Yakosei

Yakosei ("Nocturnal") is a distinctive pétillant naturel field blend from Les Vins Vivants that co-ferments purchased wine grapes with locally grown apples rather than treating them as separate categories. True to its name — something mysterious moving in the night — the producer changes the exact grape and apple varieties each vintage rather than following a fixed recipe. The 2022 release leans more grape-forward than earlier vintages, built from roughly 70-71% purchased Nagano grapes (mainly Steuben and Kyoho) blended with about 29-30% apples (Sanfuji among other varieties). Grapes and apples are pressed and fermented together with indigenous wild yeast; the still-fermenting must is bottled to finish primary fermentation in bottle via the méthode ancestrale (pétillant naturel) technique. After roughly seven months of bottle aging the wine is disgorged to remove the lees, leaving a trace of sediment by design, with no dosage. No sugar, acid, or sulfites are added at any stage, and the wine is unfiltered and unfined. The higher grape ratio in the 2022 vintage gives a more elegant, refined profile than earlier bottlings, with kumquat, Japanese pear (hosui/kosui style), white flowers and ginger, plus a pleasant bitterness and layered complexity that opens up when served slightly warmer than a typical sparkling wine.