Coco Farm & Winery

Coco Farm & Winery (有限会社ココ・ファーム・ワイナリー) is a Japanese winery headquartered in Tajima-cho, Ashikaga, Tochigi. The vineyard on the mountain slope was first opened in 1958 by Kawada Noboru, a special-class teacher, together with his students; in 1969 Kokoromi Gakuen, a facility for people with intellectual disabilities, was established at the foot of that vineyard. Because a social welfare corporation could not obtain a fruit wine manufacturing licence, a limited company, Coco Farm & Winery, was founded in February 1980 by supporters of Kawada Noboru's ideas, and it received the fruit wine manufacturing licence in 1984, starting winemaking that autumn. The company describes itself as a company created so that people with intellectual disabilities and everyone else can thrive.

In 1958 a vineyard was created on a mountain in Tajima-cho, Ashikaga, Tochigi; Kawada Noboru, a teacher of a junior high school special class, and the children of that class led the work, reclaiming three hectares of a steep 38-degree slope over two years. In 1961 Muscat Bailey A, the oldest surviving vine age, was planted in Kokoromi Gakuen's Maruroku vineyard. In 1969 a 30-person facility was completed and named Kokoromi Gakuen, licensed in November as a rehabilitation facility for adults with intellectual disabilities and opened on 14 November, with 30 residents and 9 staff, aiming at residents' physical and mental health through farm work centred on grapes and shiitake. In February 1980, with investment from parents and others who supported Kokoromi Gakuen's thinking, the limited company Coco Farm & Winery was established. In April 1984 the company received winemaking approval and began making wine from autumn, producing and selling out 12,000 bottles; the first harvest festival was held in November. In 1989 five hectares of vineyard were secured in Sonoma, California, with residents and staff doing the field work and planting and helping with the harvest. In 1994 Furusawa Iwao became a director; in 1999 Bruce Gutlove became a director. In 2000 the sparkling wine '1996 NOVO demi-sec' was used at the banquet at Shuri Castle for the Kyushu-Okinawa Summit, and thereafter adopted for dinners and lunches at international conferences. In 2003 Coco Farm Cafe opened. In 2013 '2012 Ashikaga Kokoko Wain' was adopted in the JAL international first class lounge, and thereafter served on international flights, in lounges and on trains. In 2018 a gathering of thanks was held to mark 60 years since the vineyard was first reclaimed.

A winery created so that people with intellectual disabilities and everyone else can thrive, making wine from vineyards cultivated together with Kokoromi Gakuen.

• 1996 NOVO demi-sec sparkling wine

• 2012 Ashikaga Kokoko Wain

1. 1COCOFARM＆WINERYcocowine.com
2. 2こころみ学園とココ・ファーム・ワイナリーの年表 – COCOFARM＆WINERYcocowine.com
3. 3会社概要 – COCOFARM＆WINERYcocowine.com