This is a great 17 year old blended malt named for Nikka's founder, the whisky-pilgrim Masataka Taketsuru.
This bottle was part of a private collection - if you'd like more detailed photos just get in touch!
Fresh and fruity with fruit salad, berries, sultanas and some other dried fruit, vanilla, fragrant wood and honey.
Spicy and rounded with vanilla, blood orange and a little chocolate.
Medium-length, slightly bittersweet, oak, fruit and cocoa.
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Insane good!!
One of the best, can't wait for the 21 Year Old ;)
I am really struggling to think of a Scotch malt whisky that balances the sherried elements with the smoky as pleasingly as this does. Admittedly 17 yrs is very old by Japanese standards but even 30 year old Islays that I've tasted are either too heavy on phenol (Bowmore, Ardbeg, Laphroig...) or too light on smoke (Bunnahabhain). I've had a few mildly smokey Bunnas but to reach this level of complexity and smoothness, they have to be very old (39 yrs Cadenheads single cask) and therefore very expensive. Ditto the Scappas and HPs. Bruichladdich pulled it off with the Black Arts 4.1, though that was very light on the smoke. Older Arrans can be very good but sherried expressions are very rare. Hats off to Nikka therefore for a perfectly balanced (imo) rich, mildly smokey, slightly floral, honeyish, chocolatey malt. Shame it's so darned expensive here in Europe but I'll surely be stocking up on this one.
OMG, i can't believe how delicious this whisky is. the slight kick at the end was a surprise as i expected it to be smoother but then again, it went so well that the little kick at the end just made it seem exotic. i need to stock up on this.
My bottle had a face and mouth full of acetone. Adding some water helped this, but then the fact that it was too long in the wood really shone through. The wisps of smoke were nice, though. But at best there is a consistency issue with this whisky.
