Pacific Rim Pinot: Bruce Gutlove and Hokkaido’s Blossoming Wine Scene
If you visit 10R Winery on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, you won’t find a fancy tasting room. Nestled on a hillside about an hour east of Sapporo, its production facilities are ringed by just over two acres of picturesque vineyards. But despite humble appearances, it would be hard to find a person who has contributed more to Hokkaido’s modern wine scene than its founder, Bruce Gutlove.
Gutlove’s fascination with wine began when he was an under grad at Cornell University in New York’s Finger Lakes Wine Country. After attaining a Master of Enology from University of California, Davis, he worked for several years in Napa Valley before moving into consulting. One day in 1989 a call came in from Japan’s COCO Farm & Winery north of Tokyo. COCO, which is owned and operated by people with intellectual disabilities, was looking to improve its wines’ quality. Gutlove’s consulting firm wasn’t interested. He was.
Gutlove arrived in Japan unfamiliar with the language and culture, but intrigued by the chance to work with the intellectually disabled in a challenging winemaking environment. “At the time, most Japanese wine was very sweet, oxidized and with excessive SO2,” said Gutlove. “It was made with
what we considered in the West to be bad winemaking choices.”
Gutlove discovered that part of the issue was that many Japanese winemakers who had studied vinification abroad tried to replicate what they had learned at home. But Japan is not Bordeaux or Napa Valley in either a climatic or aesthetic sense and the results were often disastrous. Gutlove began guiding COCO in best practices while encouraging its winemakers to develop their own distinctive styles.
Gutlove and his wife opened 10R Winery in 2012 as Hokkaido’s only custom crush facility and incubator for aspiring winemakers. “The apprenticeship model for moving around to different wineries is not common here,” said Gutlove, citing Japanese cultural ideas of employee loyalty. 10R thus became something of a safe space for Hokkaido growers to make their own wines, typically for five years. Each pays a fee for the facility, participating in every aspect of the production and then selling the vintages under their brands and the 10R label. The program is limited to Hokkaido fruit as Gutlove, having worked with grapes from all over Japan, wanted to deeply focus on one region, but there are also two-year apprenticeships open to all aspiring Japanese winemakers.
Gutlove’s minimal-intervention vintages are typically defined as natural wine, although he doesn’t like the label or the contention around it. He wants winemakers to find their own expressions and 10R facilitates additives for those who want to use them. By the early 2000s, COCO’s winemakers were able to produce excellent vintages on their own and Gutlove was contemplating stepping aside lest his influence impede their individual development. He also wanted to do something that expressed his personal aesthetic.
COCO sources grapes from contract growers all over the country and as Gutlove was planning his next move, he became increasingly intrigued by the quality of Hokkaido fruit. And just as Canada and Britain have recently been able to cultivate grapes that couldn’t be grown there before, climate change
creates new viticulture possibilities in the region.
Speaking with Gutlove, it becomes clear that he sees Hokkaido wine’s recent local popularity as a nice happenstance, not a destination. While pointing out that Hokkaido vintages have “definitely improved,” Gutlove also says the quality isn’t yet being reached consistently. And though some in Hokkaido’s wine scene have described global warming as a boon to their industry, Gutlove is far more
concerned about its negative impact.
“The weather is quite a bit warmer than even 10 years ago,” said Gutlove. “We are a young industry and we have a lot of questions. If the weather is changing rapidly, it makes it harder to find answers.”
Warming weather, however, has opened up Hokkaido to Pinot Noir cultivation just as it has become more difficult in traditional regions like Burgundy. As the northern Japan wine industry matured and adapted practices suited to its particular environment, winemakers and consumers began to notice unique attributes on Pinot Noirs and other wines imparted by Hokkaido’s rich volcanic soil. The resultant growth of Hokkaido viticulture has been dramatic.
As of early 2024, Hokkaido had 64 wineries, triple the amount of 10 years ago, with an outsized number of their founders coming from the roughly 35 winemakers who have incubated at 10R. The winery has also attracted industry heavy hitters, like when France’s Domaine de Montille established vineyards in Hakodate, Hokkaido, in 2016 and produced wine at 10R for four years with sourced fruit before its own grapes reached maturity.
Currently, 21 winemakers are producing at 10R, and Gutlove plans to double its acreage over the next couple of years. He also continues to serve on COCO’s board of directors, visiting about once a month to guide—but not unduly influence—its vinification.
“The best wines I have ever tasted always come from the same kind of person,” said Gutlove, describing someone with a clear vision and dedication to every step. “You look at the Japanese aesthetic sense in so many different things and when it is done well it is just stunning. I want to see what Japanese wine can achieve.”
This article originally appeared in the April 2025 Travel issue of Wine Enthusiast magazine. Click here to subscribe today!
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