Nikka Taketsuru Pure Malt 17 Year Old (70cl, 43%)

Nikka Taketsuru Pure Malt 17 Year Old is a Japanese blended malt in a 70cl bottle, bottled at 43% ABV. It is named after Masataka Taketsuru, who learned the craft of whisky in Scotland, where he also chose his wife. Back in Japan he played a major part in establishing whisky there. He first worked at Suntory, then founded his own distillery in 1934, which was renamed Nikka a few years later. The flavours are complex: cask wood, fine smokiness, spices such as cinnamon, vanilla and pepper, dried fruit including fig, cherry, blood orange and baked apple, and sweet honey, with touches of leather, eucalyptus, cocoa and truffle.