Prices
Prices and stock come from each retailer's website. Check with the store before you buy.
More from this distillery: All Nikka whiskies and prices
About
What it is
A 15 year old single malt from Yoichi, bottled at 45% and discontinued in 2015 along with the 12 and the 20 when Nikka's aged stock ran out. Nikka reintroduced the Yoichi 10 in 2022, but the 15 has not returned, so everything on the market is old stock.
Where it comes from
Yoichi in Hokkaido, distilled and matured on site. Nikka's current Yoichi single malts carry the producer's statement that they meet the Japan Spirits and Liqueurs Makers Association standard, but that standard only arrived in 2021, six years after this was discontinued. Being a single malt from one distillery, there's no imported whisky question here in the way there is with Nikka's blends.
How it's made
Yoichi is built on direct coal-fired pot stills, which almost no distillery anywhere still runs. Coal applies fierce and uneven heat and produces a heavier, oilier spirit with a meaty depth steam can't replicate. Add peated malt, wooden washbacks, worm tubs and salt air off Ishikari Bay. At 15 years the oak has had time to round the edges off without touching the distillery character. The old age-stated Yoichis were not chill filtered, though batch colouring was used for consistency.
What to expect
Heavier and smokier than the 10. Peat, brine and dried fruit, with dark chocolate and a meaty, almost sulphurous depth underneath, then a long finish. This is Nikka at its most Scottish, in the specific sense Taketsuru meant.
How it compares
Against the reintroduced 10, the 15 is deeper and smokier, and the 10 is the only one you can buy new. Against the 12, also discontinued, the 15 has more oak weight. Against Hakushu 18, the other aged Japanese peated malt, Yoichi is far heavier and more maritime.
