Description
In inland Nanyo City, Anfora Bianco 2022 from Grape Republic is a Yamagata white wine from Japan made from Rosario Bianco, Niagara, and Delaware. Grape Republic was founded in 2017 by Kazuomi Fujimaki and Takayuki Taira, with Haruyuki Yano later becoming the responsible winemaker after experience in New Zealand. The project is based in Nitta, Nanyo, where hills rise to the north and agricultural plains extend to the south, with low humidity, marked day and night temperature shifts, and free-draining geology; exact altitude and parcel exposure for this cuvée are not consistently published. Farming avoids herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers, gibberellin treatment, commercial yeast, sugar, acid, and antioxidant additions. For Anfora Bianco, the three varieties are fermented with indigenous yeasts in amphora, using about 50 percent whole clusters and 7 to 13 days of skin fermentation, then aged eight to nine months in amphora before bottling without fining or filtration. The cuvée places local table-grape varieties within Grape Republic’s work on Nanyo farmland recovery and ceramic-vessel vinification.