Toru Takamatsu

The Path

Hospitality training often starts with repetition, and in Toru Takamatsu’s case it moved from counter service to floor rhythm to wine service. At the café section of the company until 2016, he worked as a barista, learning how drink service can reveal pace, attention, and guest reading in a single shift. Rockpool Bar and Grill Sydney, Australia (2016) put him into food runner service, where movement, timing, and control are part of the job. At Eleven Bridge Restaurant, the work shifted again as junior sommelier, bringing him closer to the language around wine and how it is handled in service. Those roles built a practical line of sight across flavour, front-of-house discipline, and the structure that supports both. Since 2020, Toru has been Apprentice Vigneron at Domaine Takahiko, and the progression reads as a move from serving wine to working closer to where it is made.

The Work Today

At Domaine Takahiko in Hokkaido, Japan, Toru Takamatsu works as an Apprentice Vigneron, with the emphasis now on vineyard-side decisions rather than dining-room presentation. The work sits with season, observation, and patience, and the scale changes from service choreography to the slower demands of the vine. It is a different end of the trade, but still hospitality in a broader sense: attention applied before the bottle leaves the ground. Toru describes the shift plainly: "I am having the best time of my life here."

Signature

Nana Tsu Mori is the wine focus tied to Toru Takamatsu’s current work. It marks where his attention has narrowed as he moves deeper into viticulture and wine, with earlier service experience informing how he approaches the bottle now. The focus is practical: less about the dining room as a point of delivery, more about origin, character, and the work that shapes both.

In Their Words “Using the same recipe, using the same ingredients, and it tastes different? That was very fascinating and that’s where I started to see a little bit more interest in flavour.” “I am having the best time of my life here.”

Recognition

Toru Takamatsu has received Court of Master Sommeliers, Master Sommelier (2019).