Takeda Winery

Takeda Winery traces its origins to 1920, when it was established as the Takeda Food Factory at the base of the Zao mountain range. Over more than a century, guided by a philosophy as simple as it is exacting, "Good wine comes from good grapes", the estate has grown to encompass approximately 15 hectares of southeast-facing vineyards in Kaminoyama, divided into 26 sections with regular soil testing and analysis across 20 sampling points per section.

The winery's pivotal transformation began with the third-generation head, Shigenobu Takeda, who was so moved by his first encounter with a bottle of Château Margaux that he devoted himself to cultivating European varieties in Yamagata. That determination survived even a devastating fire in 1974 that destroyed the original factory and prompted the relaunch as "Takeda Winery." Shigenobu's son, Shinichi, studied winemaking with such dedication in France that the owner of his host château remarked on the rarity of such commitment, and returned to Japan to elevate the winery's quality, creating the acclaimed Château Takeda red wine and Cuvée Yoshiko sparkling.

The current chapter belongs to the fifth-generation head, Noriko Kishidaira, Shinichi's sister. After graduating from the Department of Agricultural Chemistry at Tamagawa University, she spent four years studying winemaking and training at vineyards in France. She returned with a conviction that the old-vine Muscat Bailey A planted by her family, some dating back to the 1920s, held unrealised potential. Her father Shigenobu wanted to replace them, but Noriko's belief in the old vines prevailed.

Through innovative cultivation and vinification techniques, she unlocked a depth and complexity in Muscat Bailey A that few thought possible, as exemplified in the Domaine Takeda Bailey A Vieille Vigne. Today the estate produces wines across a broad range: from the zero-sulphite Sans Soufre series fermented entirely with wild yeast, to the Cuvée Yoshiko made by the traditional Champagne method, but its heart remains with old-vine Muscat Bailey A.