Heidee Winery

ハイディワイナリー

Heidee Winery produces pure, seafood-driven Japanese wines from naturally farmed vineyards on Noto Peninsula's mineral-rich coastline — the only winery in Ishikawa Prefecture cultivating seven international varieties using cover-crop and microbial farming with no chemicals. Their CLARA 2021 Chardonnay won Gold at the 2024 Japan Wine Competition, and the winery received the 2025 Japan Winery Award JAL Prize — Japan Airlines' recognition for wineries that will drive the future of wine tourism.

Heidee Winery is a pioneering estate winery nestled in Monzen-cho, Wajima City, on the western coast of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture. Founded in 2011 by Masaki Takasaku, a Yokohama native whose father's family roots lie in this very corner of Noto, the winery was born from a desire to revitalize a rural community facing depopulation and to craft wines that are authentically Japanese — wines designed to complement the spectacular local seafood, especially the blue fish of the Sea of Japan, and the wild vegetables of the Satoyama landscape. Takasaku's journey to winemaking began during a high school exchange in Switzerland, where the sight of small, family-run wineries nestled among picturesque Alpine villages planted a seed that would take years to grow. After studying viticulture and winemaking at Courbe Dodiche Winery in Niigata and at Domaine Simon Bize in Burgundy, France, he returned to Japan and chose Noto for its exceptional growing conditions: low rainfall during the growing season, abundant sunshine, significant diurnal temperature variation, and a unique mineral-rich Sotoura coastal soil that imparts complex, briny minerality to the finished wines. The winery cultivates approximately 8,000 vines across seven varieties in two sea-facing vineyard sites — Mina-tsuki Uzuyama and Chiyo — growing Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Sémillon, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, and Albariño. Farming is entirely natural: no herbicides or chemical fertilizers are used; instead, Takasaku employs cover-crop viticulture (sōsei saibai) and a microbial farming philosophy, incorporating appropriate organic compost to maintain living soil. All grapes are hand-harvested with careful sorting. The winery's flagship wines include the CLARA series (named after Heidi's best friend from the classic Alpine story), a 100% Chardonnay dry white wine that won Gold Award at the 2024 Japan Wine Competition in the European-variety white wine category, and the SENRI (千里) range of variety-labeled wines — Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Albariño, and Petit Verdot — celebrated for expressing the pure terroir of Oku-Noto. In 2025, the winery collaborated with gold-leaf artisan brand Hakuza to release '能登の風 2024' (Noto no Kaze 2024), a special cuvée vinified from grapes that survived both the January 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake and the September 2024 torrential rains, with a portion of proceeds dedicated to regional reconstruction. At the 8th Japan Winery Award 2025 (JWA 2025), Heidee Winery received the prestigious JAL Award — presented by Japan Airlines to wineries expected to contribute to tourism and to shine as the next generation of Japanese wine. The estate also operates an on-site French restaurant, a wine shop, and a bakery, and aspires to build a 300-year winery legacy rooted in the land of Noto.