Whisky : Nikka Date

Country/Region : Japan/Blend (Miyagikyo distilled malt & grain)

ABV : 43%

Cask : Various

Tasting : Neat in a Glencairn @ HWG Series #3

Nose : Lovely melange of earthy and fruity notes.  There are musty grapes ripening in a sun drenched vineyard, mossy stones in a trickling creek, and the sharpe salty bite of pickled olives.  Bits of sweet cookie come near the end along with some tangerine and orange.

Palate :  A mild bodied dram, there are only hints of the fruit that had appeared on the nose.  Sweet baking spices and gingerbread dominate a balanced flavor profile.  Bits of black pepper and honey provide moments of more intense spice and sweet.  Just a dash of salt hands in the background.  The palate is inoffensive and easy to drink.

Finish : Medium length faint spices with a touch of salt.

Score : 4

Mental Image : A Holiday party, judging the Gingerbread houses.

Something Better : Arran 18 Year (similar bits of verdant vines, earth, fruit, richer, longer finish)

Something Similar : Johnnie Walker Platinum (more spice, similar musty grapes, less complex)

Something Worse : Nikka Black Extra Sweet (similar gingerbread sweet and spice, less finish, much sweeter)

Notes :  This would be fun to taste along with the Nikka Coffey Malt, Coffey Grain, and Miyagikyo Single Malt.  So many possible variations from just the one Nikka Distillery at Miyagikyo, a great opportunity to explore the ways in which malt and grain can play together.

Beyond the potential fun of trying to tease out the variations in products, there is not a whole lot special and unique about this bottle.  It is solid, it has an interesting nose, the palate is full of pleasant spices— it is inoffensive, but it is not really special either.  It would be a fine bottle to sip on, a fine bottle to pick up in Japan, but beyond that— I did not find it terribly memorable.  

That is part of the problem with the massive inflation in Japanese Whisky prices or the immense price jump a bottle takes as it moves from the Japanese domestic market to the Secondary market in the US or elsewhere— if you are paying over $100 for a bottle— much less $200— that bottle better be memorable.  Sometimes we make bottles memorable ourselves regardless the quality of the liquid; the first time we had it was an amazing trip, was when we met a new friend the first time, we got excellent news— or of course the flip side to all of those.  Tragedies and blessings can make an inoffensive whisky memorable because it was present in our glass at the time the memory was made.  Barring that, the nose and palate on this one are acceptable, but not memorable in and of itself.