HOME > Japan’s Local Treasures > Chichibu's Winery Tour
Visit Chichibu's long-established winery and enjoy tasting the area’s renowned wine
Saitama Prefecture
Established in 1940, Chichibu Wine is the first long-standing winery in Saitama Prefecture. The winery’s products were hailed as the "Taste of Bordeaux" by a French priest in 1959, and it was even awarded the gold prize at the Japan Wine Competition. With its founding motto of “fermenting grapes grown by the sunshine, letting them rest well to make healthy wines,” the winery is particular about terroir, from laying limestone sourced on Mt. Buko in the vineyard to improving water drainage in the soil.
Experience the renowned Chichibu wine with this tour that lets you both sample the wine and explore the winery. In the winery, you will learn about the different cultivation methods for each variety in a vineyard full of history, as well as the ingenuity in the various processes the wine undergoes before bottling, all in English.
After the winery tour, you will have the opportunity to taste award-winning wines from various competitions, accompanied by light appetizers. Moreover, you will learn about the characteristics of the taste of each wine and have the opportunity to choose your favorite wine while actually drinking and comparing five or six sommelier-recommended wines. Wine purchases are also an option, including matured vintage wines (from 2002 onwards) rarely found in the market.
How to get there
From Tokyo Station, take the JR Yamanote Line to Ikebukuro Station (about 30 minutes). From Ikebukuro Station, take the Seibu Limited Express Train Laview to Seibu-Chichibu Station (about 1 hour and 20 minutes). From the Seibu-Chichibu Station, the winery is about 30 minutes by car or 40 minutes by bus (Seibu Kanko Bus or Ogano Choei Bus/10-minute walk from Ogano Shako Bus Stop).
41 Ryokamisusuki, Ogano-machi, Chichibu-gun, Saitama-ken
