Nose: Red Grapes, quince paste, marmalade, sherry, blueberries, vanilla, toffee, balsamic, Bonox(beef stock paste), a little pepper and coal. I’d class it as velvety and satisfyingly rich.
Palate: Cocoa powder, chocolate mouse, coffee beans, sherry, vanilla, Brazil nuts, blueberries, salt, cloves, raisins, oily.
Finish: Sherry, Brazil nuts, cocoa powder, minerals, raisins, coal, cigar leaf.
Last Word: I spent around 30 minutes chatting at the Nikka stand at WhiskyLive last weekend. There were 6 expressions on offer and the general consensus seemed to be this was the pick of the litter. For myself this has either a lot of excellent young malt whiskies in the mix or, and I believe this is more the case, a large chunk of older whiskies in the mix especially from sherry casks. I bought a bottle straight away so that should be enough of an endorsement. A huge improvement over the my last bottle of no age statement Taketsuru, significantly better than the last bottle of Taketsuru 12 I had and in all honesty, if this quality remains I won’t need to lament the discontinuance of the 17 year old.
Rating: 87/100
I posted this earlier today on “League of Nippon Whisky Appreciateur” forum: My bottle of NAS Pure Malt that I purchased last year has a code on the bottom made up of lines (see attached), whereas my 17 and 21 Pure Malts both have some kind of numeric code. Perhaps someone on this forum may know the significance of this. BTW, as the receipt shows, the NAS was relatively easy to find @ 3456 yen = 32.05 USD (today’s value).
That said, I’m curious how much is the 2019 version running (i.e., if you can get it)?
Just bought a couple bottles at Y3080 each at my local grocery store.
So looking forward to getting a bottle now. My previous bottle in 2016 was average at best and I never pick up another bottle since then
I’d like to hear your impressions if you do get a bottle.
Good review. Is there a marker on the bottle which allows it to be identified as the 2019 bottling?
Hi, no markers.