Yamanashi Winery Tours: Japan's Hidden Wine Country at the Foot of Mt. Fuji
wintagetourMost people who love wine have heard of Burgundy, Napa, Mendoza, and Marlborough. Few have heard of Yamanashi.
That is about to change.
Nestled between the Southern Alps and the iconic silhouette of Mt. Fuji, Yamanashi Prefecture is home to Japan's oldest and most celebrated wine culture. The region has been cultivating grapes since the 1870s — longer than many of the wine regions tourists flock to today — and it has quietly developed a style of winemaking that is entirely its own.
Wintage Tour works with some of Yamanashi's most distinguished producers to offer private, fully English-language winery tours that go far beyond a standard tasting room visit. This is wine country explored slowly, intimately, and with the people who made it.
Why Yamanashi?
A Region With Something to Say
Japan is not a country most wine drinkers associate with viticulture — the process of growing grapes for winemaking. But Yamanashi has been quietly earning international recognition for decades, particularly for wines made from Koshu (甲州), a pink-skinned grape variety native to Japan that produces white wines of unusual delicacy: light-bodied, gently aromatic, with a subtle bitterness and saline quality that makes them one of the world's most singular food wines.
Koshu wines are not trying to be Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc. They are trying to be themselves — and they succeed on their own terms, particularly alongside Japanese cuisine.
Beyond Koshu, Yamanashi producers have developed compelling expressions of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah in its volcanic-influenced soils.
The Setting
Yamanashi is physically stunning. The prefecture sits in a high-altitude basin — the Kofu Basin — ringed by mountains on every side. On clear days, Mt. Fuji dominates the southern horizon. The vineyards here receive abundant sunshine during the growing season, clean mountain air, and the temperature swings between day and night that help grapes develop complexity.
Driving through Yamanashi's wine country — past rows of trellised vines, traditional farmhouses, and mountain backdrops — feels nothing like the industrial scale of some wine regions. These are small-scale, artisan operations. The people making the wine often live next to the vines they tend.
The Wineries Wintage Tour Works With
Kisvin Winery
Katsunuma, Yamanashi
Kisvin is the definition of scarcity and prestige. Producing in deliberately tiny quantities, Kisvin wines almost never reach retail shelves. They appear quietly on the wine lists of Tokyo's finest luxury hotels — Four Seasons, Aman, Park Hyatt — and almost nowhere else.
The winery is not normally open to the public. Access requires trust, relationship, and an introduction. Wintage Tour provides that introduction.
A Kisvin visit is not a tour in the conventional sense. It is a conversation with the people behind one of Japan's rarest wines, in the place where it was made.
Mars Hosaka Winery (マルス穂坂ワイナリー)
Nirasaki, Yamanashi
Mars Hosaka occupies one of Yamanashi's most breathtaking positions: vineyards that roll across a hillside at over 700 meters elevation, with Mt. Fuji visible on the horizon. The winery belongs to Hombo Shuzo, a company with deep roots in Japanese spirits, and brings that same attention to material quality to its viticulture.
The Hosaka vineyards benefit from the elevation — cooler temperatures, dramatic diurnal temperature swings — producing wines with natural acidity and precision. Standing in these vineyards with a glass in hand, looking toward Fuji, is one of the most quietly extraordinary experiences Yamanashi offers.
Katsunuma Winery / Aruga Branca (勝沼醸造 −アルガブランカ−)
Katsunuma, Yamanashi
With over 140 years of continuous operation, Katsunuma Winery is one of the founding institutions of Japanese wine. Their flagship label, Aruga Branca, is widely considered the benchmark expression of Koshu — the wine by which other Koshu wines are measured.
To visit Katsunuma Winery is to visit the origin story of Japanese wine. The cellars breathe history. The winemaking team carries a sense of responsibility to the grape, to the region, and to the 140 years that preceded them.
Manns Wines Katsunuma Winery (マンズワイン勝沼ワイナリー)
Katsunuma, Yamanashi
Manns Wines has invested in creating one of Yamanashi's most architecturally refined visitor experiences — a cellar and tasting space that feels more like a contemporary art gallery than a production facility. The wines match the aesthetic: polished, precise, consistent.
For visitors seeking an introduction to Yamanashi wine in an accessible, beautifully designed environment, Manns is an ideal starting point.
Sake Is Here Too
Yamanashi is a wine prefecture, but it is also sake country. Two of the region's sake producers rank among Japan's most historically significant.
Sasaichi Brewery — "Dan" (笹一酒造) has been brewing continuously since 1703. Their reserve sake "Dan" is almost impossible to find outside the prefecture — a sake made with the same patience and precision that the region's winemakers bring to their vines.
Shichiken (七賢 | 山梨銘醸) draws its water from the pure streams of the Southern Alps, producing sake defined by crystalline clarity. Their historic kura (brewery building) alone is worth a visit.
A full Yamanashi day with Wintage Tour can combine wine and sake — two completely different expressions of Japanese craft beverage culture, both rooted in the same extraordinary landscape.
A Sample Yamanashi Itinerary
Here is one way a private Wintage Tour day in Yamanashi might unfold:
8:30 AM — Private car pickup from Shinjuku or your Tokyo hotel
10:00 AM — Arrival at Katsunuma. Walking tour of the Aruga Branca vineyards with the winemaking team. Discussion of the Koshu grape — its history, its character, why it makes the wine it makes.
11:30 AM — Private tasting of 4–6 wines in the cellar, guided by a member of the production team.
1:00 PM — Lunch at a local Katsunuma restaurant beloved by the winery team themselves. Regional cuisine, local sake alongside the wines.
3:00 PM — Drive to Mars Hosaka Winery. Walk through the elevated vineyards. A more intimate second tasting, with Mt. Fuji in the background.
5:00 PM — Departure for Tokyo
6:30–7:00 PM — Return to Shinjuku or Tokyo Station
This is one example. A sake-only day in Yamanashi, a combined wine-and-sake experience, or a multi-day journey including an overnight in a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) can all be arranged.
The Koshu Grape: Japan's Native Variety
Most wine drinkers have never encountered Koshu. That is part of what makes a Yamanashi visit so memorable — you are encountering something genuinely rare.
Koshu (甲州) is a Vitis vinifera variety that arrived in Japan via the Silk Road, possibly over a thousand years ago. It adapted over centuries to the Japanese climate and palate, developing a character unlike any European grape: thin-skinned, gently perfumed, with low tannins and naturally high acidity.
The wines it produces are typically:
- Light in body and color — often a pale gold or almost water-white
- Aromatically subtle — white flowers, citrus peel, green melon
- Dry with a saline edge — remarkable with seafood, delicate Japanese cuisine, sushi
- Low in alcohol — typically 11–12.5%
Koshu is one of the world's genuinely indigenous wine varieties, developed over centuries in one place. Tasting it in Yamanashi — ideally with the winemaker who made it — is a different experience from tasting it anywhere else.
Frequently Asked Questions: Yamanashi Wine Tours
Is Yamanashi easy to access from Tokyo?
Yes. Yamanashi is approximately 90 minutes from Shinjuku by private car, or reachable by the JR Chuo Line express train. For a full-day experience, private car transport (included in all Wintage Tour itineraries) is far more practical than navigating local trains between wineries.
Is Yamanashi wine expensive?
Compared to equivalent quality from Burgundy or California, Yamanashi wine is remarkably accessible. Bottles typically range from ¥2,000 to ¥8,000 at the winery, with premium small-production wines running higher. Kisvin, as an exception, is genuinely rare and priced accordingly.
What is the best season to visit Yamanashi?
Yamanashi is beautiful year-round, but particularly spectacular in spring (cherry blossom in the vineyards, late March to early April) and autumn harvest season (September to November, when the vineyards turn gold). Summer is also excellent — the mountain-ringed basin is bright and clear. Winter visits have a particular stillness.
Can I buy wine at the wineries to bring home?
In most cases, yes — the wineries we work with have on-site sales areas. We can also help arrange shipping within Japan. International shipping of wine from Japan is subject to your home country's customs regulations.
Do I need to know anything about wine before coming?
No. Curiosity is the only thing required. We tailor the depth of the conversation — and the vocabulary we use — to wherever you are starting from.
Beyond the Tasting: What Yamanashi Teaches You
Every region of Japan has its own character — its own way of approaching beauty, craft, and time. Yamanashi's wine culture embodies something particular about the Japanese relationship to natural materials: patient, respectful, never forcing the grape to be something it is not.
The winemakers here do not chase international trends. They are trying to make the most honest possible expression of their soil, their climate, and their variety. That philosophy — craft as a form of listening — is one of the most Japanese things about Japanese wine.
Wintage Tour exists to make that philosophy legible to visitors who are curious enough to go looking.
Plan Your Yamanashi Wine Experience
Every Wintage Tour journey is designed from scratch, privately, for you.
To begin planning your Yamanashi winery experience — or a combined wine-and-sake journey, or a multi-day trip — please reach out:
Contact us →
Email: k.ishii.wintage@gmail.com
Tel: 080-7013-1899
Wintage Tour is operated by BOND Resort Co., Ltd. (Tokyo Gov. Travel Agency License No. 3-6199). We arrange private wine and sake experiences across Japan for international visitors who travel for the craft, the culture, and the stories behind them.
Website: wintagetour.com
Further Reading
- The Ultimate Guide to Private Sake Brewery Tours in Japan
- The Best Time to Visit Japan for Sake and Wine Tours
- FAQ — Private Sake Brewery Tours in Japan
- The Best Sake and Wine Day Trips from Tokyo
- Sake Tasting in Japan: What to Expect at a Private Brewery
- Koshu Wine: Japan's Indigenous Grape and the Yamanashi Wine Region
