Nikka Yoichi SMWS 116.18 - Amazing Toffee, Honey Sweetness

18yo Yoichi aged in a refill butt. ‘Amazing toffee, honey sweetness’ @64.4% ABV and 1/410 Bottles.

To smell; Well, often times when I'm nosing a whisky it's not surprising for flavours to take some coaxing from the glass to squeeze past the alcohol, not so in this case. Flying out of the glass faster than can be written down we have Fairy Floss, rose petals, quality wood, lavender, assorted grassy notes, cocoa, banana, light honey, rubber, caramel, apple, and after a decent half hour in the glass; the most elegant of colognes. What a nose.

To taste: Surprisingly drinkable neat at 64.4% (and more enjoyable in my book than with water). Heavy dark coffee and slightly bitter wood tussle it out, bouncing off every crevice of the mouth, the winner seems to be the coffee notes but only just. I found it hard to identify any other notes but some one-dimensionality is allowed given the complexity of the nose.

Being my first Japanese whisky, the first few drams of the bottle were somewhat confusing, though after a week either I or the whisky seemed to adjust to the remarkable product I speak of above. This dram falls short of being absolutely freakish and hitting the high 90’s by my preference but it isn’t very far off.

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