Domaine Pinot Livre

A small winery on Suo-Oshima in the Seto Inland Sea, Yamaguchi, growing its own grapes and making its own wine. It is run by Suo-Oshima Winery Inc., founded in January 2018 with capital of 18 million yen and headed by Takayuki Shigeoka. Growing and winemaking are done by Hideya Matsumoto and his wife: both studied under Professor Yamakawa, breeder of Yama Sauvignon, at Yamanashi University, and Matsumoto worked at Furano Wine and Nakaizu Winery Chateau T.S before moving to Suo-Oshima in 2013. The winery farms four plots in the Yura district - UBA, JINDE, KATADA umi and KATADA yama - with 18 varieties in total, led by Yama Sauvignon alongside Yama Blanc and Pinot Noir plus table varieties such as Muscat of Alexandria and Delaware trained specially for wine. The town was designated a wine special zone in March 2018; the company obtained its licence that September, began fermenting in October and released its own brand Domaine Pinot Livre in December. Only estate-grown fruit is used, and the winery deliberately operates as a closed, membership-based producer rather than a tourist destination.