Lumière Sparkling Koshu 2023 has been awarded Silver Medal at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2026.
Based in Yamanashi Prefecture, Lumière Winery is one of Japan’s oldest and most historic wineries.
Founded in 1885 by Tokugi Furiya during the Meiji era, the estate was originally named “Furiya Winery” before being renamed “Lumière”—the French word for “light”—in 1992.
With a history spanning over 140 years, the winery has been a supplier to Japan’s Imperial Household since 1918 and was chosen as the official wine for Emperor Hirohito’s enthronement ceremony in 1927. Its wines have also been served at state banquets, including the 1996 luncheon hosted for U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Koshu is primarily cultivated in Yamanashi Prefecture, about 100 km west of Tokyo.
Guided by the philosophy that “to make real wine, you must grow real grapes,” Lumière has embraced natural farming methods for nearly two decades, practising grass cultivation and no-till farming to maintain healthy soils in Japan’s challenging humid climate.
The winery was also among the first in Yamanashi to produce sparkling wine from Koshu, using the traditional Champagne method—including bottle fermentation and prolonged lees ageing.
Beyond its winemaking philosophy, Lumière is also home to a remarkable piece of winemaking heritage.
The winery has a traditional underground granite stone tank, known as Ishigura, constructed in 1901. Designed to hold large quantities of wine, each Ishigura tank has a capacity of approximately 100,000 litres. In 1998, the Ishigura was officially certified as a tangible cultural property of Japan, and designated as a key component of Japan’s cultural heritage in 2018. The winemaking process using these tanks involves considerable manual labour—from using handcrafted bamboo drainboards as a filtration device to descending underground to drain the final wine from the mouth of the stone tank. Today, this historic stone tank is still used to produce a limited-edition red wine branded “Ishigura”.
Lumière was among the first in Yamanashi to produce sparkling wine from Koshu, using the traditional Champagne method—including bottle fermentation and prolonged lees ageing.
Lumière has traditional underground granite stone tank, known as Ishigura, constructed in 1901. The Ishigura fermentation tank was officially certified as a tangible cultural property of Japan, and designated as a key component of Japan’s cultural heritage in 2018.
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