Ojisan; Marrying Japanese Precision With Kiwi Ingenuity

If you google ‘winery’ or ‘vineyard’, you’re likely to be inundated with picturesque French Châteaux and rolling Tuscan hillsides. A couple of scrolls might take you to the glitzy cellar doors of Napa Valley. You might even get some staged stock images of a bottle on a barrel. 

What’s not likely to appear at the top of the page would be the figures of two men bowing at one another, but it’s the image that introduces our newest line of incredible wines from Ojisan and wraps up a whole bunch of really interesting flavours, philosophies and cultures. 

It’s not a quintessential ‘wine’ image, but it couldn’t be more perfect and is a brilliant ode to the friendships forged in the vineyard.

Ojisan is a new collaborative wine project by Alex Craighead here in Aotearoa New Zealand and Kazuomi Fujimaki of Japan.

They’re creating a range of natural wines – Blanc, Rosé & Rouge – from vineyards in Nelson, mainly from Alex’s property and some lease blocks, with the balance being brought in.

Alex Craighead and Kazuomi Fujimaki are not strangers to working together, despite the ocean between them, but in order to outline how they work together, let’s take a look at their individual journeys first…

Alex Craighead is a winemaker based in Nelson. Born in Australia but raised in New Zealand, he studied wine at Lincoln University before working across a wide range of wine regions around the world. 

Alex’s partner – Josefina Venturino – is a landscape architect from Argentina and thus brings a deep sensitivity to land, form and place. Together, they were always drawn to low intervention wines and winemaking, but there wasn’t a lot on offer in New Zealand, so they began to experiment with zero sulphur wines in 2013. 

In 2014 they released their first wines in Martinborough before they moved to Nelson in 2016, where they bought an existing organic winery and vineyard.

They became well known for their Kindeli line of wines – which were enjoyed both domestically and internationally. The Kindeli project is taking a backseat to Ojisan now, but the name carries a lot of weight and offers great insight into their established signature style and how Alex’s creations are keenly received.

Alex also makes a bit of wine in Catalunya and Japan each year. It was in Spain that he was first exposed to what he calls ‘the no-sulphur crowd’ lovingly referring to them as ‘mad’.

Kazuomi Fujimaki is one of the founders of Grape Republic in Japan, alongside Takayuki Taira. 

Kazuomi spent many years as a restaurateur and sommelier in Tokyo, Osaka and Yokohama. He is credited by some as being “a pioneer who popularized the concept of “wine pairing” in Japan,” and is incredibly well respected in the hospitality sector. 

In 2014, Kazuomi took a leap of faith, leaving Tokyo to try his hand at winemaking in the Yamagata Prefecture, where he cleared some abandoned farmland in Nanyō City to plant a vineyard and started KAZU wines. 

“With no prior experience in wine production, he established three simple rules for himself,” Barberry Garden explains, “The vineyards must be cultivated organically, no additives such as sulfur are to be used during the winemaking process, and the wines must at some point undergo amphora fermentation or ageing.”

He started to grow the grapes in 2015, starting with Delaware, a table grape variety famous in this region, before officially launching Grape Republic in 2017 alongside Takayuki Taira, who hailed from Yamagata Prefecture and had a particular passion for the lands.

In 2019 and 2020, they also planted more classic Vitis vinifera varieties (including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, Gamay Noir, Albariño, and Sauvignon Blanc).

In 2016, shortly after he planted his first vines, Kazuomi travelled to New Zealand to get some winemaking training and met Alex. They formed a quick bond and shared a love for natural and innovative styles.

Alex helped with the fledgling stages of setting up Grape Republic, and mentoring the younger winemakers that came through their doors. 

The wines that they made together have been dubbed ‘Ojisan.’ The term “Ojisan” is an informal, affectionate Japanese term for an uncle or middle-age man. It’s a bit of a cheeky reference that Alex and his Japanese colleagues toss around as a way to honour one another’s skills whilst teasing each other about their age. 

The labels were designed by artist Celina Hilbert, and depict Kazuomi and Alex bowing at one another, over a deep root system spelling out Ojisan.

The Ojisan line of wines, while incorporating a lot of Japanese influence and kinship, are kiwi wines through and through. Most of the grapes come from Alex Craighead’s property and some lease blocks, with the balance being brought in.

The Alex Craighead Wines website is modest and to the point, emphasizing these organic vineyards are small but diverse and grown upon Moutere clay, but if you do some digging you can find some incredible accounts from those who’ve spent time in the winery.

When a representative of Juice Imports in Alberta visited, he wrote about his experiences and went into depth about their practices, rounding out some more intimate details;

“They farm organically and opt for using sulphur, seaweed, compost, bat guano, and copper (only when absolutely necessary) to maintain the health of their vines. Between the rows you’ll find a stand of local trees, a small creek, and plenty of wild cover-crops. Plants like clover help restore nitrogen to the soil.

In the spring before veraison, the neighbour lets his flock of sheep into the vineyard; they mow the grass and eat all the leaves and shoots around the young, green grape clusters. As the grapes are extremely high in acid and low and sugar at this point, the fruit is unappetizing to the sheep. This opens up the canopy, allowing for better airflow and reduced chance of rot. It also manages vigour and brings composters directly into the vineyard. Alex and his parents also raise a small herd of cows, further adding to the biodiversity.”

The team is really proud of their organic certification – it’s been certified organic through BioGro New Zealand since 1998 — one of the longest continually certified organic properties in the country. 

The vines share the land with orchards, grazing cattle and native bush. It is a mixed family property where each part supports the others, and where the wine is one outcome of a larger way of farming.