Kyoho Winery, Fukuoka

When thinking about Japan, in terms of drinks, we usually think of sake, and or shochu. I had no idea that Japan had their own wineries around town…lucky, there’s one relatively close in Fukuoka. A friend and I decided to do a day trip to the winery!

Kyoho Winery

It took us a little more than an hour and a half to train out to the country, and then a 5 minute taxi ride to the winery. As soon as we crossed the parking lot, before even setting one foot onto cement pathway we were hit by a strong smell of brewing wine! The area was a bit smaller than we anticipated, but it was still a beautiful sight. We wandered down to the “Wine Cave”, where they had old wine making machines. Some imported from France, and others as old as 1975.

Kyoho Winery’s “Wine Cave”

Inside the Wine Cave, there were old memorabilia’s of wine making technology.

 

Corridor of aged wine.

Oldest bottle of wine in Japan

Kyoho Winery Restaurant

After walking through the cave we headed to the restaurant for lunch. The restaurant is small but cozy, so if anyone is planning to go here it would probably be best to check out the wait and put your name on the list before wandering around. Or, there are picnic spaces available, which is what many did.

We sat outside, as it was such a nice day. The view was absolutely gorgeous!

View from the restaurant

Kyoho Winery Wine Tasting

Next, we headed down to the store. We both anticipated that there would be some sort of a tour with wine tasting after wards. There was no tour, but there was tasting!

The shop had gorgeous rustic wine barrels set up as tables. On top were the different wines to sample, but where were the wine glasses we wondered? No wine glasses available unfortunately, but there were plastic shot glasses! There were some wines that you had to go to the staff counter to sample, and those were either the popular or expensive ones.

Wine Tasting Enjoyments

I really like sweet wines, and usually not that big of a fan for dry. But I have tasted some good dry wines before. The wines I enjoyed most was the Riesling and Satsuma Wine. Other wines that were most enjoyable were their Strawberry Wine, Sweet Blueberry Wine, and Blueberry Sparkling Wine. Next time I head back I’ll probably get some bottles of those…sigh…I really miss Elephant Island.

Wine tasting in the shop,