[311 x Minamisanriku 02] Wine brewed in the mountains, aged in the sea! Minamisanriku local wine that makes local produce shine

(Continued from the previous article) Minamisanriku Town in Miyagi Prefecture, Tohoku, Japan, is blessed with abundant seafood brought by the meeting of ocean currents, as well as a beautiful mountain forestry industry. During the 311 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, it became an area severely devastated by the tsunami, but it rose again thanks to the convergence of manpower from all sides and its rich produce. The author visited Minamisanriku to share the nine-year reconstruction process and innovations. This is the second article in the series; to read the previous article, please click here.

A wedding of wine and food, letting people enjoy local produce

The Minamisanriku Wine Project is a project that began in the spring of 2017. In the world of wine, the pairing of wine with food is described as a marriage.

Minamisanriku Town has excellent natural resources, with forestry certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and marine aquaculture certified by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC); it is currently the only region in the world that holds both mountain and sea sustainability certifications. To let people happily enjoy the goodness of local produce, wine serves as a medium that allows people to feast on the deliciousness of local products, with food and drink complementing each other. This is the original intention of the Minamisanriku Wine Project.

"What we want to make is not noble wine. It is wine that can pair with local food and that people can enjoy casually."

Revitalizing abandoned farmland, the first wine vintage is a sensation

In 2017, Yuta Shoji, who joined the local support team through the Next Common Lab program, held a great passion for wine. Having studied winemaking in Ishikawa Prefecture and Yamanashi Prefecture, he joined the "Sustainable Winery" project in the summer of 2017. While learning related techniques at the Akui Winery in Sendai, he began the Minamisanriku wine project.

After the Minamisanriku winemaking officially started, on one hand they searched for suitable plots of land in Minamisanriku to grow wine grapes, and on the other hand they purchased grapes from traditional Japanese wine grape producing regions to make wine. Minamisanriku happened to have no winery of any kind of its own, so the Minamisanriku Wine Project not only created a new industry in the area, but also revitalized abandoned mountain farmland, giving the land new value.

Speaking about the wine project, which was only in its 4th year, Yuta Shoji appeared very humble: "Terroir characteristics are something that can only be concluded after 20 or 30 years. At this stage, I want to first make delicious wine." With a serious expression, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to vineyard management and winemaking.

His efforts were not in vain. With such a young winemaking brand, in 2019 Minamisanriku Wine won an award in the North American grape variety category at the Japan Wine Competition with its Delaware white wine. This was also the first time a wine from Miyagi Prefecture won an award at this competition, which was extremely difficult to achieve.

The varieties planted and products of the Minamisanriku Wine Project

In the Minamisanriku Wine Project, the white grape varieties used for winemaking include Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Delaware. The red grape varieties include Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. The main variety to be planted in Minamisanriku vineyards in the future is the Spanish grape variety Albariño, because the geographical environment of its place of origin is similar to Minamisanriku, with capes and sloping mountain terrain swept by ocean winds.

The author tasted both the still and sparkling white wine versions made from Delaware grapes, as well as the red wine made from Merlot grapes, and all were very delicious. The sparkling wine made from Delaware grapes was one of the most impressive. The strong acidity and sweetness reach a balance, with fine bubbles and fragrant fruit aromas; it goes down smoothly and is refreshing, making it very suitable as an aperitif sparkling wine. Because the acidity stimulates the appetite, such a sweet, beautiful, and fragrant wine is very suitable for pairing with food, especially fresh seafood and Japanese cuisine.

Also enjoying the delicious wine together at dinner were young dietitians from Kyoritsu Women's Junior College in Tokyo. These girls, only 20 years old, were not only drinking Minamisanriku wine for the first time, but also drinking wine for the first time in their lives, and their faces flushed as soon as they drank, which was very cute. Seeing this, one also greatly admires the thoughtfulness of the local government's planning, letting dietitians trained by the country understand the deliciousness produced by the country; wine is naturally part of the dining experience as well.

Moving forward! The key figure in the wine project, Michihiko Sasaki

Mr. Michihiko Sasaki, general manager of the Sustainable Winery, is the key figure who enabled the Minamisanriku Wine Project to keep moving forward.

Six years after the earthquake, the local government began to decide to make wine, but did not manage this wine project well. It merely had the people in the project grow grapes and make wine, without knowing how to market and sell. To grow a business in a local area, burning with simple passion alone is not enough, so it encountered the bottleneck of sustainable operation. Thus the wine project found Michihiko Sasaki.

Michihiko Sasaki joined in 2019, shaping the wine project into an operating business entity. At first, the grapes