Nikka 1999 Single Cask (Bottled 2013) Coffey Grain Whisky w/box 700ml

Whiskyadvocate.com
Rated by: Dave Broom, 86/100

Distilled, as the name suggests, in a (Glasgow-built) Coffey still at the Miyagikyo distillery, here we have a corn-based grain with masses of gentle custard tart aromas alongside peach and corn fatness. The mouth is ripe and slow, with banana skin and fruit peels leading to a mellow mid-palate section, where vanilla comes through.

In 1918, Masataka Taketsuru, son of a sake brewing family, is recruited by the Settsu Shuzo Company to produce the first authentic Japanese whisky. With a background in chemistry, the young man decides to leave for Scotland, in the aim of discovering the secrets of whisky production. A few months after his arrival, Taketsuru meets Rita Cowan, with whom he immediately falls in love with. Rita becomes his wife, but also his muse.
Two years later, the couple returns to Japan. In 1922, his employer Settsu Shuzo goes bankrupt following a stock market crash. Taketsuru then joins the Kotobukiya group, a beer industry giant later renamed Suntory. However, in 1934 he founded his own distilling company, Dai Nippon Kaju K.K., in Yoichi on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. He believed that this part of Japan was the most similar to Scotland. He later renamed the company Nikka.