Sainte Neige (サントネージュワイン), a winery that has been making wine in Yamanashi (山梨) since the 1940s, has unveiled its first whisky. The brand is called Seisetsu (聖雪), and three expressions were shown to trade partners at the winery in Yamanashi City on October 14, 2026, ahead of a retail release on November 1. It is a small, local launch, but it marks something new: one of Japan’s long-established wine producers now distills and matures its own malt whisky, roughly three years after starting from zero.
According to reports from the local broadcasters YBS and UTY, the three whiskies differ in character, and at least one has been matured in the wooden wine casks the company used for its own winemaking. Sainte Neige also uses its existing cellars and storage buildings for maturation, so the whisky side of the business is built directly on top of the winery rather than in a separate new plant. Trade guests at the launch described the range as fruity and easy to drink, and one said it could become a whisky that represents Yamanashi.
The company’s own whisky page says the spirit is made in an original copper pot still it calls the “Seisetsu-style” still, and that it aims for a clean, approachable whisky for everyday drinking. It also states plainly that the products due for release use selected imported malt alongside its own work, while barley grown with local farmers is already in the pipeline. Price, bottle size and strength had not been published at the time of writing. Seisetsu goes on sale on November 1 at liquor stores and other outlets within Yamanashi Prefecture only.
The name is a direct translation of the winery’s own. Sainte Neige means “holy snow” in French, a reference to the snow on the summit of Mount Fuji. Seisetsu is the same phrase written in Japanese characters.
From Nikka’s wine arm to an independent distiller
Sainte Neige has an unusual history for a new whisky maker. Its winery traces back to 1947 on the outskirts of Kofu, and the company was among the first in Japan to plant European grape varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, beginning in 1953. For years it sat inside the Asahi group as a subsidiary of Nikka. In 2021 Nikka sold all of its shares to Sun Foods (サン.フーズ), a maker of alcoholic beverages and seasonings, and the winery began operating under its new owner on January 1, 2022.
Whisky was part of that plan from the start. When the new structure was announced in 2022, the trade paper Nihon Shokuryo Shimbun reported that Sainte Neige would shift from volume wine to small-batch production and install a whisky still to move into spirits. The winery also experimented before its own spirit was ready: in 2024 it worked with the mountain village of Tabayama (丹波山) on a whisky finished in casks made from the village’s own mizunara oak, filled with Scotch malt and blended stock bought in for the project. Seisetsu is the first release made from the winery’s own distillate.
Why this matters
Japan’s craft whisky boom has mostly been driven by sake brewers and shochu makers. Recent examples include the sake brewer behind the new Nikko distillery in Tochigi and Meiri Shurui, whose Takazo distillery is preparing its first single malt. Wineries have been rarer. Sainte Neige brings two things a sake brewer does not: a stock of seasoned wine casks it controls itself, and decades of experience managing fruit-driven maturation. Wine-cask finishes are common in Scotch, but in Japan most distillers buy those casks in. Here, the cask and the whisky come from the same address.
The timing is also telling. A three-year minimum is the line set by Japan’s industry standard for what can be called Japanese whisky, and Sainte Neige is releasing at the first point its spirit is old enough. The company’s openness about using imported malt is consistent with that standard, which allows imported grain as long as distillation and aging happen in Japan. Its stated long-term goal goes further: barley grown by local farmers, casks made from Yamanashi timber and water drawn from around the prefecture, which it calls an all-Yamanashi whisky. That is a statement of intent rather than a description of this first release.
For Yamanashi itself, Seisetsu adds a second whisky name to a prefecture known abroad mainly for Suntory’s Hakushu distillery in the forests near Hokuto. The two operations could hardly be more different in scale, but together they show a prefecture that has spent a century on wine starting to build a whisky identity as well.
For readers outside Japan
Seisetsu is not being exported, and the company has said nothing about overseas sales. The November 1 launch is limited to shops within Yamanashi, so the first bottles are likely to stay in the prefecture and sell through quickly. Readers who want to try it have two realistic routes:
- Visit the winery. Sainte Neige is right by the south exit of JR Yamanashi-shi Station on the Chuo Line, and its shop offers tastings of its wines and whisky. The shop opens on weekdays, with extra weekend and holiday opening from September to November 2026. It is an easy day trip from Tokyo and pairs well with a visit to Hakushu or the Katsunuma wine district.
- Use a proxy service. Because the release is regional and small, overseas buyers would need a Japan-based shopping or forwarding service. Our guide to importing Japanese whisky from Japan covers the rules and costs.
If you are looking for a Japanese whisky shaped by wine casks that you can actually buy abroad today, our guide to Japanese whisky cask types explains how wine and sherry casks are used across the larger distilleries. We will report on pricing and strength once Sainte Neige publishes them.
Source: YBS Yamanashi Broadcasting (Japanese), UTY TV Yamanashi (Japanese), Sainte Neige (Japanese), Nihon Shokuryo Shimbun (Japanese)