Establishment of Hida Winery

In March 2021, we will be establishing a new 1.2 hectare wine vineyard (of the total 1.4 hectare field, 0.2 hectares will be used for table vineyards) in the Ima area of ​​Kokufu-cho, Hida Takayama.

At an altitude of 540m, Hida seems to be a relatively low area for wine vineyards, but the temperature is low because it is a mountainous region, and if converted to the altitude of Nagano Prefecture or Yamanashi Prefecture, it is equivalent to an altitude of 650m to 800m. Famous wineries with overlapping temperature trend graphs include Chateau Mercian's Mariko Winery and Grace Wine. In terms of technical climate classification, it corresponds to Region II to III (average of the most recent 5 years).

The Araki Valley, where this district is located, was created by the Araki River, which flows nearby, cutting into the mountain.The valley stretches from east to west and is known for having the longest hours of sunshine in Hida.

The vineyard we are opening this time is located in an area with the most sunlight, and the original topography was a river island. Because of this, the area is sandy and has good drainage, and although it was converted into rice fields through land improvement work in 1990, water did not accumulate for a long time, and the tines of tractors quickly wore out, making it a very difficult location for rice fields.

This land was consolidated, and starting in March, a backhoe was used to dig down to more than one meter underground, destroying the paddy field sill (plow layer, hard layer) that had been created to store water, and the land was then turned into a field. In fact, when the land was dug up, most of the areas were sandy, and water did not accumulate, even during the rainy season, except for one spot that had not been dug properly.

The photo was taken at the end of July, and shows that grass has grown all over the site and about 80% of the posts have been driven in.

Starting in the autumn, backhoes will be used again to remove the surrounding embankments and fill in the gaps between the road and the land, among other final adjustments.

There's still a long way to go, but we plan to permanently plant the seedlings that have been temporarily planted this year and create the shape of a vineyard.

The name has not been decided yet, but we are thinking of calling it Kaminoki Vineyard, after Kaminoki in Ima, Kokufu-cho.