from cane sugar is added to the wine to stabilize it. It became very popular in the 18th century but was originally made as early as the 16th Centurty, when the Dutch East India Company used to buy lots of it, and the heat and movement of the ships on long voyages aged and transformed the wine into a different style of wine that the customers preferred. These days the wines are aged on trestle tables left out in the hot sun.

My favourite of their wines was their Aruga Branca Cabernet Sauvignon which I scored a 90.
The winery and tasting room are definitely worth a visit and if the weather is good (as it was when we went) you can sit out the back on a deck and look at the vineyards across a small stream.

Katsunuma Vineyards

The wine owner popped in for a few minutes while we were there and he very generously allowed us to taste one of his 2009 wines that hadn’t been released yet.
This wine was excellent and showed promise for the 2009 vintage in Katsunuma, but obviously we weren’t able to buy any to take away as it hadn’t been bottled yet.
We did pick up a few bottles at the winery, and although on the whole they were hit and miss there were some gems.

They sell their wines under the Aruga Branca brand name.
Aruga Branca Cabernet Sauvignon 90 points
Aruga Branca Pipa 83 points
Aruga Branca Isehara 72 points
Aruga Branca Pipa 2005 72 points
Adega D’Aruga Bosque 2006 88 points
Aruga Branca Rose 2006 60 points
Aruga Branca Envelhecida Madeira 65 points

They also have an English language website which is worth checking out if you want to find out more about their wines, and they also have some recipes for Japanese food on there. http://www.katsunuma-winery.com/english/