Oaky, earthy … umami? Here’s why Japanese wine is all the rage.

“I don’t understand it,” says Takahiko Soga, bemused, “why are so many people obsessed with my wine?” The maker of “world’s rarest wine” is sitting in an outhouse on his vineyard in the tiny town of Yoichi, Hokkaido Prefecture. Since Soga’s Nana-Tsu-Mori 2017 vintage made it onto the wine list at Noma in 2020, demand for his wines has skyrocketed. He’s not the only one.

“I don’t know how, but we seem to have created a cult,” chuckles Bruce Gutlove, owner of 10R Winery in Iwamizawa, Hokkaido. Gutlove’s Kaze, a pinot noir, was recently called “best red wine in the world,” by Noma’s head sommelier, who included three of 10R's wines at its latest Kyoto pop-up. Gutlove and Soga are just two of the countless Japanese winemakers who’ve seen their wines lauded by the global wine community.

“Japanese wine just keeps growing in popularity and quality,” says Akiko Shirato, a certified sommelier and buyer at Imadeya, a Japanese alcohol importer/exporter. The statistics speak for themselves: In 2024, the Japanese wine market hit $30.2 billion, and is forecast to reach $44.8 billion in under a decade. The number of wineries has nearly doubled in the past 10 years, to almost 500 across Japan.

Standing wine bars are springing up throughout the country, introducing trendy city dwellers to boutique Japanese wines. Online, oenophiles discuss the joys of Japanese wine, of grapes grown on unique terroir, wishing to visit and sample them for themselves (Japan only exports a very small percentage of its wines). Japanese wines are appearing on wine lists at the world's finest restaurants, from those on the Top 50 list to others with Michelin stars. In this year’s Decanter World Wine Awards, Japan was highlighted for its strong representation. But it hasn’t always been like this. 

From copycat to trailblazer

Japan has a long history of making alcohol from grapes, fermenting its Koshu variety to make a drink called budoshu (lit. grape liquor). The first time that the country turned its focus to winemaking was in the 1870s (Meiji Period), when it reopened its borders and was subsequently exposed to European oenology. 

Until the 1980s, Japan’s early winemakers heat-pasteurized their wines, and attempted to copy the farming techniques used in Europe and the United States. “They were adding tremendous amounts of SO2 … the wines tasted acrid,” Gutlove remembers. The 1980s is now touted as a revolution in Japanese winemaking, with a big part played by Gutlove; he is commonly referred to as the “godfather of Japanese wine." 

In 1989 he became a consultant at Coco Farm & Winery in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, moving into a full-time role in 1994. The winery is notable because its underlying aim is to provide work for those with intellectual disabilities, rather than making wine. “We had a lot of freedom,” says Gutlove. “As long as we made a profit, I could do whatever I wanted.” 

It was this independence that allowed him to experiment, refining Japan-specific growing techniques in line with its distinct terroir. Gutlove’s arrival also marked changing attitudes in a new generation of winemakers. “(We) understood that we did not have to be bound to make the same wines that were being made overseas … This is Japan. The aesthetics and food culture are completely different," says Gutlove.

Flavor appreciation

In 1994, Gutlove started a group called Japan Young Wine Growers Association, where the merits of particular wines would be strongly debated and dissected. Members included Soga; Kazuto Kuwabara, who now runs the popular winery, Terre de Ciel, in Nagano Prefecture; Ken Sasaki of Nora Kura in Hokkaido; Tsuyoshi Kobayashi of Kyoeido in Yamanashi; and Koki Oyamada of Domaine Oyamada in Yamanshi. Gutlove acted as a mentor to many of Japan’s younger winemakers, taking them on study trips overseas and hosting tastings and seminars, with the underlying question: How could they make wines that reflected Japan? 

The answer was there all along: “Umami.” A word that comes up time and time again when describing the superiority of newer Japanese wines. This distinctly subtle flavor profile is near-impossible to succinctly describe and hard to discern. Umami in Japanese wines comes from vineyards with low production—one defining feature of many of Japan’s top-rated winemakers. In Yoichi and its neighboring Nikka, for instance, there are 25 wineries, yet only three of these produce over 10,000 bottles of wine per year, making the majority classifiable as “micro-wineries,” ideal for producing umami-tinted wines.

Soga, from Domaine Takahiko, goes one step further. “My wines have notes of dashi (fish stock),” he says. He recommends drinking them to accompany Japanese washoku dishes such as dobin mushi, a teapot of steamed soup. 

Global attention turns to Japan’s wines

Since Soga left Coco Farm in 2010 to start his own winery, he’s been producing umami-rich pinot noir that has enthralled the wine industry. Gutlove remains a director at Coco Farm, but left the site to start his own custom crush winery in 2009, with Ryoko Gutlove, a former Coco Farm employee. 

Soga and Gutlove were among the first low-intervention (natural) winemakers in Hokkaido, inspiring a slew of other vintners to make the move. Several, such as Mongaku Valley Winery, were directly influenced by Soga and Gutlove.

Gutlove’s 10R also operates as a custom crush site, helping winemakers by providing winemaking facilities. “We make wine together, and they learn how to use the equipment,” says Gutlove. Graduates of 10R include Nora Kura, Domaine Toi, and Domaine Bless, now highly regarded wines in their own right. There are now custom crush facilities in other wine-making regions, such as Nagano and Yamanashi.

Other vineyards were directly inspired by the duo’s passion for low-intervention, biodynamic wines, like Domaine Ichi in Yoichi. Domaine Ichi is a 100 percent-certified organic vineyard, operated by viticulturist Ichiro Ueda. Ueda is the owner of one of the first wineries in the area, but moved to natural wine in 2020, after studying winemaking with Soga. He established Domaine Ichi for the purpose of sharing completely organic, low-intervention wines. 

Wines throughout Japan

While the proliferation of the wines is particularly novel in Hokkaido, other parts of Japan are keen to showcase their wine-making acumen, and deserve a mention. Many key players in the Japanese wine scene across the country—such as Domaine Tetta by Ryuta Takahashi in Okayama Prefecture; Shigeyuki Hirayama from 98Wines in Yamanashi Prefecture; and Katsuki Wines in Miyazaki Prefecture—all produced their first vintages in the past decade.

Yamanashi

Yamanashi Prefecture is known for its traditional Japanese wines made using the native Koshu grape. It boasts some notable wineries, such as the tiny Beau Paysage, whose grapes are handpicked at high altitudes, and 98Wines. These wines, and more, are served in the Japanese establishments on the recent World's Best restaurants list, such as Sevanne, a Tokyo-based neo-French restaurant that took seventh place this year. For those keen on winery tours, Yamanashi’s long history of wine means there are a multitude of tours on offer, like Chateau Mercian, which launched a new wine range in 2022.

Nagano

In Nagano Prefecture, the winery trade is booming; this area is home to the highest concentration of wineries in the country, at 88 in 2025. The Shinshu Wine Valley Initiative was formed in 2013 and followed it in 2023 with its “2.0.” Miyuki Katori, a wine scholar, journalist, and co-director of the Japan Vineyards Association, recommends Chikumagawa, a wine valley near Tomi City. On weekends, wine lovers can tour the wineries via bus, and dine at restaurants and wine shops like Tomi Wine Chapel and Villa d’est. Some wineries even provide bespoke lodgings, such as Gio Hills Winery, started by the son of a ryokan (Japanese inn) owner.

Tochigi

Coco Farm, now headed by Toyoichiro Shibata, flies the flag for Tochigi. The winery produces a wide range of wines, including dry, medium-bodied reds with blackcurrant and floral aromas, made using grapes from its Ashikaga and Sanno fields. Visitors to the winery are treated to wine tours and fine foods at its on-site restaurant. 

With such a rich crop of home-grown wines, it seems that, finally, Japanese wines have become global players in their own right.