Survivrost

Survivrost is the 2024-vintage 'Summer' (夏) label bottling in Inishie no Sato Winery's standard Four Seasons series (冬春夏秋シリーズ), grown on the estate's high-elevation Kitaono vineyards (roughly 850m) in Shiojiri's Kikyogahara wine valley. A severe late frost on May 10, 2024 killed many of the young Merlot shoots and cut the harvest to about one-third of normal volume, and the remainder of the growing season stayed cool, so the fruit never reached full ripeness — but the surviving grapes came in exceptionally clean. The wine is 100% estate-grown Merlot from Kitaono, destemmed and crushed, fermented with cultured yeast for about 10 days, put through malolactic fermentation, then aged roughly 13 months in barrel (30% new oak) and 4 months in bottle before release. Its name commemorates the grapes that 'survived' the frost (Survive + Frost). Only 893 bottles were produced, priced at ¥3,300. It is a different wine from the winery's 2022 summer-label release Tsukikage (月影), which blended Merlot with Cabernet Franc and won a Silver Medal at the Japan Wine Competition 2024 — Survivrost is a separate, later vintage under the same seasonal 'summer label' slot, made as a single-varietal Merlot in direct response to the 2024 frost damage.