It all started with Kikkoman’s wine division
Manns Wine Komoro Winery is located in Komoro City in eastern Nagano Prefecture. The winery boasts the largest site in Nagano Prefecture, with a company building, vineyards, a brewery, a store, and a 3,000-tsubo Japanese garden on a vast site.
Manns Wine, which started in Katsunuma, Yamanashi Prefecture in 1962, chose Komoro City as a candidate site for its next winery. The city’s low rainfall, long hours of sunshine, and well-drained soil are ideal for winemaking, and in recent years, the Chikumagawa River basin, including this area, has been called “Chikuma River Wine Valley” and is attracting attention as a major production area for high-quality Japanese wines.
Mann’s Wine had already recognized the potential of this land and built its second winery there in 1973, long before the area was called “Wine Valley” and was highly acclaimed by many wine lovers.
It is not surprising that Mann’s Wine started as the wine division of Kikkoman, a major soy sauce maker. The “Mann” in Manz is the “Mann” in Kikkoman. In addition, it is also named after the Latin word “manna,” which is a food given from heaven, as described in the Bible.
At a time when Japanese wines were not yet as good as those of Europe and other wine-producing countries, Mann’s Wine was born out of a desire among employees to help develop Japanese wines, since the company’s business was brewing.
In 1981, Manns Wine was born out of a desire to create an environment that would enable the production of stable, high-quality wines that could compete with the world’s best wines, since Mann’s Wine had delivered “consistent good taste at all times” to dining tables throughout Japan as a soy sauce manufacturer. In 1981, the company began planting Chardonnay in addition to the Zenkoji grape (Ryugan), an indigenous white wine grape variety that originated in Nagano Prefecture.
However, the variety had little experience in cultivation in a place with little familiarity with the land. At first, they had to go through a trial-and-error process. He devised an epoch-making cultivation method that protected the grapes from rain and harvested ripe grapes by covering the entire hedge with a roll-up plastic sheet, and in 1987, he applied for a patent as Mann’s Rain Cut Hedge Cultivation Method. The following year, just before the 1988 harvest, an unseasonably heavy snowfall caused most of the shelves at Zenkoji (Ryugan) to collapse, but the Raincutt hedge cultivation system escaped damage at this time. This was a turning point in the conversion to hedge cultivation and European varieties, and served as a major stepping stone for the later “Solaris” series.
Solaris” wine finally born in Nagano
Over the years, Manns Wine has established cultivation methods and pruning that take advantage of the region’s unique soil. Some have pointed out the handicap of the cold winters in this region, but Bordeaux in France, a region known for producing excellent wines, is actually a very rainy region, and is not suited for grape cultivation in the same way.
Nevertheless, the winery believes that it is only by continuing to find varieties that match the region and taking on the challenge that it will be able to produce wines of excellent quality, and it has been earnestly facing the challenge of making wines that are unique to Komoro. The Chardonnay vines on the winery’s own farm, which have grown along with the winery’s history, are now the oldest European varietal vines in the upper Chikumagawa River Wine Valley, and they produce a deep and complex flavor with a sense of full potential that has many connoisseurs in stitches.
In 2001, the ” Solaris ” series of premium domestic wines was born. The flagship wine, named after Mann’s Wine’s iconic sun-shaped logo, is the culmination of the company’s long history and has won awards at prestigious wine competitions, been selected for first-class flights on domestic airlines, and is highly acclaimed around the world, exceeding expectations. The company has won awards at prestigious wine competitions, and has been selected for first class travel on domestic airlines.
At the same time, the company has also taken on the challenge of producing wines with individuality. The company developed an original variety, Asama Merlot, by crossing Merlot with Asama, which was created through in-house crossbreeding of Zenkoji Ryugan and Chardonnay. The grapes are characterized by their small size, bright color, firm acidity, and moderate astringency, making them easy to pair with meals. Over the past half century, Mann’s wine has become a popular partner for daily meals. It has supported the development of Japanese wine. It is no exaggeration to say that Mann’s Wine has finally established its position as one of Japan’s leading winemakers.
Taking full advantage of its location in Komoro City, Mann’s Wine aims to ” make Japanese wine from Japanese grapes ” with quality on par with the world’s best wines. Just as Kikkoman’s soy sauce is used around the world, Mann’s Wine is also striving to produce “Japanese wine” that represents Japan and is loved around the world.
