Brand's products MONGAKU VALLEY

MONGAKU VALLEY A specialist in blended wine

Founded ： 2018

Location：1982-1 Noboricho, Yoichi-cho, Yoichi district, Hokkaido

Owner：Shigeki Kihara Production volume：12,000 btl.

Number of employees ：3

Activity：Vine growing, winemaking, wine sales

THE WINERY

Mongaku Valley Winery is a family-run winery, founded by Mr. Shigeki Kihara in 2012. This winery is located on a hill 130 meters above sea level, overlooking the ocean and mountains, about 5 km from Ishikari Bay. This artisanal winery is semi-underground and built of stone by relocating and remodeling a 100-year-old warehouse that was made of soft Sapporo stone.

It grows 7 different types of grape in its own vineyard (2.2 ha): Chardonnay / Pinot Noir / Pinotage / Pinot Gris / Sauvignon Blanc / Pinot Blanc / Gewurztraminer.

Japanese cuisine, which offers deep flavors by combining Dashi (broth), gave him the idea of “Field Blend / Co-fermentation”. When it's foggy in vineyards and grapes are infected with noble rot, he tastes each type and bunch of grapes and co-ferments them. Pressed grapes are fed to the farm animals and compost is used for soil. Resource-recycling agriculture is the goal he has set himself. He pays particular attention to fertilizers, some of which are sea urchin shells sourced from local fishermen.

Using wild yeasts, without filtration or clarification, he aims to produce a wine with a natural taste, based on image of “acidity typical of cooler regions”, “balanced bitterness” and “complex aroma”. Pressing machine is located on the first floor and the tanks on the semi-buried floor; grape juice is transferred by gravity. At present, Mongaku Valley Winery produces only white wine, but production of an authentic sparkling wine is one of its future goals.

THE STORY

In 2011, Shigeki Kihara, owner of Mongaku Valley Winery, moved from Tokyo to Yoichi, Hokkaido, with his family, eager to practice recycling-oriented agriculture where man and nature coexist. They acquired an 11-hectare plot of land that originally belonged to a whisky company. It was a total wasteland, abandoned for 15 years

. It took a whole year to turn it into a decent growing area. Finally, in 2012, they began planting 1,500 grape seedlings. For three years, after their first harvest in 2015, he studied with Bruce Gutlove of “10R Winery”, a custom pressing winery, and learned about growing and winemaking, before opening Mongaku Vally Winery in 2018. Just as every wine has its own personality, every tree has its own.

In keeping with the Japanese tradition of naming places and people after trees and other natural objects, he named his wines after “trees”. The wine label is based on a drawing by his daughter, depicting the world of a Japanese storybook entitled “The Tree of Courage”.