Nobuko Takemura, co-founder and president of VinVie Winery & Cidery in Matsukawa, Nagano Prefecture, knows from more than 20 years working on her family’s third generation apple orchard that it is hard work the farming. However, looking out from VinVie’s rye steps and tap room, over the orchards and farms that go out to meet snow-capped mountains, she also thinks no. a better place there.
“Matsukawa is a lot of fun,” Takemura says of the town and the area that has been her home since 1990. “It’s beautiful. It is a great place to live and work. ”
Pastoral and pictorial as it may be, Matsukawa is in trouble. Like many rural areas, Matsukawa’s population is declining, due to the largest demographic shift in Japan and the overall exodus to larger urban areas. This means not only fewer local buyers for her farm, but also fewer growers to continue the area’s centuries-old apple-growing tradition – in 2018, Nagano Prefecture out nearly 19% of the country’s apple harvest, second only to 58% at Aomori Prefecture.
In 2014, Takemura attended a rye conference organized by the Apple Cider International Association in the nearby city of Iida. The idea of brewing started when she gave her the first sip of hard beer. Alcoholic beverages preserved for centuries in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France, cider is not yet known in Japan. Takemura saw his twofold ability.
First, there is the brew itself. “It was delicious and fun to drink,” she says. “Alcohol is usually between 6 and 8%, about half the wine. This is a type of alcoholic beverage that you can enjoy with your friends and have fun without getting a hangover. I thought we could use our apples to make cider. ”
Then there’s the boost it could bring to the department. “If we made cider, it would be a way for people to learn about Matsukawa and its fascination,” Takemura continues. “They could also learn about agriculture and maybe get involved in both. ”
The two-hectare family farm began converting a portion of his apple harvest into cider. They took their apples to Mashino Winery to turn into Marry, a cider that mixed apples from local farmers. The bottles were slipped on the shelves of the shop on their farm along with bags of their apples to see how it would fare.
The cider sold well enough that the family planted 30 beer apple trees in 2017, such as Dabinett, Cox’s Orange Pippin and Yarlington Mill, and made plans for a cider and tap room on site. Prior to 2018, they were brewing under the name VinVie. Combining the French words for “wine” and “life,” the moniker captures what Takemura hopes its cider will offer its customers and community. “Wine and beer make people’s lives richer,” she said, “and I hope to revitalize the community and the area.”
VinVie currently produces seven varieties of rye and five varieties of wine, and Takemura hoped that the rye and tap room in April 2020 would end production. But after being shut down in the first state of emergency, a series of unprecedented frosts followed, followed by an unprecedentedly long wet season, picking apples with cracked skin that could not be resold.
Instead, Takemura and her team came up with two new options. One of them was ice rye which freezes the brew before it is fermented to concentrate the flavor. The second is a campaign called “Everybody’s Cider,” which combines VinVie apples with some other growers in the area who are also struggling this season. Fifty members bought a ration of rye, and by April 2021 they will be able to enjoy the results of this special test.
“It’s important to focus on what we can do,” Takemura says. “We need to keep changing.”
Takemura’s quick thinking means VinVie’s online sales remain stable. She also started a series of YouTube videos that allow people to learn more about the beer-making process and tour the cider – there are even occasional staff push-up contests. The emphasis is on having fun, something that Takemura also believes is an important element for success.
“I have a farm and apples waiting for us to look after them,” she says. “We have to face the future because of apples and trees. The trick is to hope that you enjoy what you are doing right now. ”
For more information, visit vinvie.jp. Women of Taste is a monthly series that looks at famous female figures in the Japanese food industry.
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