A Day Trip to Katsunuma: Chateau Mercian and Japan’s Wine Country by Train
Tasting in Japan’s oldest wine town without a car
Katsunuma, in Koshu City, Yamanashi Prefecture, is where Japanese winemaking began. One Sunday in late September 2026, I spent a full day there without a car: arriving at Katsunuma-budokyo Station just after 9 a.m. and leaving on the 4:19 p.m. train. This is how the day went, what it cost, and what I’d do differently.
The short version
- You don’t need a car. Taxis wait outside Katsunuma-budokyo Station, and many wineries are within walking distance of each other.
- Chateau Mercian is the highlight. Its tour walks you through Japanese wine history with the real buildings, presses and old bottles. There is an English tour (weekdays only) and a much cheaper Japanese tour. I joined the Japanese one.
- Three to four wineries a day is the limit if you actually drink the tastings. By the afternoon I couldn’t drink any more, and a hot spring with a view saved the day.
My day at a glance
- 9:17 a.m. Arrived at Katsunuma-budokyo Station (I’d stayed in Matsumoto the night before)
- Taxi to Chateau Mercian (about 8 minutes, ¥1,700)
- 10:00 a.m. Walked to Kurambon Wine while waiting for the tour
- 10:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m. Chateau Mercian winery tour
- Walked to Maruki Winery. Lunch at IWAI TERRACE from 12:30, then free tastings in the shop
- Taxi to Budo no Oka (¥2,700). About an hour in the Tenku no Yu hot spring
- Walked back to the station. 4:19 p.m. train home
Getting there from Tokyo
Katsunuma-budokyo Station is on the JR Chuo Line, west of Tokyo, about 1 hour 25 minutes from Shinjuku by limited express. Only a few Kaiji limited express trains stop there: in the October 2026 timetable, one late-morning train on weekdays and three on weekends and holidays (arriving around 10 a.m. to noon). On other trains, change to a local train at Otsuki.
- Japan Rail Pass: the Kaiji and Azusa limited expresses are covered by the nationwide JR Pass. Both have reserved seats only, and seat reservations are free with the pass, so reserve at a JR ticket office before you board.
- Check the timetable before you go. I came from Matsumoto, and no limited express stopped at Katsunuma-budokyo that morning, so I changed at Kofu to a local train.
- Taxis: several were waiting outside the station, and I got one right away without a booking. There’s a tourist information center at the station too.
Chateau Mercian Katsunuma Winery
Why this is the one to book
Chateau Mercian traces its roots to 1877, when Japan’s first private wine company, Dainihon Yamanashi Budoshu Kaisha, was founded here. That same year, two young men, Masanari Takano and Ryuken Tsuchiya, were sent to France to learn grape growing and winemaking. The tour shows you that history with the real things: the old cellar and presses, early Mercian wines that have aged in their bottles for decades, and the tanks and barrel cellars that make the wines on shelves today.
English tour or Japanese tour?
| English Guided Tour | Katsunuma Discovery Tour (Japanese) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ¥15,000 (¥5,000 for drivers) | ¥3,000 |
| Length | 120 minutes | About 90 minutes |
| Tasting | 6 wines in the Ortus Room | 4 wines |
| Days | Weekdays only | See the booking calendar |
| Group size | 2–6 people | Up to 10 people |
| Booking | Online form on the official English site | Official LINE account (in Japanese) |
I joined the Japanese Discovery Tour on a Sunday (September 2026), so everything below is from that tour. I haven’t taken the English tour. If you don’t speak Japanese, the English tour is the one to book. Prices and schedules are from the official site as of October 2026; check before you go.
My birth-year wine was in the museum
In June 2026, at a wine dinner in Okazaki, Aichi, the host opened a bottle from his own cellar for me as a first-time guest: Chateau Mercian NOBLESSE 1978, Barrel No. 105. 1978 is the year I was born.
Three months later, walking through the display of old vintages on the tour, I found that exact wine: NOBLESSE 1978, Barrel No. 105. A bottle I’d tasted once was being kept carefully by the winery that made it. It was the moment I remember most from two days of winery visits. (I didn’t have time to photograph the display bottle; the photo above is from June.)
If you have a birth-year wine, look for it in the display.
The tour route
Wine museum and Iwaimura Vineyard. The tour starts at the wine museum with the story of 1877 and the two young men sent to France. In the Iwaimura Vineyard on site, more than 20 grape varieties, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay and Koshu, are grown on vertical shoot positioning (VSP) trellises, the European style. According to the guide, this vineyard isn’t for commercial wine; it’s for trials and for visitors to see. You can compare varieties and vine ages up close.
The old winery. The large casks and presses used in the old days are still in place, and the guide explains them as you look.
Usuke Asai and the “Usuke Boys.” The guide talked about Usuke Asai (real name Shogo Asai), a former Chateau Mercian plant manager, and Paul Pontallier, the late managing director of Chateau Margaux, who advised Mercian from 1998. Young winemakers influenced by Asai became known as the “Usuke Boys,” the subject of a book and a film of the same name:
- Akito Kido: Kido Winery (Shiojiri, Nagano)
- Akihiko Soga: Obuse Winery (Obuse, Nagano)
- Eishi Okamoto: Beau Paysage (Hokuto, Yamanashi)
I’d had wines from all three around this trip: Kido’s Meadows 2023 and Brilliance 2023 and an Obuse Winery white at a bistro in Matsumoto the night before, and Beau Paysage at a private wine gathering in August. Hearing where these winemakers came from, inside the Mercian winery, was fun.
Today’s winery and barrel cellar. The last stop is the working tanks and the cellar full of barrels. The guide said Chateau Mercian has more barrels than any other winery in Japan, and that more barrels means more potential to make top wines. That made sense to me.
The four wines I tasted, honestly
- Iwade Koshu Kiiroka Cuvée Ueno 2025 (white)
- Hokushin Chardonnay Cuvée Akio 2022 (white)
- Hosaka Muscat Bailey A Single Vineyard, grown by Nobuo Inomata, 2021 (red)
- Shiojiri Merlot 2019 (red)
A caveat first: I’m not a big fan of gris-style Koshu. With that said, the one that matched my taste perfectly was the Shiojiri Merlot 2019. It felt a level above the other three. I’d walked the wineries of Shiojiri’s Kikyogahara the day before, and in Katsunuma, the wine that stood out was a Merlot from Shiojiri. (Here is my day walking the Kikyogahara wineries in Shiojiri.)
Honestly, the other three weren’t quite my style. But they have something in common: the names on the labels. “Ueno” is a vineyard in Yamanashi City, “Akio” is Akio Sato, a contract grower, and Nobuo Inomata is the grower in charge of that vineyard. Production is very small, so tasting them on the tour is a rare chance. If you like Koshu or Muscat Bailey A, you may well rate them differently.
Kurambon Wine: before the tour
With time to spare before the 10:30 tour, I walked to Kurambon Wine, less than 10 minutes from Mercian, passing Soryu Winery on the way. Kurambon is in an old Japanese house. I was short on time and couldn’t taste, so I read the descriptions in the shop and bought five bottles on instinct (¥18,810) and had them shipped home.
Maruki Winery and IWAI TERRACE: lunch and six free tastings
After the tour I walked to Maruki Winery. On the way you pass the gate of Miyakoen, marked “Kaisan Budoshu.” After the first winery company was dissolved, Kotaro Miyazaki carried on winemaking here with Ryuken Tsuchiya; it’s now a museum. The walk from Mercian takes longer than you’d think, so leave some time if you’ve booked lunch.
Lunch at IWAI TERRACE. The restaurant at Maruki has an American, California-like feel. I sat right by the terrace and could see the Kofu Basin while eating; from the terrace itself the whole basin spreads out in front of you. I was already tired of wine, so I had the craft beer flight the restaurant recommended.
- Craft beer flight: ¥1,750
- Ajillo: ¥1,100
- Smoked bacon and sausage: ¥1,800
Total ¥5,115 (tax included). Tasty, but on the pricey side. The burgers looked good too, and I honestly regret not ordering one. The wine list included Domaine Kosei, which is hard to find; that’s what I’d come back for. I booked ahead; you can reserve by phone or online.
Free tastings in the shop. The shop and tasting corner are clean and the staff were friendly. You can taste six wines free from a tasting machine (ask the staff for a tasting coin), which is great value, including an unusual dessert wine. In September 2026 the list was:
- Iro Grand Koshu 2025 (white, dry), 750 ml, ¥1,980
- La Feuille Taru Koshu 2025 (white, dry), 750 ml, ¥2,530
- La Feuille Gris Koshu (white, off-dry), 750 ml, ¥2,420
- La Feuille Taru Bailey A 2024 (red, medium-bodied), 750 ml, ¥2,530
- La Feuille Assemblage (red, medium-bodied), 750 ml, ¥2,915
- La Feuille Trésor Reserved Blanc (white, medium-sweet), 375 ml, ¥2,970: a dessert wine aged 30–40 years in the underground cellar
The selection seems to change monthly.
Budo no Oka: I skipped the tasting and went to the hot spring
From Maruki I took a taxi to Katsunuma Budo no Oka (¥2,700). It has an underground wine cave where you can taste about 150 wines, and self-serve wine machines on the observation floor. It didn’t seem crowded when I went. Honestly, the wine cave was a little hard to find.
But by then I was completely tired of drinking. Tasting since the morning, drinking at lunch, walking between wineries, sweating: one more glass and I’d have been done for. So I skipped the tasting and went to the Tenku no Yu hot spring.
- Admission: ¥840
- Towel rental: ¥310
The view of the Kofu Basin from the outdoor bath is superb, and well worth the price. I spent about an hour recovering. You can also eat in the lounge.
Note: Tenku no Yu is closed for renovation from October 13, 2026 until spring 2027. Check the official site before you go.
Afterwards I walked back to Katsunuma-budokyo Station.
A town that lives with grapes
What stayed with me from walking around Katsunuma: wherever you walk, there’s a vineyard right next to you. The road to Kurambon, the road from Budo no Oka to the station: vineyards all the way. People grow grapes in their own gardens. The town and the people who live there live alongside grapes.
How many wineries can you visit in a day?
Tasting pours are small, but many wineries offer six to eight wines each. Taste in the morning, drink at lunch, taste again in the afternoon, and you’ll get tired and tipsy. I’d been tasting since the day before in Shiojiri, and by that afternoon I could barely drink.
- Drinking the tastings, no spitting: 3–4 wineries a day
- Using a spittoon well and taking it slowly: 5–6 wineries a day
Drink water as you go, and don’t try to fit in too many. If you taste lightly and mainly enjoy visiting, it’s different: there are so many wineries close together in Katsunuma that you could visit one and a half to two times as many.
What the day cost
- Taxis (station to Mercian, Maruki to Budo no Oka): ¥4,400
- Katsunuma Discovery Tour: ¥3,000 (the English tour is ¥15,000)
- Lunch at IWAI TERRACE: ¥5,115
- Tenku no Yu (bath and towel): ¥1,150
- Maruki Winery tasting: free
Total ¥13,665, not including trains or wine purchases.
Summary
Katsunuma is easy to explore without a car: taxis wait at the station and wineries are close together. Start with Chateau Mercian to see where Japanese wine began, and book the English tour on a weekday if you don’t speak Japanese. Don’t try to taste at too many wineries; three or four is plenty. I ended my day recovering in a hot spring before heading home.
Book the English tour on the Chateau Mercian official site.
The legal drinking age in Japan is 20. Never drink and drive; visit wineries by train or taxi.
