Nikka Yoichi single malt unaged

Bought this one at a big store for €30,-. It came without a box and it was the only one left, I even heard it has been discontinued!? Bottle has been opened for about a month and its at 2/3s now.

Nose: with a few drops of water and 5 minutes of patience it gets very fruity and sweet with apricot, red forest fruit, orange peel and baked apple. Its also quite spicy with sweet vanilla, cloves, cinnamon, resin and honey. Almost like a good rye whisky. It makes me think of Old Potrero a bit. There is some oak, heathery peat and subtle smoke in the distance, but they only seem to marry the spicy and fruity notes together. I get some sunflower and nutty scents as well; very nice nose on this one. Its like smelling a warm mixed fruit pie.

Palate: Slowly builds up to a crescendo of the flavors mentioned above but less sweet than I expected. Big flavors, still fruity but also more pronounced smoky- oaky- and nuttiness. Honey, sugarbread, bitter chocolate, tobacco and dark roast coffee. Its quite young and bold but very pronounced; the flavors are clear and bright. This kid is way ahead of its age.

Finish: warming, long finish with roasted nuts and charred oak and some fireplace smoke and ash. There is little left of the fruitiness, you are left with barley, oak and smoke. Lovely!

Compared to the ten year old Yoichi, this is like his little rebel brother who doesn't want to live by the distillery rules just yet. He wants to party and smoke and shoot some guns first before he has to fit in the Japanese establishment. What I like the most about it is that the peat is there all the time, but its never dominating or recognizable as a single note. It hides in the stewed fruit, roasted nuts, charred oak and heathery smoke. So its very different from Islay peat. Almost uncompareable. If Old Potrero would smoke their rye with Highland Park peat, they might get something like this.

Very good stuff!

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