The New Non-Aged Yoichi (Launched Sept. 2015)

Written by Ruey of The Ruey Review
Updated 26 Jan 2016

The Yoichi single malt series by Nikka Whisky has been one of the most sought-after malts in Japan in 2015. While it had already been a well-revered Japanese whisky, the sudden spike in demand last year was mainly due to the broadcasting of Massan, a popular TV show about the Father of Japanese Whisky- Masataka Taketsuru and his wife Rita Cowan, from September of 2014 to March of 2015. Remember how we mentioned that Taketsuru also contributed albeit indirectly to the creation of Mars? This sudden surge in demand causes the the depletion of certain malt reserves within the distillery thus the discontinuation of the old Yoichi single malts the world had known until to 2015 autumn. Now the new Yoichi is a single malt under the same brand name with apparently different content than what was before September of 2015. This review is of this new version of non-aged Yoichi Single Malt.

The Yoichi distillery is the most northern whisky distillery in Japan. It is the first distillery Taketsuru founded upon his return from Scotland, also making it the first distillery of Nikka whisky. The vision he held is to create in Japan a whisky that is truly Scottish. To do that, he chose a location in Japan that most resembles the Scottish highland. Taketsuru found such a place in Yoichi, Hokkaido in northern Japan. The distillery is located at 1,500 sea level, in an area that is covered in snow during the winter and where the snow melts in the spring. Taketsuru also chose the location of his distillery to be close to a water source that is enjoyed by Ayu fish and salmon. More importantly, Yoichi allows the distillery access to coal and peat, essential to the smoky flavor Taketsuru wanted in his “True Scotch Whisky”.

Some of the whisky-making methods at Yoichi distillery, most notably the usage of coal-fired pot stills, are legacy Scottish whisky-making processes that are today extremely rare even in Scotland itself. This single malt is supposed to be the product of old Scottish Scotch-making traditions and the cold of the Japanese Hokkaido wilderness.

Colour: Light Golden Colour

Nose: Very obvious scent of burnt wood.

Taste: High in viscosity. The whisky puts forward the taste of oak with a pleasant sweetness that follows directly behind it. This paradoxical yet working combination of rugged smokiness and sweet caramel taste may come from the direct coal-fire during the distillation and the usage of peat in the making of this malt. There is an element of dried fruits in the background as well.

Finish: The caramel sweetness becomes ever-more apparent upon finish. Then the aroma of the aged wooden barrel comes up into the olfactory and out through the nostrils after the liquid enters the oesophagus.

Verdict: This is definitely way better than the non-aged Yoichi that discontinued by Sept. 2015. The old non-aged Yoichi was a disappointment especially because I had first tried the older aged Yoichi. The new Yoichi is no disappointment, although I cannot compare it with the old 10 Year Yoichi as I do not remember exactly the taste of the old 10 year Yoichi (I just remember being very much wowed by how good it was; I was not such a serious whisky drinker and did not bother to take notes). However, by accounts of most Japanese whisky bloggers, the older 10 year old Yoichi beats the new non-aged Yoichi the way Germany beat Brazil in the 2014 FIFA World Cup semi-final.