Sakai Winery

Nanyo, Yamagata

Founded in 1892, Sakai Winery is the oldest winery in the Tohoku region of Japan.

Located in Akayu, a historic hot-spring town in Nanyo City, Yamagata Prefecture, the winery has produced wine for over 130 years, deeply rooted in the land, climate, and agricultural culture of the region.

Sakai Winery is a family-run estate winery, now led by the fifth generation, cultivating its own vineyards and producing wines through wild yeast fermentation, natural clarification, and minimal intervention, expressing a terroir unique to Akayu.

People & History

Sakai Winery was founded by Yaso Sakai, a member of the Sakai family who originally operated a traditional hot-spring ryokan in Akayu.

Yaso was an entrepreneur of the Meiji era, involved in a wide range of businesses including wine, soy sauce, and miso production, as well as shipping.

The origin of Sakai Winery began when Yaso was offered a bottle of red Bordeaux wine by a professor of the Imperial University. Finding its astringency challenging, he became curious about wine and began producing it himself—learning through experimentation and cultivating vineyards on the slopes of Toriagezaka Mountain in Akayu.

From 1908 to 1924, Yaso served as mayor of Akayu. During his tenure, municipal mountain land was released for vineyard development, enabling the expansion of grape cultivation.

In the early Showa period (1920s–1930s), the cultivation of Delaware grapes, introduced from the United States, flourished, bringing prosperity to the Akayu area and establishing it as a significant grape-growing region.

Today, the winery is led by Ippei Sakai, the fifth-generation winemaker, who joined the family business in 2004 after completing postgraduate studies in brewing.

Reflecting on his path, Ippei notes that he always knew he would inherit the winery, studying fermentation academically while learning grape growing through hands-on experience.

The winery operates with a small team of six people, including family members. Two, including Ippei, work primarily in the vineyards, while all members share responsibilities such as bottling and sales, maintaining a fully hands-on approach to winemaking.

Vineyards & Terroir

Akayu lies in the mountainous edge of the Yonezawa Basin. The plains below have long been dominated by rice cultivation due to their marshy, water-rich soils.

When grape growing began in the Meiji era, early growers struggled with these wetlands—so waterlogged that boats were sometimes used to move between rice fields. The solution was found in the surrounding mountains.

The slopes provided excellent drainage, steady airflow, and ample sunlight, leading to the gradual development of hillside vineyards.

This agricultural contrast remains today: rice fields on the plains, vineyards on the slopes, a defining characteristic of Akayu’s landscape.

Sakai Winery cultivates 7.5 hectares of estate vineyards.

The soils consist primarily of tuff, gravel, and clay, rich in minerals and exceptionally well-drained, with underground water constantly flowing beneath the vines. These conditions contribute to the wines’ distinct minerality and concentration.

Winter snowfall can reach up to two meters, covering the vines completely. Rather than causing damage, the snow acts as insulation, preventing temperatures from dropping below freezing.

In spring and summer, melting snow feeds underground water systems that cool the soil, protecting vines from heat stress and creating a significant diurnal temperature range during the growing season.

This temperature difference is especially important during veraison, helping regulate nutrient uptake and allowing grapes to reach full ripeness while maintaining balance and freshness. The cool ground temperature is one of the key factors behind the quality of Sakai Winery’s wines.

Nanyo is also known for its constant winds, generated by its position at the edge of the basin. The region is so well suited to wind conditions that international paragliding competitions are held here.

These winds pass through the vineyards year-round, reducing humidity and disease pressure, making sustainable viticulture possible in this environment.

Winemaking Philosophy

When Ippei Sakai first took over winemaking, he followed modern oenological practices: selected yeasts, lactic acid bacteria, and small 225-liter barriques, replacing the larger barrels and enamel tanks used by previous generations.

Over time, however, he began to question what it meant to make wine in Akayu, and whether “standard” winemaking methods truly reflected the place.

This led him to a decisive choice: to return to the winemaking principles of a century ago.

Ippei believes that wine unique to Akayu should be made only from what exists in Akayu.

A hundred years ago, grapes were fermented in vessels originally used for miso and soy sauce. Stirring tools were made from forest branches, and fermentation relied entirely on indigenous micro-organisms.

In the same spirit, Sakai Winery today insists on wild yeast fermentation.

Since its founding, the winery has never used filtration. Wines are clarified naturally by allowing lees to settle, after which only the clear upper portion is drawn off.

The remaining wine is aged sur lie in 1.8-liter Japanese sake bottles, and the supernatant is then bottled—a vinification method uniquely possible in Japan.

All wines are unfined and unfiltered, with only minimal amounts of sulfur added, and some are produced without any additives at all.

Message

For more than a century, Sakai Winery has continued to make wine shaped by the land, climate, and traditions of Akayu.

From this small corner of Japan, Ippei Sakai, his family, and their colleagues quietly share a message across the sea:

“We would be honored if people in Europe, and beyond, could also enjoy our wines.”

Find out their wines