The Japan Winery Awards 2025 have been announced.
The organisation awards ratings to domestic wineries based on the quality and consistency of their wines.
Rankings start at Connoisseur’s Wine (an honourable mention) incresing to 3-star (reliable, good quality wines), 4-star (some outstanding wines) and 5-star (outstanding wines).
Full details are available at: www.japan-winery-award.jp including English results and links to the wineries.
This year there were 374 eligible wineries* of which 281 were awarded, 21 more than 2024 (with a few falling out of the awards).
★★★★★
All 17 5-star wineries have retained their ranking:
Domaine Takahiko (Hokkaido)
Yamazaki Winery (Hokkaido)
Sakai Winery (Yamagata)
Takahata Winery (Yamagata)
Takeda Winery (Yamagata)
Ajimu Budoushu Koubou (Oita)
Kido Winery (Nagano)
Obuse Winery (Nagano)
Château Mercian (Yamanashi)
Diamond / Chanter Wine (Yamanashi)
Grace Wine (Yamanashi)
Katsunuma Winery (Yamanashi)
Kisvin Winery (Yamanashi)
Kizan Winery (Yamanashi)
Manns Wines (Yamanashi)
Marufuji Winery (Yamanashi)
Suntory Tomi no Oka Winery (Yamanashi)
★★★★
71 wineries achieved 4-star rankings, up from 66 in 2024.
5 of these have risen one place from their previous 3-star ranking:
de Montille & Hokkaido (Hokkaido)
Domaine Mont (Hokkaido)
NIKI Hills Winery (Hokkaido)
Azucca e Azucco (Aichi)
Kuju Winery (Oita)
Sapporo Beer’s Grand Polaire closed their Yamanashi facilities in 2024, moving production to their Okayama factory. Their 4-star ranking has been retained.
★★★
120 wineries achieved 3-star rankings vs 113 previously.
5 Newcomers
Misono Vineyard (Hokkaido)
Lan Seqqa (Hokkaido)
Snow River Wines (Hokkaido)
Azuma Sanroku (Fukushima)
Domaine Beau (Toyama)
8 promoted from CW
Aizawa nouen (Hokkaido)
Ebeotsu Wein (Hokkaido)
Winery Konohana (Akita)
Vin de la bocchi Winery (Ishikawa)
Iwasaki Jozo (Yamanashi)
Gakufarm & Winery (Nagano)
Kawachi Wine (Osaka)
Ohmishima Winery (Ehime)
5 others have either risen to 4-star, and 3 have fallen out of scope of the rankings
CW
73 wineries receive a Connoisseurs Award (an honourable mention) up from 64 previously.
The new wineries to be included this year are:
Makiba no Ie (Hokkaido)
Maoi Distillery (Hokkaido)
Sapporo Wine (Hokkaido)
Pino Collina (Yamagata)
Agricore Echigo (Niigata)
l’escargot (Niigata)
Funakoshi (Chiba)
Hakusan (Fukui)
Domaine de la Akeno Venus (Yamanashi)
Nikkawa (Yamanashi)
8 vin yard (Yamanashi)
Hiyori (Yamanashi)
Belle vigne (Yamanashi)
Tsukuba Vineyard (Ibaraki)
Minakata Jozo (Nagano)
Daisen Winery (Tottori)
Koresato Winery (Okayama)
Funao Winery (Okayama)
Setouchi (Hiroshima)
Watarise (Fukuoka)
Goto Winery (Nagasaki)
Gokase Winery (Miyazaki)
JAL
Additionally there were special categories for the JAL (Japan Airlines) Award: rising stars who are also expected to contribute to tourism:
Memuro Winery (Hokkaido)
Heidee Winery (Ishikawa)
Kitani Wine (Nara)
*To be eligible, wineries must have been licenced and producing their own wines for at least 3 years.
There are officially 493 licensed wine production facilities (“wineries”) in Japan in as of 1st January 2024 (the latest statistics from the National Tax Authority). There are however several shared wineries and consignment wineries. If we consider brands of wine to include a vineyard producing their wines at a friend’s winery, or under consignment, or a négociant purchasing grapes to produce under consignment, the number exceeds 650.
6 Comments. Leave new
Enjoyed reading this so much, even though I shall sadly not get to taste 99% of these n my own country.
We can live in hope. France and the Netherlands have seen some pretty impressive Japanese Wine events
Great summary!
Reading it brought back some nice memories from Yamanashi.
Thanks Gotti!
Looking forward to the Book on the subject as well! Will that be available down under?
It will. The plan is to publish via Amazon. It’ll be black and white, but will be more accessible internationally.