Grace Koshu Kayagatake

Grace Wine was established in 1923, in the Yamanashi Prefecture, the birthplace of the Japanese wine industry. Committed to the belief that great wine is made in the vineyard, they were the first to research and introduce European training and pruning methods introducing such as using long cordon training and Vertical Shoot Positioning in 1990. Since 2016, the vineyards have been cultivated using organic practices. Grace Wine has also joined the ‘4% Initiative’ project, which focusses on soil health for food security and to help combat climate change. Talented winemaker Ayana Misawa crafts wines from the indigenous Koshu grape variety in a contemporary style, which beautifully captures the delicate characteristics of this individual and exciting grape variety.

From March to May, the weather was favourable with sufficient rainfall and sunlight. Budburst started earlier than usual. Thereafter, berry development went at a relaxed pace due to low rainfall during the ‘rainy season’ which ended early resulting in precocious véraison - in some vineyards as early as the end of July. Despite occasional downpour, the summer months passed by with little precipitation, and the diurnal temperature differences resulted in healthy growth with higher than usual accumulation of berry sugar content in the 2022 vintage.

Made from Japan's most important indigenous grape variety: Koshu. The grapes for this wine are grown on the foothills of Mt. Kayagatake from estate managed vineyards at an altitude of 400 to 700 metres. The vines are planted in distinctively volcanic soils with good drainage, providing excellent growing conditions. The vineyard has a cool climate but also abundant sunshine, allowing the slow maturation of the grapes over a long growing season. Traditional trellis pruning has been cast aside in favour of a modern long cordon training system which helps to control yields; concentrating flavours and sugars to balance the high acidity that occurs naturally in this variety. The grapes were hand-harvested at optimum maturity. The vineyard is organically and sustainably cultivated.

The winemaking philosophy emphasises preserving the healthy state of the grapes by ensuring harvest took place at the optimum time through appropriate analysis, rapid crushing and anaerobic juice handling in order to produce clean, natural and pure wines, bringing out the potential in the fruit. Fermentation took place in stainless steel tanks at carefully controlled temperatures, to ensure the purity of the fruit and the terroir was fully expressed.