Nasu 661 Wine Hills
那須661ワインヒルズ
Grow-and-make winery on Nasu's sustainable highland estate
Nasu 661 Wine Hills is a genuine grow-and-make winery in the highlands of Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture, operated by Royal Berries Farm — a local company that has done business in Nasu since 1926. After Nasu Town received Japan's "doburoku and wine special zone" designation in December 2017, Royal Berries Farm obtained its own winemaking license in 2018 and began fermenting wine from grapes grown on reclaimed farmland and former resort sites around the estate. The dedicated winery facility opened to the public in July 2022, featuring a tasting room, restaurant, wine cellar, vineyard walking trails, and cottages, built using reclaimed Oya stone and repurposed dairy barns as part of a sustainability-driven design. Estate-grown Merlot, Chardonnay, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Manseng go into the winery's still-developing range, alongside fruit wines made from its own blueberries. Wines are aged in oak barrels using the same underground water source as the nearby Nasu Imperial Villa. The winery's flagship bottlings are the red wine "Kamiza" and the 100% estate-blueberry fruit wine "Iwaza."
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Who Is This For?
For visitors to the Nasu resort area and drinkers curious about small, sustainability-driven Japanese wineries doing true estate winemaking from vine to bottle.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Nasu 661 Wine Hills a genuine winery with its own vineyards and winemaking, or just a retail shop?
- Yes — operated by Royal Berries Farm, the winery grows its own grapes and blueberries on its Nasu estate and ferments and bottles wine on-site under its own winemaking license, obtained in 2018 after Nasu Town's 2017 special wine zone designation.
- What grape varieties does Nasu 661 Wine Hills grow?
- The estate cultivates Merlot, Chardonnay, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Manseng, alongside blueberries used for its fruit wines.
- What are the winery's flagship wines?
- Its signature releases are "Kamiza," a red wine made from estate-grown grapes, and "Iwaza," a fruit wine made from 100% estate-grown blueberries.
- Can visitors taste the wines on-site?
- Yes, the tasting room offers about 16 wines, including Nasu 661's own bottlings and fruit wines from partner Tomasello Winery in New York, for a flat tasting fee.
- What makes the winery's approach distinctive?
- Wines are aged in oak barrels using the same underground water source as the nearby Nasu Imperial Villa, and the facility itself was built from reclaimed Oya stone and repurposed dairy barns as part of a sustainability-focused design.