About NORIA Wines
NORIA Wines is a Berkeley winery built on an idea you will not find anywhere else in California: every wine is made to pair with Japanese food.
Founded in 2010 by Tokyo-born winemaker Nori Nakamura, NORIA takes the balance of sake as its model and works with cool-climate growers such as the Sangiacomo family on the Sonoma Coast.
We're proud to carry NORIA's Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, both selected for ANA First Class, along with its limited Rosé.
Meet Nori Nakamura
Born and raised in Tokyo, Nori Nakamura grew up with beer and sake, not wine. His first "goosebump moment" came at 22, over a glass of aged Barbaresco in a Milan trattoria. Back home he worked in hotel sales by day and went to sommelier school at night.
In 1999 his hotel sent him to San Francisco. A friend took him to Napa, and one glass of California Chardonnay changed everything: he visited 170 wineries within a year, then enrolled at UC Davis, where he earned his degree in Viticulture and Enology in 2004.
He worked his way up from cellar rat to assistant winemaker at Artesa and head winemaker at Jamieson Ranch and Larson Family Winery, and in 2010 he started NORIA. The name is Spanish for waterwheel: the flow of water, and the turning cycle of tradition and innovation.
California Wine, Made for Japanese Food
"Just like Japanese cuisine, great wine is about harmony, never letting one element overpower the others," Nori says. He starts from the dish, then looks for the vineyard, the variety, and the clone that can deliver it.
The whites are modeled on sake, for structure and mouthfeel rather than taste. The Chardonnay, from the Sangiacomo family's Green Acres vineyard, follows Junmai-Ginjo: rich, yet clean. The Pinot Noir, from Sangiacomo Roberts Road in the Petaluma Gap, is bottled unfined and unfiltered: sensual and transparent. Both were selected for ANA First Class.
The Rosé, made from 100% Pinot Noir, began as a gift to Nori's mother and remains a limited production.
IN THE PRESS
A Timeline from a Tokyo Sommelier to ANA First Class
NORIA's story runs from a long family table in Tokyo to an urban winery in Berkeley: a hotel man who fell for California wine, went back to school, and spent years in other people's cellars before making his own.
The timeline traces how a first vintage of 300 cases grew into the wine poured in ANA First Class.
