Nikka Whisky from the Barrel - Review
- Oct 4, 2017
- 3 min read
Age: No age statement
Barrel type: Mixed - likely some sherry casks
Region: Japan
ABV: 51.4%
Price: $45 for 500 ml
Additional details: Non-chill filtered, natural color
Nikka is the oldest whisky company in Japan, founded by a Scotophile (or perhaps Hebridophile would be another term for it?) named Masataka Taketsuru who spent years in Scotland learning how to distill whisky in the distinctive Scottish style. With the knowledge he brought back to Japan, Taketsuru founded a series of distilleries that now produce the closest thing to scotch that a person can find outside of Scotland.
Nikka Whisky from the Barrel is a blended whisky available only outside of the United States. We happened to pick it up about a year ago, on vacation, and were amazed by the quality. If this whisky made it to the U.S., it'd probably sell like hotcakes, supplies would dwindle, and then we'd have to pay $100 for a bottle soon enough. So, in a strange way, I suppose I'm rooting for this to remain unavailable stateside.
Appearance: Nikka Whisky from the Barrel has one of the most distinctive bottles in the current market, a short, rectangular, squat jug that looks more like a mid-century screw-top than a contemporary, corked whisky bottle. The text is a mix of Japanese, French, and English. My current bottle contains only a few tidbits of information in English, including the fact that this whisky is "double matured." I presume that means that, like almost all blends, the components age in different types of casks before being "married" in a first-fill ex-bourbon cask for blending.
In the glass, Nikka presents like a sherry-aged scotch, similar to Macallan 12. It has a rusty, caramel hue, although not as dark as a cask strength Aberlour A'bunadh.
Nose: What a rush of flavors right off the bat. I have to believe there are a lot of fortified wine casks in this blend: sherry, moscato, port, and plum wine all jump out of the glass. The heavy, rich fruit flavors of raisins, apricots, and plums combine with a bloom of smoke and heat to form a first-rate nose.
Palate: The flavors carry through from the nose, with luxurious fortified wines and their attendant fruit notes swirling around the tongue, which lights up with a spice cabinet. It's the nose all over again, with less smoke and more spice. There isn't much nuttiness or bitterness at all, so this falls squarely in the rich-fruity-spicy end of the spectrum.
Finish: Nikka Whisky from the Barrel has a long, warm, lingering, and spicy finish. This is one of the best whiskies I've found for cigar-pairing, as the higher ABV and robust flavors hold up well even with a full-bodied cigar. The length of the finish contributes to that effect, as short-finish whiskies almost feel like water when smoking.
Value for Money and Final Impressions: With the smaller size of the bottle taken into consideration, this is not a cheap blend, probably equivalent in price to Johnnie Walker Green Label (about $60 per 750 ml). It's worth every cent. I don't think it's necessarily easy to distinguish between blends and single malts, and it's whiskies like this one that make it even harder. Nikka Whisky from the Barrel measures up to just about any sherry-aged scotch that I've had, along with highly-rated Japanese single malts like Yamazaki Distiller's Reserve.
Pick this up in any duty-free shop you see.
Rating: B+
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