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House Style
Stunning big bodied, oily and lightly peated Highland style single malt. Age brings plenty of sherry power.
Did You Know?
-The Yoichi distillery is on the same latitude as Toronto, the middle of New York State and Vladivostok!
-The distillery still heats its pot stills with finely powdered natural coal – a traditional method rarely used today.
-The first single malt from Yoichi, Hokkaido 12 Years Old, was released in 1984.
A little bit about the distillery…
The Yoichi distillery is one of Japan's most prestigious, and certainly a flagship for Nikka – one of the two top dogs in Japanese whisky. It was founded in 1934 by the "whisky pilgrim" Masataka Taketsuru and is, today, one of the best-loved distilleries amongst connoisseurs and whisky drinkers.
It all started in 1918, when Taketsuru journeyed to Glasgow to study distillation at a number of classic Scotch distilleries including Hazelburn. When he returned to Japan he established the Nikka brand and built the Yoichi distillery.
In a similar fashion to most Japanese distilleries, Yoichi is a stunning affair and quite possibly the most beautiful in the country. Built in Hokkaido, it is bordered on three sides by a dramatic mountain range and on one side by the sea. The climate and terroir are as close as Taketsuru could find to that of Scotland and the area even has a decent supply of peat!
Yoichi stands out for impeccable use of top quality oak. The distillery is one of the biggest proponents of the use of Japanese (Mizunara) oak – a more costly wood that is a great deal more porous than American or French oak and can leak very easily. Because of this it is only used partially during the ageing process, though nonetheless it imparts a fantastic flavour into the whisky. The diligent efforts employed by Yoichi have helped its whisky to rise into the mainstream. 2008 saw a veritable coup d'état when the exceptional Yoichi 20 year old won the heralded title of "Best Single Malt" at the World Whiskies Awards. Japanese whisky had officially beaten Scotch, seeing a new dawn on the world whisky scene.
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