Kiyosumi-Shirakawa Fujimaru Winery
Koto-ku, Tokyo

Grapes: Chardonnay, Delaware (from Yamagata)
Type: White
Style: Dry, light-bodied
Colour: Pale lemon
Alcohol: 9%
Wild yeast: Yes
Any added sulphites: 12ppm
Filtered: No
Serving temperature: 5-8°C
Production: 760 bottles
Please store in a cool, dark place.

Tasting notes
Aromas of pineapple, elderflower, a hint of lemon, green apple and clove. Clean acidity, green apple and lemon flavours followed by a rounded finish. Long fruity and woody aftertaste.

Food pairing
Karaage, spring roll, Kushi-katsu, okonomiyaki and takoyaki, seafood (carpaccio of scallops, whitefish, etc.), spicy curry, pork or salt ramen, dandan noodles

Winemaking
Made from Chardonnay and Delaware from Yamagata. In 2022, the year was difficult in many ways, with a short rainy season that brought hot weather and a typhoon before the harvest that significantly reduced yields. The Chardonnay were a mixture of grapes with different degrees of ripeness, and the overall sugar content was higher than expected thanks to some of the fully ripe grapes. However, the fully ripe grapes also had some rot from cracks, so the selection was very thorough. Two types of Delaware were used: fully ripe and young grapes from the Okitama region.

The Chardonnay in whole bunches was pressed and after 10 days of alcoholic fermentation in stainless steel tanks, the wine was transferred to wooden barrels for a further month of barrel fermentation; fermentation stopped in November but started again in the following year of March with the arrival of spring. The wine was matured and stored in barrels for a total of five months until the end of fermentation. The Chardonnay was blended with Delaware, which was pressed in whole bunches and aged in stainless steel tanks, to give it the 'acidic fruitiness' that was lacking in the Chardonnay alone, and bottled in August. 12 ppm sulphites were added at bottling. The result is a pleasant wine with a crisp acidity on the attack and a rounded aftertaste from the wooden fermentation.