Auberge connecting people with local culture

Update: 2024.09.05

Nakadanasou (Nakadanasou Onsen Co., Ltd., 1210 Otsu, Komoro City, Nagano Prefecture, President: Naoki Tomioka) will open a small auberge in early 2025 next to the brewery of Geo Hills Winery (5656 Yamaura Fujimidaira, Komoro City, Nagano Prefecture, Representative Director: Masaki Tomioka), which was spun off from the company.

About Nakadanasou and Geo Hills Winery

Nakadanasou is a 126-year-old onsen ryokan established in 1898 in the city of Komoro, Nagano Prefecture. Komoro was the castle town of Komoro Castle (now Kaiko-en) and an inn town on the Hokkoku Kaido Highway leading to Zenkoji Temple. The area is also surrounded by majestic mountains such as Mt. Sengen, and the Chikuma River, the longest river in Japan, flows through the area, allowing visitors to enjoy nature in all seasons.

For six generations, we have welcomed guests to Komoro with down-to-earth hospitality as a hot spring ryokan and with pride as a bearer of local culture and traditions.
Then, Masaki Tomioka, the fifth generation owner, visited France about 40 years ago and witnessed the richness of daily life colored by wine, which inspired his desire to create such a scene here in Komoro.

In the course of Nakadanasou's agricultural business, we came across Chardonnay seedlings in 2002. He planted and began cultivating it on his own farm in Komoro City's Mikakigahara, and his passion for Chardonnay gradually took shape.

Omakigahara is a quasi-altitude plateau of 700 to 800 meters above sea level that was once the sea floor and was raised. The cool climate has a clear difference in temperature between day and night, which leaves a rich acidity in the grapes.
The soil is fine-grained clay, which makes it difficult for the vines to take root, but once they do, they grow strongly and show their potential. Rainfall is low, and the winds blowing up from below the plateau help to dispel the humidity. In addition, the area is inhabited by many birds of prey such as steeplejacks, which reduces damage to the grapes by birds and makes the land suitable for viticulture.

Since 2002, we have expanded our vineyard by planting mainly varieties grown in France, such as Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Sauvignon Blanc, and Pinot Gris, and have commissioned Mann's Wine Komoro Winery (Komoro City) and Villadesto Winery (Tomi City) to brew original wine The company has been offering its own original wines.

In 2008, Tomi City, located next to Komoro City, became a special wine zone, which led to a succession of municipalities in the Chikuma River basin in Nagano Prefecture, including Komoro City, becoming special wine zones. 2015 saw the formation of a wide area wine zone by combining eight municipalities: Tomi City, Sakaki Town, Ueda City, Komoro City, Chikuma City, Tateshina Town, Nagawa Town and Aoki Village. The number of wine grape growers and wineries increased, and winemaking in the Chikuma River basin became more and more popular.

In 2016, Gió Hills Winery was established as a spin-off from Nakatana Villa, and in 2018, a winery was completed in Omokigahara, Komoro, where the vineyard is located, and Hayato Tomioka, the third son of Masaki Tomioka, the fifth generation Villa owner and the first student of the "Chikumagawa Wine Academy" organized by Alcan Vigne in Tomi City, became the winemaker. Hayato Tomioka, who learned winemaking as a first-term student of the Chikumagawa Wine Academy sponsored by Arcambigne in Tomi City, was appointed as the winemaking manager and finally started his own winemaking.

Hayato Tomioka grows grapes while paying respect to the history of this land, where agriculture, horse training, and livestock breeding have been conducted since ancient times, and to the activities rooted in the land by our predecessors, and by sincerely dealing with the grapes in front of his eyes and the land and natural environment under his feet.

He says, "I want to make wines that will stay in the hearts of those who drink them, wines that are best drunk in the same place where the grapes were grown. Masaki Tomioka, the fifth generation owner of the vineyard.

Arcambigne "Chikumagawa Wine Academy" and Chikumagawa Wine Valley East District (Regional Wine Special Zone)
Reference: https://jw-arc.co.jp/about/initiative

Auberge connecting people with local culture

We envision a scene where wine is a part of everyday life.
In order to realize this desire, it is essential for wine to take root as part of the local culture.

Therefore, in 2022, we started the "Original Wine Program" in which participants spend one year growing grapes and brewing one bottle of wine by themselves under the guidance of Hayato Tomioka. A diverse group of people, from children to senior citizens, gather in the vineyards of Omakigahara to experience grape growing and wine making.

At the same time that wine is taking root as part of the local culture, there is a need for a place to explore the local food culture and to practice and express this. It is also essential to provide a place to offer experiences centered on dining that more closely connects people with the local climate and culture.
In order to embody this idea, we have decided to open an auberge on the grounds of Geo Hills Winery, with vineyards, rice paddies, buckwheat fields, and apple orchards spread out before our eyes, and have begun planning for its opening in the spring of 2025.

Wildflowers in the field. Grains, vegetables and fruits grown in the villages and on our own farms. Wild game, mushrooms, and wild vegetables from the mountains. Fish nurtured in clear streams.
In this region, these natural blessings and the local culinary culture of fermentation and preservation have been passed down from generation to generation.
At the Auberge restaurant, you will enjoy seasonal dishes reinterpreted and updated from these traditions, as well as wines produced in the region.

The Auberge will be a small two-story building that will look like a winemaker's home.
Its first floor is centered around a large table seating 12 people, a space with a generous atmosphere where children can enjoy their meals together.
We hope to provide a moment for guests to share the deliciousness connected with the climate and culture of the day by sharing a table together.
For this reason, dishes are served at the table and shared in the style of a table d'hôte. The chefs serve the food and drinks at an open counter while communicating with the customers, and the food is served in a space where the cooking area and the seating area are one. The restaurant plans to collaborate with local artists and designers in the creation of tableware, cutlery, and other furnishings.

For the dining experience, we will also actively utilize the gardens and Geo Hills fields adjacent to the auberge and winery.
As part of the dining experience, we will offer experiences that can be actively enjoyed and savored, such as walking and gathering nature's bounty in the fields of Geo Hills, experiencing the ingredients and soil in the vineyards and our own farm, and providing finger foods cooked over a wood fire by our own hands in the garden.
In addition, cooking will be done without electricity or gas, using wood from thinned forests, which is a recyclable energy source in the region, as the heat source, with a wood-fired grill and a copper pot (doko) that has been handed down in Nakadanasou for many years.

On the second floor is a simple guest room for only one couple with a view of Mt. Asama, the symbol of the area.
It is equipped with a bathroom with a starry sky view and a deck from which you can enjoy the expansive view from the Omakigahara, which stretches from the Northern Alps to the Yatsugatake Mountains.
Morning dew on grapes shines against the morning sun, ears of rice and buckwheat flowers sway in the wind, the setting sun reflects on the Mimaki Great Pond, and the wide night sky is full of stars.
By staying at this place, you can take your time to enjoy the beautiful scenery created by people's activities and nature, and feel the climate of Geo Hills, which means "windy hill," with your whole body.

Circulation of people, food, and energy

We are also actively involved in energy recycling.
We aim to eliminate food loss by using up all food ingredients without wasting them, and returning all food scraps to our own farms as compost.
We will work to develop products that upcycle the wine pumice left over from the winery's wine squeezing process and the wine leaves removed in the grape growing process.
We will also try to create a system that creates a cycle of people, food, and energy throughout the gardens and fields of Geo Hills through workshops that attempt to regenerate the subterranean environment, starting with the auberge and winery site.

We are looking for chefs who will explore the "deliciousness" that exists here with us!

We are looking for a chef who will play a central role in the launch of the auberge with us for the opening of the auberge in April 2025.

You will take the initiative in selecting and procuring diverse ingredients such as wild plants, organic vegetables, and gibier, devise daily culinary menus, and cook and serve them in front of customers while communicating with them.
You will perform such work in cooperation with Geo Hills Winery.
In addition to the vineyards, there are directly managed fields in the surrounding area, so we would like you to be actively involved in growing rice, vegetables, and herbs. We would also like to work with you to develop food products by upcycling wine pumice (grape pomace) and wine leaves.

We invite you to explore the "deliciousness" that can only be expressed here, and together, let's create a scene where wine is a part of our daily lives. We look forward to hearing from interested parties.

Naoki Tomioka, Representative Director, Nakatana Onsen Co.