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Another one of the neat Nikka special releases under the Discovery line. This time they've played around with yeast and all the fun fermenty things that have whisky geeks lit up like little kids at Christmas time.
Don't forget a) that Yoichi is the peaty one and b) you should definitely check the sister Miyagikyo bottling as well.
48% abv
700ml mlProducer Tasting Note
Nose: Fine, distinguished. On the first nose, a herbaceous, salty and empyreumatic (sleet) peat clearly dominates. Allowed to breathe, it makes way for fruits (apple, pear, Canary melon), flowers (lily, carnation) and mint, all of which bring lots of momentum to the aroma palette. Gradually, it becomes increasingly milky (cream, coconut), exotic (pineapple, yellow kiwi) and medicinal (ointment, Arnica).
Palate: Firm, lively. Giving its own take on the herbaceous, salty and empyreumatic register of the first nose, the attack also evokes a field of barley swept with sea spray. The more earthy and rooted mid-palate pours blocks of peat onto the tongue. The floral (tulip, cyclamen) and fruity (Mirabelle plum, greengage plum) end of the palate is also rustic and marine.
Finish: Long, crisp. Unexpectedly, the start of the finish invites us to bite joyfully into whole bunches of white grapes. Flavours of plum and pulp bring lots of smoothness to the end of the palate. On the retro-nasal olfaction, evoking an evanescent peat, a fine layer of liquorice delicately coats the taste buds. The empty glass releases wisps of translucent smoke.
Whiskyfun Tasting Note (Serge)
Too late, I've read the description again, this time it's a story about yeast generating Ginjo sake-like aromas. Incidentally, I love sake… Colour: light gold. Nose: the Miyagikyo (Aromatic Yeast) was rounder, cleaner and leaner, this one's more fermentary indeed, with a pretty unusual combination that would blend smoked fish, menthol, those peaches again, and indeed sake and shochu. The menthol wins it in the end and brings eucalyptus along. Mouth: some would call it Ardmorian, perhaps. Very grassy, with some peach leaves (can't seem to get peaches out of my head) and a little rubber, plus that peat smoke, and some vegetal earth, mushrooms, some mustard, dry Madeira… Some Ardmore indeed, but also Fettercairn or Glenturret. Some action in there. Finish: longer than the Miyagikyo's, smokier 'of course, spicier, peppery, mustardy. Some smoky liquorice in the aftertaste, as well as a little salt and mint this time again. Comments: excellent, less civilised, more tertiary than its brother – or do we say its sister.
86 points.
$949.99
From the Miyashita Sake Brewery, which has been producing a very limited amount of single malt whisky since 2011, comes this mysterious little gem. Matured for 3 years and 9 months in a cask tricked out with Japanese cedar heads, it would seem. Cedar? We're beyond intrigued. This wouldn't fly in Scotland, of course, but Japan is a bit more 'Wild West' (Wild East?) when it comes to their regulations. A high price point, for sure, but is there anything like this out there? This release was from Cask No. 1514, and it is bonified made in Japan single malt whisky.
Natural colour, non-chill filtered, and bottled at 60% abv.
Miyashita Shuzo has been brewing sake since 1915. In 1994 they started brewing beer, becoming one of the pioneers of craft brewing in Japan. They began experimenting with distillation in 2003, putting their hoppy beer through a shochu still. After being granted a license to produce malt whisky in 2011, they began distilling single malt whisky. Since 2015 this has been done in a hybrid copper pot sill.
