Kitaono Blanc Tsuchi

Kitaono Blanc Tsuchi is Inishie no Sato Winery's ongoing single-vineyard white blend within its standard Four Seasons series (冬春夏秋シリーズ) — but unlike the line's other bottlings, which take on a new name and grape each vintage under a fixed 'season' label, this cuvee keeps its own name release after release, built each year from whatever combination of Kerner, Gewurztraminer and Riesling the Kitaono-district harvest allows. The name pairs the French 'Blanc' (white) with the Japanese '土' (tsuchi, 'soil'), marking it as the winery's clearest expression of its high-elevation (roughly 850m) Kitaono terroir in white form. Winemaker Masahiro Inagaki named it his personal favorite from the 2022 lineup: that vintage blended 69% Kerner, 24% Gewurztraminer and 7% Riesling (384 bottles, product code KrGe.Ri-0004), with the Kerner and Gewurztraminer portion aged about 10 months in old oak barrels for a slow, gentle oxidative complexity rather than oak flavor, then blended with separately vinified Riesling to restore acidity — a change from earlier vintages, which aged roughly a year in stainless steel tank instead. The 2025 vintage, made after a night harvest that began at 3am to capture the fruit at its peak, shifted to 82% Kerner and 18% Gewurztraminer with no Riesling at all, since that year's Riesling crop was too small to include (660 bottles).