Grace Winery, (company name “Chuo Budoshu” in Japanese) was established in 1923 in Katsunuma, the birthplace of Japan’s wine industry and today the wine hub of Japan. As a family-owned winery established by Chotaro Misawa, Grace Wine is now run by the forth-generation successor Shigekazu Misawa, whose daughter Ayana is in charge of winemaking.
Since 1990 the family has been concentrating its effort on improvements in grape production. The winery’s goal is a wine reflecting a unique combination of soil, sunlight and altitude. It has been a pioneer in replacing conventional Japanese viniculture with vertical shoot positioning to produce a more richly flavoured grape.
Their Koshu grapes, the signature grape variety of Japan, are grown along the mountainous area of the region, which bring more concentration and minerality to the wines. Koshu was first cultivated more than 1,000 years ago in the Caucasus Region in Asia Minor, came to Japan together with Buddhism via the Silk Road through China. It localised itself and became native to Japan. When winemaking started in Japan in 1874, it quickly became not only the main, but also the most important variety.
