ZoomMuscat Bailey A2023
Domaine TettaNiimi, Okayama, Japan
Muscat Bailey A was bred in 1927 by Zenbei Kawakami of Niigata Prefecture, by crossing the American variety Bailey with the European variety Muscat Hamburg.
About this wine
Muscat Bailey A is the workhorse Japanese black grape, but at Domaine Tetta it receives the full estate treatment. The vines — 6.5 hectares on a limestone karst plateau at 400 to 600 meters in Niimi, Okayama — trace back to 2009, when owner Ryuta Takahashi founded Tetta with the explicit goal of regenerating abandoned farmland through wine. The Domaine Tetta winery itself was completed in 2016. The winemaking follows the same philosophy: a gravity-flow cellar, native-yeast fermentation, no added sugar or acid, and aging in former limestone mining tunnels held year-round at 12 to 15°C and 80% humidity. Grapes are hand-picked, extraction is restrained, and the wine finishes at 12% alcohol. The result is a precise, place-driven take on a grape better known for cheap supermarket bottlings: elegant and red-fruited, with cinnamon and caramel notes from the oak, light-bodied and long on the finish.
Tasting Notes
A deep ruby color, with fresh, sweet-tart aromas of raspberry, blackcurrant, and jammy fruit, layered with barrel-derived notes of cinnamon and caramel. The palate is dry, though the nose lends an impression of subtle sweetness. Firm acidity and gentle tannins make for an easy-drinking wine that doesn't tire the palate. The finish is long, with elegant fruit filling the mouth.
Vinification
Grapes are destemmed but not crushed. Because Muscat Bailey A's berries are firm-skinned, a stem-free, carbonic-maceration-like environment develops in the tank, beginning intracellular fermentation. Fermentation is carried out with wild yeast in stainless steel tank, with punch-downs (pigeage) performed three times a day. The wine is then aged for six months in used 225-liter French oak barrels. No fining is used, and it is only lightly filtered through a coarse filter to preserve its character.
Vineyard & Farming
Grapes are grown on Domaine Tetta's 6.5-hectare vineyard, sited on a southwest-facing slope at 400 meters elevation. The soil is clay-rich and iron-bearing, derived from 300-million-year-old limestone bedrock, and valley winds naturally reduce disease pressure. No herbicides or chemical fertilizers are used, with spraying kept to the necessary minimum.
From the Winery
Muscat Bailey A is one of the oldest-vine plantings at Tetta, and making wine from it has been a continual process of trial and error. Now in our fourth year of this approach, we feel we've finally begun to express a natural, clean MBA — one that doesn't lean into the strawberry-candy and cotton-candy aromas the variety is known for, but instead shows an elegant, refined character.