Nikka – From The Barrel (50cl, 51.4%)

Nikka From The Barrel is a Japanese blended whisky in a 50cl bottle, made with the aim of offering the full flavour and richness of whisky tasted straight from the cask, as a blender would taste it. The blend combines more than 100 different batches of malt and grain whiskies. It is then filled into used barrels and matured for a few more months, a marrying stage said to give a mellow taste. It is bottled at 51.4% ABV, close to 90 British proof, a strength the Nikka blenders settled on after repeated trials. It comes in a square bottle, designed to suggest a small block of whisky.