On October 11th, a winery & cafe "Wano Winery" (Tsuruta Koizumi, Tsuruta Town, TEL 0173-23-5703) opened near "Muttsu Tsuruta" Station in Aomori/Tsuruta Town.

Tsuruta-cho boasts the largest production of Steuben grapes in Japan. In 2015, the voluntary organization "Tsuruta-cho Wine Winery Study Group" was established with the aim of constructing a winery that uses wine from the town. The winery & cafe was opened by Hideki Yagihashi of the study group.

Mr. Yagihashi from Tsuruta, who worked at an accounting firm in Tokyo, succeeded his father's vineyard and started making grapes about 10 years ago. It is said that he still returns to Tokyo during the winter off-season and works at his former workplace. “It's difficult to make income just by making grapes, and we wanted to add value to differentiate ourselves,” says Yagihashi.

Regarding the opening of business, “Stuben was a type not suitable for wine, but I felt the possibility. I would like to make wine that will become Tsuruta's new industry,” he said.

The opening of the annexed cafe begins with the encounter with Ichie Nara, who is from the local area and has pastry experience. Mr. Yagihashi says, "We originally planned for the winery only, but we decided to offer Nara-san's dessert menu with sweets made from locally grown ingredients, mainly grapes."

The cafe space is about 5 tsubo and has 18 seats. In addition to cake menus such as baked cheesecake, seasonal tarts (above 450 yen), cream puffs (300 yen), drink menus such as coffee (350 yen) and cafe latte (400 yen) are also available. Nara says with a smile, "I have expectations that the product will be sold out at the time of the pre-opening, and I will continue to do my best to meet the expectations."

Mr. Yagihashi expects that he will prepare wine using locally-produced Steuben from November. Wine can be drunk after December. "If we can create not only wine but also new sweets with Nara," he said.

Business hours are from 10:00 to 18:00.