Nikka Miyagikyo No Age Statement 43%
Tasted: Sept 2015
Full and floral on the nose with more sherry influence than the Yoichi. Hints of dried plum, raspberry, banana, earthy peat and leather follow. Gently spiced digestive biscuit and almost wheat flake notes appear with hints of tar, treacle, chicory and a touch of salt.
Full with sweet treacle toffee to begin with on the palate. Like Yoichi it is quite heavy on the oak but the sherry influence is subtler. It really opens on the middle with the almond, walnut, dried exotic fruit, cocoa and subtle peat coming through. Long and unctuous with the sherried notes lingering along with a touch of dark coffee/ chocolate.
Nikka Miyagikyo Single Malt 45%
2016 Release
Tasted: May 2016
Young and crisp aromas of barley with hints of coffee and sherried dried fruit. Relatively straightforward, but elegant with perfumed, floral white fruit, spiced orange and with time vanilla. Subtly smoked with late cocoa powder note.
The palate is fairly light, nutty and again young and straightforward with hints of barley and gentle treacle, sherried dried fruit and burnt sugar. Pleasant smoky and spicy finish with a good citric intensity and lingering vanilla, cocoa and subtle peat smoke. Pleasant but is it really worth the price tag?
Nikka Miyagikyo 10 year old 45%
Bottling Code: 06J04A/ Tasted: Nov 2010
A touch high toned to begin with but this is followed by waves of lovely dried fruit, orange conserve and hints of gooseberry(?) and greengage(?). It has a gorgeous freshness to the sherry with plenty of coffee-spice notes.
The palate is soft and gentle with a lovely complexity of dried fruit – sultana, raisin, figs and cinnamon which moves into a malty liquorice middle. Superbly fresh with a lifting peat smoke note on the finish. Really complex on the palate with a pure coal scuttle finish. It seems a lot peatier and the quality is a lot better than when I last tasted it.
Nikka Miyagikyou 12 year old 45 %
Tasted: Sept 2008
A lovely, clean and rich nose of earthy orange fruit, honey, along with dark fruit, liquorice, chocolate and a faint whiff of smoke. A very polished and classy nose with the creamy oak becoming more prevalent over time. The palate mirrors the nose, until the spices explode onto the mid palate. Absolutely amazing stuff! As that spice bomb begins to recede the wonderful creamy oak comes through and tails off with a woody-spice finish.
Nikka Miyagikyo 12 year old
Btl Code: 16J22C
Re-Tasted: Sept 2012
A beautifully dense nose of liquorice coated dried fruit. Ultra clean and quite abounding with sweet sherry character. Very complex though with hints of sweet thick cut orange marmalade and malt. Given time you could cut the thickness of these aromas with a knife! A delicate thread of peat smoke along with some juicy grape, sultanas and spices winds its way through. Sublime!
Clean and elegant on the palate. Opening with the dried fruit and a touch of prune along with sherry spices, mal and, dark toffee. Not quite as thick as the nose would suggest, with the sherry being slightly gentler but it’s still wonderfully deep showing some gentle sweet peat smoke, raisins and liquorice. The finish is a tad on the austere side, which is a combination of the alcohol and a lovely firm citrus note. Personally I think it’s wonderfully balanced and I love that fresh finish although the oak does bitter ever so slightly.
Nikka Miyagikyou 15 year old 45%
Bottling Code: 2OF12A/ Tasted: Aug 2007
A rich, deep nose of dried fruit, sherry spice, dunnage floors, marzipan, very mature honey, beeswax and hints of earthy peat and smoke. Incredible complexity with the dunnage flooraromas increasing over time.
Soft, juicy and mature, slightly oily with a wonderful cleaness of character. Mature honey, dried fruits (sultanas, raisins, figs) mingle with tangy citrus, earthy-peat and spices. Lovekly maturity and a great length with the dried fruits returning on the finish along with a touch of wood tannin.
Nikka Miyagikyo 1990 (19 year old) 61%
Cask 36385/ Dist: 1990 Btl: 2009/ Tasted: Nov 2010
An immense alcoholic nose of dried orange peel, banana, fragrant sawn wood, with some Oloroso lurking in the background, adding liquorice and dark chocolatearomas. For all it’s alcoholic bluster it is quite well balanced with a grassy/ botanical note.
The palate is quite sweet and alcoholic with plenty of dried raisins, sultanas, Seville orange peel and honey. The alcohol and wood tannins mask the middle and bitters out the finish, leaving a dark chocolate and liquorice after taste.
Water emphasises the Oloroso cask, and it has become a lot less complexaroma wise, and maybe a tad more sugary. However it really opens up the palate. There is still a lot of oak, but it is not so intrusive and you can almost taste the charring. The fruit has a lovely, not too sweet sheen, and hang on where did that smoke come from? There was no indication of that on the nose, or on the palate neat!! Oooh a lovely coal scuttle licking finish and a dry spice (cinnamon, clove, staranise) after taste.
Talk about a game of two halves saint!!!
Whisky According to Chris Whiskyman 