Domaine Nakajima
Tomi, Nagano

Grapes: Delaware (from Yamagata)
Type: White
Style: Dry, light-bodied
Colour: Pale gold
Alcohol: 11%
Wild yeast: Yes
Any added sulphites: No
Filtered: No
Serving temperature: 5-8°C
Production: 4,300 bottles
Please store in a cool, dark place.

Tasting notes
The 2024 vintage is a still wine, with no bubbles! The aroma is rich, featuring notes of green and yellow fruits such as green apple, pear, golden kiwi, and melon. The taste is fresh and juicy, with green apple, ripe lemon, and a touch of savory umami. Since grapes were harvested a bit earlier than usual, it has a nice crisp acidity. There's also a slight tingle of bubbles that gives it a refreshing feel. The gentle roundness comes from malolactic fermentation, and it stays delicious even a few days after opening.

Food pairing
Grilled mackerel with salt, Karaage, Samgyeopsal, Hui guo rou (Twice-cooked pork), Stir-fried pork in oyster sauce, corn with butter and green dried seaweed, Tarka dhal (Indian tempered lentils), sausage, charcuterie, sashimi, sushi, white fish and scallop carpaccio.

Winemaking
This wine is made using Delaware from Yamagata. The previous vintage (2023) had a relatively mild acidity, so for the 2024 vintage, the harvest target was adjusted from a sugar content of 18 to 17 to create a wine with more acidity. The grapes were harvested in mid-August and transported to the winery in Nagano, where they underwent a careful selection process over the course of a week. To further concentrate the flavors, the grapes were then air-dried for about two weeks. Due to the heavy rainfall in 2024, extra time was dedicated to sorting and drying the grapes. The pressed juice was fermented using wild yeast in a 15°C room. After fermentation, the wine underwent a longer-than-usual settling period of approximately two weeks on average before being racked. Freshly pressed juice, which had been frozen for storage, was then added, and the wine was bottled in early October. As in previous years, the wine was expected to undergo a second fermentation in bottle and develop into a pétillant style. However, fermentation stopped at a gas pressure of 0.9 bar, resulting in a white wine instead. Winemaker and winery owner Yutaka Nakajima analyzed that the likely causes were an overly long settling period after fermentation and insufficient oxygen supply during primary fermentation. Although the wine did not become a pétillant as intended, Yutaka personally considers this vintage to be the freshest and most delicious yet.

Yutaka has been making Petillant Rosé every year since 2014 using Nagano's speciality table grape, Kyoho. However, Shine Muscat are becoming more and more mainstream as table grapes in the prefecture, and Kyoho vines are rapidly being replaced by Shine Muscat. The Shine Muscat  is not suitable for wine due to its light taste, and after much thought to make a white table wine, he decided to make it from Delaware, one of Japan's popular table grape varieties originated in the USA that is also an important variety for Japanese wine. He purchased the grapes from Yamagata, located in the northern-east of Japan to make a white pétillant in the same way as their Petillant Rosé. This is the third vintage.

Nutrition Facts per 100ml
Energy: 75 kcal
Fat: 0 g
 - Saturates: 0 g
Carbohydrate: 2.0 g
 - Sugar: 2.0 g
Protein: 0.1 g
Salt: 0g