About Himrod
- Style
- White
- Grape Varieties
- Himrod
- Price Range
- ¥1,800–2,000
- excl. tax; 750ml, cellar-door price, varies by vintage
- Alcohol
- 10%
Himrod is Kamegamori Brewery's skin-contact white wine made from the Himrod grape — a Cornell-bred, seedless white variety long grown as a table grape in Osako, Hanamaki, Iwate. Fermented on its skins without added sugar, acid or sulfites and bottled unfiltered, it takes on an amber-orange hue and a distinctive perfumed aroma that founder Hiroshi Owada likens to raw bamboo shoots, balanced by a firmly dry, crisp finish.
Kamegamori turns an everyday Iwate table grape into something genuinely singular — a skin-contact white whose bamboo-shoot-like aroma and firm dry finish make it one of the most distinctive small-batch wines coming out of Tohoku.
New to wine?
A gentle, food-friendly introduction to orange/skin-contact wine — the nose is unusually perfumed, but the palate stays clean and dry.
Food Pairings
A food-friendly, dry orange wine that doesn't compete with delicate Japanese dishes — try it with grilled saury, chilled tofu, or mild vegetable tempura; its skin-contact texture also stands up to mushroom dishes and semi-hard cheeses.
When to drink it
Everyday dinners, especially alongside Japanese home cooking; it's said to be the winemaker's own personal favourite among Kamegamori's range.
Terroir & Winemaking
Made from 100% Himrod (a Cornell/NY State Agricultural Experiment Station hybrid of Ontario × Thompson Seedless) grown without herbicides or chemical fertiliser in the Osawa valley basin of Osako, Hanamaki. Fermented on the skins (kawa-goto-jou maceration), with no added sugar, no added acid and no added sulfites, then bottled unfiltered and still (non-sparkling). 750ml bottle, approx. 10% ABV.
About the producer
Kamegamori BreweryUnfiltered, additive-free wines and ciders from Iwate's Osawa valley花巻市, 岩手県 · Founded 2015Visit the producer page →More wines from Kamegamori Brewery
- Campbell & BeniizuSparkling · Campbell Early · Beniizu
- Iwate BlendSparkling · Campbell Early · Niagara
- Iwate Blend CorkRed · Campbell Early · Niagara
- Kamegamori NouveauRed · Early Steuben
- Merlot Natural YeastRed · Merlot
- PortlandWhite · Portland
Frequently Asked Questions
- What grape variety is used to make Kamegamori's Himrod wine?
- It's made from Himrod (also called Himrod Seedless), a white seedless hybrid grape bred at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station / Cornell (a cross of Ontario and Thompson Seedless) that has long been grown as a table grape in Osako, the district of Hanamaki, Iwate, where Kamegamori Brewery farms.
- Why does this white-grape wine have an amber/orange colour?
- Kamegamori ferments Himrod skin-contact ("kawa-goto-jou"), macerating the juice on its skins rather than pressing it off immediately, which extracts colour and texture and gives the wine its brownish-amber hue and extra body.
- What does Kamegamori's Himrod wine taste like?
- Despite a sweet, fruity nose that founder Hiroshi Owada compares to the smell of raw bamboo shoots before boiling, the wine finishes dry and crisp, especially served chilled, with a faint honeyed note on the back palate.
- Is Himrod wine sparkling?
- No — unlike some of Kamegamori's other cuvées, which get a light prickle from bottle conditioning, the Himrod bottling is a fully still (non-sparkling), unfiltered white/orange wine at around 10% ABV.
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