For those of you that aren’t familiar with Japanese Whisky, when we were first introduced to it, affordable and accessible were the names of the game…

Yamazaki 12 and 18,
Hakushu 10,
Hibiki 12, 17, and 21,
Nikka Whisky from the Barrel,
Nikka Yoichi 10, etc etc.

In under 10 years, that all changed. The whiskies listed above are both elusive and wildly expensive. So what do you do when you can’t find the special whisky that you grew to love? Easy. Find something else!

This bottle of Nikka’s NAS (no age statement) Yoichi was a stumbled-upon whisky, i.e. one of those bottles that you see on a shelf in your favorite whisky shop and just HAVE TO BUY.

Before we get to the review, here’s what the Nikka Distillery has to say about this whisky:

Yoichi Single Malt is a range of single malt expressions from the Yoichi Distillery, Nikka’s first distillery built in 1934. The founder Masataka Taketsuru chose the town of Yoichi in Hokkaido because of the similar environmental conditions to Scotland, where he learned whisky-making.

Yoichi malts are described as bold and strong with refined peaty notes and smokiness brought by the traditional direct coal-fired distillation. Sea breeze from the Ishikari Bay delivers a briny hint to the whisky during maturation.

This no-age-statement version was released in 2016 as a permanent product that truly captures the authentic style of Yoichi malts, when all age-statements were discontinued. Vatting various different malt whiskies together, this bottling expresses a delicate balance between peaty, smoky and fruity aromas.

We’ve been lucky enough to try many a Nikka expression over the years and have always been impressed with what they bring to the table. Click play on the following video to find out if this Yoichi expression is worthy to bear the Nikka name:

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