California Winemakers Are Crafting Wines to Pair with Japanese Cuisine

By WineBottleMag
February 1, 2025
California Crafting Cuisine Japanese Pair Winemakers Wines
With 0 comments

Often with Japanese food, less is more. Whether it’s a beautiful piece of toro nigiri or cold soba noodles, restraint allows a dish’s flavors to feel more focused without interference from heavy sauces, extra fat or too much salt. It’s the very essence of a simple pleasure.

But with little to hide behind, pairing wines to these sorts of refined dishes can get tricky. Anything with too much tannin or alcohol simply overpowers the entire experience.

Now, a growing number of winemakers have started crafting wines specifically to pair with Japanese cuisine. Many of these nuanced bottlings eschew riper fruit, higher alcohol and heavier oak to harmonize with the subtle flavors of these foods.

In Spain’s Penedès region, Vallformosa has crafted a Cava Reserva called Bluefin designed to serve alongside fish, especially red tuna. Meanwhile, Domaine Christophe Mittnacht’s Gyotaku, a Pinot Blanc-driven blend from Alsace, France, was specially formulated to accentuate raw seafood dishes.

More winemakers still—many of them in California, leading the charge—produce both reds and whites designed to shine brightest when served with a wide range of traditional Japanese dishes.

These kinds of aromatic, higher-acid wines are often found on the wine lists of high-end restaurants that specialize in omakase, an elevated style of chef-led sushi dining. That’s because these wines are particularly well-suited for tricker-to-pair fish, like mackerel, which is often cured in vinegar.“You have to match acidity with acidity,” says Ian Lokey, the beverage director for Sushi Note in Sherman Oaks, California.

Image Courtesy of Shelby Moore / Sushi Note Omakase

Designing Around a Cuisine

Stolpman Vineyards, a Central Coast Rhône specialist, has leaned into both acid and texture for one deliberately designed bottling.

In 2016, partner Pete Stolpman and his team partnered with Austin-based Hai Hospitality Group (which is behind celebrated restaurants Uchi and Uchiko) and their beverage director Jason Kosmos to craft the first vintage of a sushi-specific wine called Uni to honor the famed shellfish.

“Uni is the only wine in our 35-year history where we started with a cuisine, in this case sushi, and then worked backwards to create a blend,” Stolpman says.

Initially, he used a mixture of 70% Roussanne, a decadently textured Rhône white variety, with 30% Chardonnay, fermented and aged exclusively in 500-liter French oak puncheons.

Over the years, the blend has evolved. The current release now features 60% Chardonnay harvested at the end of September and 40% Roussanne harvested well into November. The result is a more acid-driven style than the more opulent iterations that were crafted in the first few vintages.

“The hedonistic texture of sushi marries beautifully with the coating Roussanne,” Stolpman says, “but we use early-picked Chardonnay to dial back the Roussanne, so it doesn’t overpower the raw fish.”

All About Acid

Up in an urban wine-making facility in Berkeley, California, Nori Nakamura’s Noria is looking to the flavor profiles of saké to inform the wines he’s making for Japanese food. From harvest to vinification and aging, every step in making his single-vineyard whites and reds plays a role in achieving the sensibility he desires.

Noria’s two whites, a Sauvignon Blanc from the Bevill Family Vineyard in the Russian River Valley and a Chardonnay from the acclaimed Sangiacomo Roberts Road Vineyard, are inspired by the flavors and styles of traditional saké.

let adType_679e762aea12c = “leaderboard”;
// Create the element
let script_679e762aea12c = document.createElement(“script”);

script_679e762aea12c.innerHTML = `
window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []};
googletag.cmd.push(function() {

var mapping;
// Size mapping for leaderboard ads
var lbmapping = googletag.sizeMapping()
.addSize([1024, 0], [[970, 250], [970, 90], [1, 1], [728, 90]])
.addSize([728, 0], [[728, 90], [1, 1]])
.addSize([320, 0], [[1, 1], [300, 50], [300, 100], [320, 50], [320, 100]])
.addSize([0, 0], [[1, 1], [320, 50]])
.build();
// Size mapping for med rectengle ads
var medrecmapping = googletag.sizeMapping()
.addSize([1024, 0], [[300, 600],[300, 250]])
.addSize([728, 0], [300, 250])
.addSize([320, 0], [[1, 1],[300, 250]])
.addSize([0, 0], [[1, 1], [300, 250]])
.build()
//var lbSlots = [[[320, 100], [728, 90], [300, 100], [1, 1], [300, 50], [970, 250], [320, 50], [970, 90]]];
//var medrecSlots = [[300, 600], [1, 1], [300, 250]];

mapping = adType_679e762aea12c == ‘leaderboard’ ? lbmapping : medrecmapping;
googletag.defineSlot(‘/39808611/article_page/article_leaderboard_1’, [],
‘div-gpt-ad-679e762aea12c’).addService(googletag.pubads()).defineSizeMapping(mapping);
googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest();
googletag.pubads().collapseEmptyDivs(); //maybe optional
googletag.pubads().refresh(); //maybe optional
googletag.enableServices();

});
`;

//checking to see if script is inserted in the header successfully
if (document.head.appendChild(script_679e762aea12c)) {
//variable holding the rendering body
document.getElementById(“gptBodySection-679e762aea12c”).innerHTML = `

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(div-gpt-ad-679e762aea12c); });

`;
}

Nakamura explains that “the model of my Sauvignon Blanc is the Daiginjo,” a softer, more fruit-driven saké style fermented at a lower temperature. To balance the grape’s natural acidity, Nakamura vinifies in a combination of oak and stainless steel, tipping the balance towards oak in cooler vintages when acids are higher, and favoring more stainless steel in warmer years. He also includes a small percentage of Gewürztraminer, which adds a distinctive floral lift.

Noria’s Chardonnay, on the other hand, is designed to emulate Junmai Ginjo, a relatively newer saké type that expresses a wider range of characteristics than more traditional styles. “It’s round, almost sweet,” says Nakamura, “big and bold, but with that backbone of nice acidity, that’s the model for my Chardonnay.” Helping with this goal, the Roberts Road vineyard is an elite cool-climate site for California Chardonnay. The 2022 vintage feels especially decadent, with opulent texture and a lively apple-Meyer lemon freshness that energizes the midpalate and the finish.

Don’t Dismiss Reds

Though reds seem like a less obvious choice for sushi, Noria’s single-vineyard expressions of Pinot Noir are also apt pairings. To avoid crafting California fruit bombs loaded with oak, Nakamura harvests his grapes on the earlier side and is very judicious in his use of oak.

To bring a more savory quality to the wines, he utilizes some whole-cluster fermentation, which lends distinctive black tea and nori notes. This is evident across three very different vineyard sites: Sangiacomo Roberts Road in the Petaluma Gap, Umino in the Russian River Valley and Brosseau in the tiny Chalone appellation.

Though discerning tasters would never mistake wines from one site for another, they’re all cooler-climate vineyards that produce Pinots with nuance, freshness and purity. These wines exhibit an escalation of richness and structure evident when paired with everything from tuna belly sashimi and spicy ramen with pork belly to a fatty Wagyu ribeye.

Rosy seabass with yuzu, deep fried bamboo shoot, butterbur sprout and mushroom. 2019 Xander Soren Olivet Lane Russian River Valley Pinot Noir 2020 Xander Soren Olivet Lane Russian River Valley Pinot Noir — Image Courtesy of Shimane Michimasa / Xander Soren Wines

Noria isn’t the only California winemaker to pinpoint Pinot Noir as a match for Japanese cuisine. Xander Soren’s newly launched label is a single-minded examination of coastal Pinot Noir crafted specifically for sushi as well as other traditional Japanese dishes.

Soren intentionally avoids higher sugar levels at harvest. “We’re going for vibrant acidity and not too much alcohol,” he says. “We’re trying to dial in a wine that’s not necessarily ‘quiet,’ but maybe is more restrained.”

These Pinots may feature small amounts of whole-cluster fermentation, depending on the vineyard, to increase the savory potential of the variety. It’s easy to go too far or rely too heavily on the stem inclusion to provide those earthier flavors, so winemaker Shalini Sekhar is careful to keep everything in balance.

A Masterclass in Restraint

Soren and his winemaking team shared an array of their newly released wines at Omakase, a Michelin-starred, 12-seat sushi bar helmed by Chef Jackson Yu in San Francisco. Here, a dizzying procession of traditional Edomae-style nigiri is punctuated by decadent cooked dishes, including caviar-crowned scallop and salty-sweet tempura fried prawns served immediately before their shatteringly-crisp fried heads.

Especially breathtaking is the chawanmushi garnished with Dungeness crab. It bends logic to pair this luscious, saline-scented egg custard with Pinot Noir. But perhaps that’s because you’ve never tried Soren’s top cuvée Ludeon, sourced from an array of legendary cool-climate vineyards in the Central Coast like Sanford & Benedict, La Encantada and Sierra Mar.

Of course, nigiri remains the star at Omakase. Yu’s flavors are incredibly precise and focused, with compact pads of red vinegar-scented rice anointed with single shiso leaves, nimble brush strokes of soy sauce and the tiniest dabs of wasabi.

let adType_679e762aeaabd = “leaderboard”;
// Create the element
let script_679e762aeaabd = document.createElement(“script”);

script_679e762aeaabd.innerHTML = `
window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []};
googletag.cmd.push(function() {

mapping = adType_679e762aeaabd == ‘leaderboard’ ? lbmapping : medrecmapping;
googletag.defineSlot(‘/39808611/article_page/article_leaderboard_2’, [],
‘div-gpt-ad-679e762aeaabd’).addService(googletag.pubads()).defineSizeMapping(mapping);
googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest();
googletag.pubads().collapseEmptyDivs(); //maybe optional
googletag.pubads().refresh(); //maybe optional
googletag.enableServices();

});
`;

//checking to see if script is inserted in the header successfully
if (document.head.appendChild(script_679e762aeaabd)) {
//variable holding the rendering body
document.getElementById(“gptBodySection-679e762aeaabd”).innerHTML = `

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(div-gpt-ad-679e762aeaabd); });

`;
}

When paired with wine, the goal is to accentuate the pristine quality of the seafood. Take for example, Yu’s presentation of a sequence of tuna nigiri, each with a greater fat content than the last. Soren’s offerings, a sampling of the Pinots from a range of vintages going back to 2015, fit the bill.

These wines, which display a core of vibrant acid, bring focus and order to the tuna’s dizzyingly complex aromatics and flavors. Savory notes of black cherry, orange peel, shiitake and nori develop as the wine aerates, yielding ever more depth and nuance.

The Future of Wines Made for Japanese Food

Are more wines specifically designed to accompany sushi and other Japanese foods around the corner? Perhaps. High-end omakase restaurants have never been more popular in the U.S., many of them with dedicated beverage directors looking for a range of nuanced wines to match.

And it’s not just higher end restaurants that stand to benefit. Since the first true sushi bar opened on U.S. shores in Los Angeles in 1966, Japanese food has grown to a multi-billion dollar business. So, as American palates get more attuned to Japanese cuisine, the demand for nuanced wines that pair with this style of food is likely to increase.

While Soren believes that the sky’s the limit for America’s taste for Japanese food, he’s also confident that Japan’s taste for American wines will continue to grow. He plans to evenly split his distribution between the American and the Japanese markets.

While classic wines of Burgundy and Bordeaux are still extremely popular at restaurants and with collectors in Japan, American wines are increasingly making their mark.

Hotei Wines, a thirty-year importer of wines to Japan, has seen sales grow 50% from 2010 to 2019, says owner William Campbell: “Hotei is 100% California and focuses on mid- to high-end wines for [restaurant and hotel] accounts.”

In addition to bringing Soren’s specially crafted bottlings to Japan, Hotei also represents well-known California players, like Shafer and Chateau Montelena from Napa Valley and Flowers, Peay and Littorai from the Sonoma Coast. All have seen growing interest among restaurants and chefs.

With Japan’s thirst for American wine on the rise and Americans adopting sushi and other Japanese foods as their own, Soren, Stolpman and Nakamura are on the right track, producing nuanced California wines that can create harmonious cross-cultural pairings.