Miyagikyo Sherry & Sweet

I received this as a gift and can only say I am eternally grateful. Smooth at the front of the mouth and a long and full finish that tells a story that lingers and lingers inviting you to the next chapter, and the next.

14th November 2019

Part of a three bottle key expression series - or six bottle, if you add the other three Yoichi releases in - this was originally only sold at the distillery. As far as I know, it's now a core expression, though likely still relatively rare. The first and most obvious thing to know is that you have to like heavily sherried whiskies. It's an NAS blend of multiple sherried casks, and the variance comes through. There are the usual sweet sherry notes - plums, raisins, cherries - and an interplay with rougher, bitter cherry notes, and a dryness and sourness that I love. The specifically Japanese art is marrying these, and - in my experience - each is allowed to appear, but none to dominate. It's punchy, in that sense, rather than syrupy and pandering as so many sherried whiskies can be. Bitter-sweet, and ultimately strangely elegant, with the high ABV holding it together, rather than riding roughshod. The alcohol is so well integrated, in fact, that you really don't notice it until late in the bottle, and then only with a bleary regret at the little spirit that's left. Water rounds it out, and opens it up, though it's equally accessible with or without. Best served with: the Malty and Soft companion expression in the same range, for an extraordinary contrast that is equally complex but wholly different.

12th November 2018