Only in Hokkaido: The World's Youngest-Ever Master Sommelier is Part of the New World of Wine

Not content with his extraordinary achievement, he left Sydney for a small town in Hokkaido to learn how to make his own wine.

It was a single bottle that changed Toru Takamatsu's life. On a night out with friends, the Australian-born man ordered a Japanese wine produced on a small vineyard in Hokkaido. "It was like nothing I had tasted before," the 30-year-old recalls of what would prove to be a fateful encounter. Now a sommelier, the amazement that Toru felt when he tasted the bottle of "Nana Tsu Mori" from Domaine Takahiko in 2017 never left him. 

Three years later, in 2020, Toru arrived at that very vineyard in Hokkaido, planning to learn how to make his own wine. Moreover, it was not the first time the wine expert took on a challenge that only a few would dare to attempt.

The Youngest Master Sommelier

Toru had surprised the world of wine and fine dining before. In 2019, at age 24, he passed the toughest exam in the wine industry to become the world's youngest Master Sommelier (MS). It is the highest rank for a sommelier, a wine professional who usually works in an upmarket restaurant selecting wines and explaining their taste to guests. 

The exam is notoriously difficult. Worldwide, less than 300 sommeliers have earned the title since the exam was introduced in 1969. With a pass rate of less than five percent, it normally takes more than a decade to even pass all the necessary pre-qualifications to be considered to sit the final test. 

The exam is by invitation only. Toru managed to do all of this in just three years. He likes to downplay his extraordinary achievement. "I like to learn about wine and to have a goal as well," he explains. "And when they say it is one of the hardest exams, you always want to challenge it."

The World of Wine

The world of wine can be intimidatingly glitzy, full of wealthy people, old money, iconic vineyards, and collectors with distinguished careers. Toru admits that he found the world a bit daunting at first, but soon eased into it. "The more knowledge you have, the more comfortable you get with customers." 

Toru grew up surrounded by food. Born in Sydney as the son of a Japanese chef, he started working as a barista making coffee at 15. From there, he found his way into his real passion. "I soon fell in love with wine," he says. 

Wanting to learn more about wine, he sent his resume to restaurants in Sydney. He started as a food runner, assisting waiters with food orders. Only six months later, he was offered a position as a junior sommelier. 

With quiet persistence, Toru studied the ins and outs of wine: regions, flavors, grape varieties, climates, soils, and production techniques. He also spent thousands of dollars buying and tasting wine to train his taste buds to detect subtle flavors that less experienced people usually miss. "All my salary goes to wine," he remarks casually.

From Sydney to London

To better prepare for his Master Sommelier exam, he moved to London to work as a sommelier there. "I felt that Sydney was great, but I needed a different experience." His methodological approach paid off. He was invited to take the Master Sommelier exam in 2018 but failed the most notorious part: the blind tasting, where students have to identify the vintage, year, and region of six wines. Undeterred, he retook the exam the next year and passed.

Returning to Sydney in 2019 with his newly earned title, his career path was about to change again. In early 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out and restaurants and wine bars closed, Toru suddenly found himself at home, wondering if it was time to embrace a new start. 

Thinking about his future, he considered studying more about winemaking and perhaps working on a wine farm for a couple of weeks. When it came to picking a location, he remembered the wine from Domaine Takahiko that he had tasted three years earlier. "It had a complex, distinctive flavor, very savory, a bit like mushrooms and aged burgundy." If he was to make his own wine, he wanted it to be similar. 

Toru called up Domaine Takahiko in the town of Yoichi in Hokkaido. The owner, Takahiko Soga, did not mince words. If Toru wanted to become his apprentice, he needed to commit to working on his farm for two years and then open his own winery in Yoichi. "I thought about it for three days," explains Toru. Then he made a decision. In October 2020, Toru left Australia for Yoichi in Northern Japan.

Life in Yoichi

Yoichi is a small coastal town on the Sea of Japan, situated between the Shakotan Peninsula and the city of Otaru. It is a rural, quiet place with fewer than 20,000 residents. Travelers usually come here to see the Nikka whiskey distillery or visit the town's apple farms. 

The contrast to Sydney or London could hardly be greater, but Toru did not mind. "The place for me is only a place. I am happy anywhere, as long as I can focus on my job," he says, pointing out that the town is actively welcoming outsiders. 

It certainly helps that the town's mayor, Keisuke Saito, happens to love wine. Saito, who previously worked as a diplomat for the Japanese foreign ministry in Russia and other places, is now using his international experience to put Hokkaido on the world map of winemaking regions. Wine grapes have been cultivated in the town of Yoichi since the 1970s, but only in the last 15 years has the promotion of its wine industry begun in earnest. "In 2010, there were two wineries here. Now we have 26," says Toru.

Winemakers of Varied Origins

Most winemakers in Yoichi come from outside of Hokkaido. Takahiko Soga, the owner of Domaine Takahiko, was born into a winemaking family in Nagano Prefecture. Soga's wine apprentices, who are working in his vineyard, hail from outside as well. Working alongside Toru is a former snowboard instructor and a sound system engineer. Only one of the four aspiring winemakers under Soga's wing has a background in agriculture. He grew up on a farm. While farm work is often perceived as monotonous and taxing, Toru praises the laid-back atmosphere at Domaine Takahiko.

"Work-wise, it is much healthier than what I used to do," he explains. Instead of working 60 or 70 hours a week in a restaurant, he says, he is now down to a 40-hour week. "And if it rains, we have a day off."

After four years of working as an intern at Domaine Takahiko, Toru is still not ready to move on. "I feel I need to learn a little bit more," he says, adding that wine is only made once a year. Also, each year is a bit different in terms of weather and other factors that influence winemaking. It will be at least another year before Toru starts his own winery in Yoichi. 

The town of Yoichi provides financial and practical help for winery startups. Winemakers can get a basic income to tide them over for the first three years. "It is very helpful for people who are coming here to start in agriculture," Toru stresses.

Japan's Wine Identity

Toru firmly believes that Japanese wine has a lot of potential, particularly wines from Hokkaido. "They are very unique in terms of flavor compared to other wine regions," he explains. It is the softness and the pleasant, savory taste of the wines that make them special – the result of the abundant rainfall, a cold climate, and the volcanic soils of the region, Toru explains. 

For his own wine, he plans to stay very close to the philosophy of Domaine Takahiko. That is, be a small, family-run vineyard with a small output of high-quality wines. Toru is certainly looking forward to one of the upsides of running a wine farm. "If you make your own wine, you can drink your own wine every day," he says with a smile.

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By Agnes Tandler and Arielle Busetto