# An American Winemaker's 35-Year Journey Helping To Shape Japanese Wine Culture Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/japan-eats-1057505/an-american-winemaker-s-35-year-journey-helping-to-shape-japanese-wine-culture Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/japan-eats-1057505/an-american-winemaker-s-35-year-journey-helping-to-shape-japanese-wine-culture.md Podcast: [Japan Eats!](https://stenobird.com/podcast/japan-eats-1057505) Published: 2025-11-13T05:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://rss.art19.com/episodes/5775b514-7eaa-468d-b96a-f2fc4710ffef.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0 Audio file: https://rss.art19.com/episodes/5775b514-7eaa-468d-b96a-f2fc4710ffef.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/japan-eats-1057505/episodes/an-american-winemaker-s-35-year-journey-helping-to-shape-japanese-wine-culture Duration seconds: 4169 ## Resource Our guest is Bruce Gutlove, who is an American-born winemaker based in Hokkaido, Japan.   The Japanese wine industry has been flourishing, particularly in the last two decades or so, thanks to the rapid increase in talented winemakers who are willing to conquer the challenges of the country’s unique terroir.    Bruce has greatly contributed to shaping the modern Japanese wine-making culture.  Since 1989, he has worked in vineyards and wineries in Japan to bring out the potential of the Japanese climate and soil.  Most notably, he led the COCO Farm & Winery  https://cocowine.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/cocofaw-pr-eng.pdf  in Tochigi Prefecture, which is owned and operated by people with intellectual disabilities, to become an award-winning wine producer.    Now, as the owner of 10R Winery  https://www.10rwinery.jp/  in Hokkaido, he keeps fostering successful winemakers and helps solidify Japan’s unique wine industry.    In this episode, we will discuss how Bruce got involved in wine consulting in Japan when the industry just about to start developing, the uniqueness of the wine-making environment in Japan, the exciting grape varieties that make Japanese wine stand out in the global market, Bruce’s personal observation of Japan and why he has spent over 35 years in the country and much, much more!!!   See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info . ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/japan-eats-1057505/episodes/an-american-winemaker-s-35-year-journey-helping-to-shape-japanese-wine-culture/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/japan-eats-1057505/an-american-winemaker-s-35-year-journey-helping-to-shape-japanese-wine-culture.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.