Rue de Vin

Rue de Vin, which means "Wine Road", is an estate-led winery in Tomi, Nagano, founded in 2008 and led by Hideaki Koyama.

The name carries a layered ambition. He envisions a single road, the one that leads to his vineyard and winery, eventually spawning restaurants, auberges, and new wineries along its length, like dots connecting into a line. Local farmers would be linked through food and wine, each needing the other, creating a self-sustaining culture of agriculture and gastronomy in a region where farming is in decline. His stated aspiration is that Tomi will one day be called Japan's "Golden Hillside," after Burgundy's Côte d'Or.

The project began with reclamation. What had once been a landscape of productive apple orchards along the gentle slopes of the Chikuma River had become abandoned and overgrown, transforming into dense scrub forest that resisted even human entry. He set out to restore this farmland by planting vines and patiently rebuilding it into working vineyards.

His farming philosophy is grounded in building a rich ecosystem: minimal pesticides and fertilizers, ground cover left to flourish, encouraging the insects and soil microorganisms that sustain healthy vines. The dry winds that rise along these slopes, combined with abundant sunshine and large day-to-night temperature swings, create conditions he believes are capable of producing truly great wine.

The estate is designed as a complete destination. A café restaurant pairs Rue de Vin's wines with food, and a hotel allows visitors to stay within the vineyard landscape, experiencing the place and the wines together, not in isolation. His vision extends beyond his own winery: he sees himself not as the sole protagonist, but as a connector, someone whose role is to help weave the food culture of this region together, with wine as the thread.