Published by Jeremy.
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When we visited Japan in early 2026, I made sure to reserve some luggage room to bring home some unique Japanese varietals. One such grape was Ryugan, often called Zenkoji-shu due to its cultivation near the Zenoji Temple in Nagano. While distinctly different from a similar Japanese white grape, Koshu, which we also tried, they share many similarities.
So if you're wanting a delicate Japanese wine that had subtle hints of sake, don't overlook Musee du Vin's Ryugan- but just be sure to pair it with an equally delicate meal!
Delicate Japanese Wine – Ryugan
This Japanese Ryugan was pale lemon in color, but if we were to be honest, it had almost no pigmentation whatsoever, so in this one very rare instance I really just want to call it clear.
It had light aromas of peach, lemon, yellow apple, white blossom, elderflower, candied peach, and a slight umami note that was reminiscent of a sake.
On the palate, this wine was dry with high acidity, medium alcohol, body, and flavor intensity plus a medium(-) finish. We had notes a lot like the nose like lemon, lime, pear, green apple, wet stone, peach, nectarine, a bitter pith (trending to that sake note mentioned above), and grass.
When tasting this wine, the word delicate seemed to repeat itself again, and again, and again, and while this is often a negative for a lot of wines, as we particularly like intensity, in this bottle of wine it somehow worked and was a nice, albeit quite light, wine all around.
Ryugan Food Pairing – Salmon Nabe with Broccolini
We cracked this Japanese Ryugan open to enjoy with a dish made in our donabe- salmon nabe with a side of broccolini in a Japanese hollandaise sauce as we thought the dish was going to be fairly light in the flavor department and would not overwhelm such a delicate wine.
The salmon nabe had many vegetables and mushrooms in a light broth that helped highlight more of the delicate fruit notes as well as the bitter/earthy sake-like notes ever-so-slightly, while the broccolini dish highlighted more citrus and saline notes in the wine as well. Thankfully, the flavors of this meal were not terribly intense, and the wine worked quite well with it all the same.
Score: 3.5 / 5
We'd buy a glass of this one and another bottle with the right pairing.
In a way, this Ryugan often goes against all of the things we traditionally look for in wine. Where we like intensity and complex flavors, this one is more integrated, refined, and delicate while somehow working beautifully. For that, we'd take a glass, or a bottle if we could ensure a good food pairing like this one.
Musee du Vin appears to be located in Nagano, Japan. We purchased this bottle in Japan and enjoyed it in 2026.
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