A Japanese Pinot Noir town blessed by climate change now worries about the weather

By Mariko Katsumura

YOICHI, Japan (Reuters) -Climate change has helped make the small Japanese town of Yoichi the toast of Pinot Noir connoisseurs, with gradually warming temperatures encouraging locals to try their hand at the delicate grape variety over the past two decades.

Yoichi was well known as the home of Nikka Whisky. But it burst into the viticultural limelight five years ago, when the 2017 Nana-Tsu-Mori Pinot Noir from the local Domaine Takahiko winery was featured on the wine list of Copenhagen’s globally acclaimed Noma restaurant.

A bottle of that prized wine, which once sold for around $30, is now offered by resellers in Japan for about $560. Other wines from the town, which is located on Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido and now has about 20 wineries and 70 vineyard