Château Mercian Mariko Winery ranks 59th in World's Best Vineyards 2024; winery is only Japanese entry to place in competition five consecutive years

• Fifth year within the Top 100, ranked 59th
• The Mariko Winery is the only Japanese winery to have placed in the competition five years in a row.
• Best in Asia in 2023

TOKYO, November 6, 2024 – Mercian Corporation’s (Mercian) Château Mercian Mariko Winery placed 59th in the World's Best Vineyards 2024, held in the United Kingdom on October 28 (local time). The Château Mercian Mariko Winery is the only Japanese winery to have placed in the competition five years in a row, including “Best in Asia” in 2023.

As a leading winery in Japan, Château Mercian will continue to produce high-quality Japanese wines and communicate this homegrown quality domestically and internationally to expand brand recognition as well as contribute to the overall development of the Japanese wine industry.

World’s Best Vineyards

World's Best Vineyards is organized and compiled by William Reed Business Media (WRBM). The awards highlight the 100 best vineyards globally and started guiding travelers to the finest wine experiences in the world. Now running for the sixth time, the awards were launched in 2019. WRBM also hosts the International Wine Challenge (IWC), the world's foremost wine competition. Château Mercian Hokushin Chardonnay 2019 received the highest score for Japanese wine in this year’s IWC awards.

Approximately 500 experts, including world-class sommeliers, wine journalists, and travel professionals nominate seven wineries for the best winery experience from those they have visited since January 1, 2018. There is no pre-determined list or criteria other than what is publicly available, including tour content at the winery, tasting, ambiance, wine quality, food, staff, scenery, value for money, prestige, and location, etc. The experts vote for their top seven wineries they think offer the best overall experience in the world and that they would highly recommend to a friend. The 100 best wineries are selected from these nominees.

Château Mercian Mariko Winery

Opened in 2003 in Ueda City, nestled in the breathtaking Japanese Alps in Nagano Prefecture, the vineyard is a 29-hectare estate that cultivates eight varieties of grapes, including Merlot, Chardonnay, Syrah, and Sauvignon Blanc. In 2019, Mercian Corporation opened the Château Mercian Mariko Winery on the hillside of the vineyard, where visitors can see the entire process from grape growing to winemaking. The wines from the Mariko Vineyard have been used at official events in Japan.

The Mariko Vineyard, based on the results of joint research with the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), has officially been selected as an approved Nationally Certified Sustainably Managed Natural Site for the Japanese Ministry of the Environment’s 30by30 Alliance For Biodiversity*1 (30by30) in October 2023. It is the only site among those selected to produce an agricultural product - grapes for wine - as a business. In addition, it has also been registered in an international database as an OECM*2.
*1: See Japanʼs 30by30 Roadmap (English)
*2: Abbreviation for Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures

About Kirin Holdings

Kirin Holdings Company, Limited is an international company that operates in the Food & Beverages domain (Food & Beverages businesses), Pharmaceuticals domain (Pharmaceuticals businesses), and Health Science domain (Health Science business), both in Japan and across the globe.

Kirin Holdings can trace its roots to Japan Brewery which was established in 1885. Japan Brewery became Kirin Brewery in 1907. Since then, the company expanded its business with fermentation and biotechnology as its core technologies, and entered the pharmaceutical business in the 1980s, all of which continue to be global growth centers. In 2007, Kirin Holdings was established as a pure holding company and is currently focusing on boosting its Health Science domain.

Under the Kirin Group Vision 2027 (KV 2027), a long-term management plan launched in 2019, the Kirin Group aims to become “A global leader in CSV*, creating value across our world of Food & Beverages to Pharmaceuticals.” Going forward, the Kirin Group will continue to leverage its strengths to create both social and economic value through its businesses, with the aim of achieving sustainable growth in corporate value.

* Creating Shared Value: combined added value for consumers as well as for society at large.