Nikka Yoichi 10 Year Old

I heard a lot of good things about japanese whiskies but each time I was looking to buy one, I started by doing my homework and was reading all the reviews on the net. Each time I was reading the same comments: great balance, some dryness and subtle. My own decoder was reading: kind of a light blend not very special: Not a whisky for me.

Reading those reviews, I didn't understand why all those reviewers where telling how much they love those whiskyies. That was enough for keeping me curious but not for buying one. So , the other day, when I was at my local liquor store looking at the same old exhibit of knowned whiskies whith a wee bit of disappointment, I greeted with eagerness the opportunity giving to me by a product consultant of tasting a new arrival not yet on the shelf: the new Yoichi 10 yo.

Was I lucky! I think I'm under a spell. It was like kind of a revelation... Almost an epiphany. It was that good!

First the nose. Already the balance is there. All the flavors you'll get on the palate are there but the backbone of this whisky take the front, just waving at you telling you that it will be the story teller. So you have a really beautifull wood, blond oak, with a smoke that doesn't burn the wood and a vanilla that doesn't take the stage but will enhance all the others flavors. You already expect a very good whisky with mild flavor but you're not prepare for what will come next: the palate.

At the beginning, you have some dried fruits, a lot like a pot still but more in the background. But they managed to keep the focus on those fruits anyway. I think that is because you don't have the acetone notes and all the others chemical notes that you usually find with the pot still. So for me who find that the Irish whiskies are agressively overplaying those dried fruits, I love the foreplay between this background player and the story teller.

Then come the second player: the burned caramel is a bit like the one in the Nadurra but at midrange. Maybe because this caramel is more smoked than burned or even better maybe because the caramel is in a sensual pas-de-deux with the smoke... And as the palate expand in your mouth you are coming aware of the third player.

The esthers. And I think of Longmorn. Yes, some plum with an hint of star anise that is like a velvet sheet revealing more than hiding everything that goes underneath and that will remained at the end of a very long fading away.

Yes, this whisky is a real story teller making you travelled from Ireland to Speyside to Islay (since there is also, for some, a hint of peat and salt) with his own japanese voice that is his incredible balance.

May I need to say that it is now one of my favorites whiskies?

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