【Winery Azuma Sanroku】 Authentic Wine & French Cuisine Tour on the Foot of Mt. Azuma

A spared life

In 2019, on the foothills of Mt. Azuma on the west side of Fukushima City, a new winery was established: ‘WINERY AZUMA SANROKU.’ Japan is in the middle of a full-fledged wine boom. Over the last 10 years, just in Fukushima Prefecture over 10 new wineries were founded, and an even larger number of wine-grape producers. We asked founder Yokoyama-san about his motivation for starting his winery, and his thoughts on its future.

Yasuhito Yokoyama was previously involved in the establishment of a new medical facility in the Futaba-area of Fukushima Prefecture. One month before the grand opening, in March 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake struck. He experienced the disaster in the town of Okuma, where his workplace was. This is where he faced a terrible reality. Having survived such a tragedy, he reflects: “I consider myself someone who’s life was spared. So while I live, I want to be of use to others.”

However, in the days and years after the disaster, the liveliness of Fukushima disappeared, which became noticeable on the faces of its inhabitants. When he reflected on the role he could play to improve this situation, he thought back to the time he spent on a business trip in Europe. He remembered the joy of people eating and talking, centered on wine. From that time on, he felt that wine was something that can bring people together.

And so, he decided to start a winery, something he had always been interested in, when he reached the age of retirement.

“I want to make wine that puts a smile on people’s faces”

Winemaking and Grape Cultivation Technical Master Shuji Makino was born in Sendai. After graduating from a local university, he moved to the US to learn how to run a hotel lounge. The service industry was something he had always been interested in, but something led him to the path of wine production. At UC Davis in California, he studied the winemaking process, and gained the enology and viticulture qualification, which only a few people in Japan had. After returning to Japan, he started developing his winemaking career by working in grape cultivation, winemaking and sales for a large winemaking company, and a historic winery in Yamanashi.

But Makino-san had a bigger dream. “I’ve been working in winemaking so far, but what I really want, is to make the kind of wine I envision myself. I imagine a ‘drink of happiness.’ Some liquors are drunk when one is sad or lonely, but I want to make a wine people drink during happy moments. For my wine to be on the table when people are exchanging smiles… that’s my dream.”

Then, word started getting around about a new winery in Fukushima, looking for a winemaking master. When Makino-san first met Yokoyama-san and learned about his way of thinking, he felt an instant connection. Makino-san, being from Sendai, knows the pain that was left in the affected areas after the 2011 disaster. This is how the collaboration between Yokoyama-san and Makino-san, in pursuit of a long-held dream, first came to be.

Wine that tells the story of Fukushima

This winery has a very special location, in the alluvial delta of Mt. Azuma’s foothills, surrounded by such hot springs as Takayu, Tsuchiyu and Iizaka. On the grape vine fields, you can sometimes smell a whiff of sulfur from the hot springs. What kind of character this soil, with the minerals provided by the hot springs, can provide to the grapes, is something everyone at Azuma Sanroku is very much looking forward to in the upcoming harvest. At the moment, they are still purchasing grapes from Yamagata and Nagano for their winemaking, but their very own Fukushima-wine is planned for sale in a few years.

Be it by using 100% apples produced in Fukushima in their apple cider, or the wine etiquettes designed by local high school students, the winery is active in engaging the local community. And only just the other day, it became the first Fukushima winery to receive a prize at the Japan Wine Competition of 2022, showing it is serious about becoming a strong player in the wine market.

Even though it is just getting started, we have high hopes for what Yokoyama-san and Makino-san can achieve, being to bring a new type of local specialty to ‘Fruit Paradise Fukushima,’ turning it into “Winery Country Fukushima.”

The Chardonnay that received a bronze prize at the Japan Wine Competition 2022 (2021 vintage)

“My mother loved to cook, and made curry starting with the bouillon”

Chef Kunioka was born as the oldest son of a furniture maker in Nihonmatsu. His mother, also from Nihonmatsu, was very uncompromising when it came to the thing she loved: cooking. When she made curry, she would draw the bouillon herself. She would refuse to put frozen products in her children’s lunchboxes for school. While Chef Kunioka isn’t sure whether that experience is what set him on the culinary path, he does feel that ‘cooking can enrich people’s lives,’ and decided from a young age to turn cooking into his occupation.

It all went according to plan. After graduating from culinary school, he moved on to work at a hotel in Fukushima City. Of course, hotels offer various departments. But how is it possible that a recently graduated youngster was placed at that hotel’s top restaurant? It was a position for the chosen few, featuring some of the strictest senior chefs. “Honestly, it was pretty scary,” says Chef Kunioka, looking back at that period. But one person he met here had a big career on his career as a chef.

It was someone known as the most skillful and admired chef of the hotel, known to be extremely strict and scary. Although Chef Kunioka only learned this after the fact, this particular chef never acknowledged any of the juniors sent to work with him, a role that now fell on Chef Kunioka.

His senior was very charismatic, and his skills were recognized by more experienced chefs. His opinion carried a lot of weight. Chef Kunioka managed to get along well with him, and his senior took a liking to him. The fact that this senior had a passion for French cuisine, inspired Chef Kunioka to move in the same direction.

A French Connection

At age 25, Chef Kunioka was put in charge of a top restaurant. It was around this time that he ran into a French wine importer at a wine event in Koriyama, named Jean-Pascal Noirault. He was active in the import and sales of wine in Koriyama. When Chef Kunioka told Jean-Pascal of his love for France, Jean-Pascal helped him on his way to move there.

Having been able to come this far had everything to do with the support from his wife. At this point in his life, Chef Kunioka already had a family, but his wife is the kind of person who pushes him to pursue his dreams. With the support of his family, he moved to France, alone. With the experience of working at a Michelin-starred restaurant in his pocket, he returned to Japan two years later.

A shared belief: “Making something is impossible without passion”

After returning to Japan, he worked at several different venues all over the country, from a Michelin-starred restaurant in Tokyo to a bar-style French restaurant, to a wedding location. He only came back to Fukushima after the disaster of 2011. The person who gave him the information about a job opportunity in Fukushima, was his charismatic senior chef from years back. This is also when he first encountered Winery Azuma Sanroku’s wine.

The maker’s dinner where Chef Kunioka was first introduced to Winery Azuma Sanroku.

When Chef Kunioka received the offer to be the chef for this edition of FoodCamp, he decided to pay a visit to the winery. Talking with Yokoyama-san and Makino-san, they found they had a lot in common as ‘makers.’ They shared philosophies towards grape cultivation and winemaking, and their thoughts about wine in general. Winemaking and cuisine. These are both fields in which you cannot succeed without passion.

At the end of August this year, Chef Kunioka will finally open his very own restaurant: ‘Koriyama French Cuisine Laboratory Recettes.’ The word ‘recettes’ means ‘recipe’ in French. Despite having accumulated a lot of experience and recipes through the years, Chef Kunioka does not intend to simply reuse them. He prefers to change things up depending on the weather, temperature, the conditions of the guests, his own state, etc., and present the guests with the perfect recipes adjusted to their wants. This was his reasoning behind the name ‘Recettes.’

Chef Kunioka also adopted the culture in France that “good cuisine cannot go without wine.” He hopes that, through his cuisine, he can enrich the lives of the FoodCamp participants.

We hope everyone will enjoy a very special day, made special by the combination of Fukushima’s food and wine.