Nikka Miyagikyo 1988 & Nikka Yoichi 1988
Lot number: 114-00624
Winning bid: £5,800
The Nikka whisky company was founded in 1934 by Masataka Taketsuru, with the creation of his Yoichi distillery on the island of Hokkaido. Arguably the “grandfather” of Japanese whisky, Taketsuru learned his trade studying Organic Chemistry at The University of Glasgow in 1918, before apprenticing at Longmorn, and laterally Hazelburn distilleries. With humble beginnings, producing apple juice and cider to keep the cash flowing while the whisky came of age, Nikka has grown to become one of the best known names in Japanese whisky.
Yoichi
Taketsuru chose the northern island of Hokkaido as the location for his first distillery as he felt the climate and geography closely resembled that of Scotland. Taking its name from the adjacent river that also provides its water source, Takersuru's goal with Yoichi was to create a whisky “with the taste of the wind”. We're not sure what wind tastes like, exactly, but based on Yoichi's direct fired stills and worm tub setup, it must be fairly robust and meaty.
Distilled: 1988
55% ABV / 70cl
Miyagikyo
Originally dubbed "Sendai", the distillery we now know as Miyagikyo (renamed in 2001, after the Japanese prefecture of Miyagi where it's situated) was born out of a desire by Masataka Taketsuru to produce a Scottish style blended whisky. In order to realise this dream Taketsuru would need an alternative source of malt whisky to blend with malt from his already established Yoichi distillery, so in 1968 construction on the new distillery commenced. While, like Yoichi, Miyagikyo experiments with different peating levels, the whisky produced there is lighter and more delicate, providing an interesting counterpoint to its sister distillery's more robust style.
Distilled: 1988
50% ABV / 70cl
Please note staining to Yoichi box
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