Nikkawa Winery

ニッカワワイナリー

A second-career winery by a former Tokyo banker born into a Katsunuma grape-farming family, crafting terroir-driven Koshu and Muscat Bailey A within the Katsunuma Wine Village.

Nikkawa Winery is a small, family-run winery founded in September 2020 in Katsunuma, Koshu City, Yamanashi Prefecture — a town with nearly 1,000 years of history in Koshu grape cultivation. The winery takes its name from the Nikkawa River (日川), which flows through the Katsunuma area and has historically sustained the region's viticulture. The winery was established by Kazuo Yoshihara (吉原和夫), who was born into a grape-farming family in Katsunuma but spent 40 years working as a banker in Tokyo. After retiring, he returned to his hometown with a lifelong dream: to turn the grapes he grew up with into wine under his own label. Situated within the Katsunuma Wine Village (勝沼ワイン村), a cluster of small artisan wineries that opened in 2020, Nikkawa Winery embodies the spirit of producer-driven, transparent winemaking. Yoshihara cultivates nine grape varieties across his own vineyard and his family's longstanding farm: Koshu, Muscat Bailey A, Chardonnay, Agawam (Ajiron Dac), Merlot, Bijou Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Yama-Sauvignon, and Petit Verdot. Annual production is approximately 6,000 liters — the minimum required for a winery licence — supplemented by purchased grapes while the estate vineyards are progressively expanded. Koshu, the iconic indigenous Japanese white variety, remains the focus, with the winery producing both a fresh unwooded style and an oak-aged expression matured for nine months in barrel. Yoshihara's son, who previously worked as an acupuncturist in Tokyo, has joined the family enterprise and is completing training at Tomu Winery to master viticulture and winemaking. He is set to carry the winery into the next generation. The philosophy at Nikkawa is simple: observe the grapes daily, cultivate them to eating-quality standards, and then let the terroir of Katsunuma speak. The winery was recognised at the Japan Winery Award (JWA) 2025, receiving the Connoisseurs Award — an honourable mention acknowledging emerging quality producers among Japan's 374 eligible wineries.