San

San is a lightly sparkling white wine from Sennoyume Winery in Ishinomaki, Miyagi, crafted from 100% Verdelet (Seibel 9110) grown by grower Yosuke Akiba in Kaminoyama, Yamagata. Now in its second consecutive vintage using the same single-variety formula, the 2023 release (11.5% ABV) is made by direct-pressing the fruit on the day of harvest, fermenting for nine days at low temperature to preserve aromatics, then resting on lees in an open vat for forty days to build texture and umami depth -- a markedly gentler approach than the 2022 debut vintage (7% ABV, limited to 1,073 bottles), which used three days of skin contact, roughly a month of stainless-tank fermentation, and a bottle-conditioned petillant-naturel finish. Made with no added sugar, acid correction, or sulfites and bottled unfiltered, San pours a hazy lemon-yellow and opens with grapefruit and natsu-mikan (summer mandarin) aromatics, leading to a juicy, Japanese-pear-and-hassaku-like palate with crisp, refreshing acidity, a faint natural sweetness, and a gentle mousse. The label reproduces a Japanese painting by Teru Yoshida, the winemaker's mother.