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Quite convenient and drinkable but nevertheless hard to memorize

The contents kind of match the bottle, a package designed to please the upper middel class Asian market. Love the king size wooden cork topper though.

wonderfully soft, sweet, vanilla, fruit compote, balanced. Great blend with very good PLV.

Easy to drink, pleasant japanese blend. Although price is not the best.

https://whiskylovingpianist.wordpress.com/2017/06/26/mnc-pikka-nikka-2/ An aged blend made from Nikka Coffey grain and Yoichi & Miyagikyo malts. N: Initially the grain stands out like a sore thumb but moves to the sidelines soon after. Theres a step up here in terms of calibre and age, and so there should at just under £100 a bottle – nearly twice as much as either of the previous four. Notes of waxy popcorn and slightly burnt ginger cake, highlighting to me the corn & some sherry casks in the mix. T: 12yo age statement whisky became a bench mark for Scotch not merely because of marketing tradition/arbitrary practise, but because [in many cases] thats when distillers & blenders identified a significant magic/fusion between spirit & wood starting to establish itself. Finally [in this flight] we have ‘ready’ whisky. Again [as on the nose], the grain stands out initially before giving way to a young spongey-yeasty-fungal distillate funk, a dash of lemonade, buttered candy mango-pineapple and soft-dry icecream. Now we are talking! F: Finally an actual finish, on mature vanilla & little sherry, dry-clean,… good good. C: Competency on every level: form, complexity and some depth, although still rather straight forward/simple at times – so a ‘ready’ whisky but only just. [Lets see how it compares to the 17yo pure malt coming up].  At £95 this 12yo blend is judged differently by our lively group, bearing in mind how plentiful 12yo Scotch single malt is in the UK at less than half the price – all-round good whisky but no big.Scores a B[-]

N- Toffee, stone fruits, plum and peaches. Poise and floral with pleasant charm. Subtle spicy grain. P- Sour berries, lively, clean and dry sensation with salted soy sauce, drift of rooty bitterness and bready. F- Medium, smooth and spicy, ginger heat. — at The Whisky Bar, Kuala Lumpur.

Kimono Nikka is cutting even more into their output to be able to re-launch Yoichi and Miyagikyo with an age statement in due course. At this point in time, this bottle is the only one with an age on the label on the official Nikka website! It is composed from Yoichi malt and Miyagikyo malt and grain (I confess, I was not aware they produced grain whisky at the latter). Let’s get to it. The nose is very elegant on nuts, raisins, caramel, cherries, plums and green tea. There is even a hint of condensed, sugared milk in there! Then a truckload of caramel and some cinnamon, banana and peach. Surprisingly round and very nice. It is pretty oily, honey-sweet and a tad boozy on pear drops, peach from a can, pineapple, toffee and raisins. Nice spiciness in the guise of ginger, toasted oak and cinnamon. The finish is long on dried fruit, caramel and wood spices. Only in the finish do I get some typical grain whisky notes, which I find extraordinary. A hint of candied orange peel at the death. Very good and indeed tastes ‘premium’, it has something extra. The fact that it’s bottled at 43% also sits well with me. But paying 100 to 150 EUR for a bottle of this seems extravagant, whether or not it is bottled in beautiful decanter that is supposed to be reminiscent of a Kimono neck line. Thanks for the sample, Arno.

A very nice modern blend, the price is absolutely ridiculous, would be a nice whiskey for 45-49 Euro ...

On the nose, vanilla, undifferentiated mixed fruits, a little spice On the palate, it's sweet, creamy, with a mixture of fruits, it's fresh, the smoke reaches the end, it's good, without defect, but without surprise too! In the finish, medium length on fruits and sweet vanilla, creamy! a blend that succeeds with a normal age to release a dram of beauty, becoming almost common!

- a (as expected) pleasant, round, soft blend, - great taste, unfortunately little depth - going head to head with the Chivas Regal 18 J. the Nikka would probably win, BUT for €120 a lot ambitious price. I would rather consider 2 Chivas 18 J. to buy or the Chivas Royal Salute directly 21 years - In summary: yes, good drinkable blend but for the Price at least €50 too expensive for a comparably good one Scottish quality

A very smoky nose, it feels like you're in the corner of the fireplace, warm. It's snowing outside, the flames are crackling. Apricot jam, damp wool, vegetal notes. It's very deep. Ash too. Cereals, corn, wheat, Agen prunes. In the mouth, it is very warm, a little oily, woody, smoky, braised bread, nuts, black grapes, very ripe apricot. Spices in the background. Long, very balanced finish, which combines wood, lemon and smoke. Black earth, humus, fern, moss. An excellent blend, incredibly nuanced and balanced. No wonder he was a victim of his success. https://ilikesky2020.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-nikka-12-yo.html

S 7 A solid house blend showcasing Japanese-style whisky. Elegant and soft, yet with clear characters. A well-crafted whisky. Drink neat, with ice, or even make it Mizuwari if you’d like. The price point was towards the luxurious side even before they discontinued it, now it’s simply ridiculous. 81-85 - Another dram welcomed

Japanese whisky, so hot right now... Tastes Ben Nevis-y. A compliment. For the price of this you could probably buy a decent age Ben Nevis. And that’s what you should do. It matters not, since it appears to be discontinued anyways.

Nice complex nose, then subsides a little until the finish.

(TASTED BLIND) NOSE: Yellow fruits; mango, banana, pineapple. A little vanilla and hints of white pepper. Quite rich. (88p). TASTE: The arrival is slightly bitter. On the mid palate there are yellow fruits, a little acidity and later some astringency. But the fruit persists. (86p). FINISH: Slightly astringent at first, then a little spice (white pepper). (85p). OVERALL: Just a tad bitter for my palate. Otherwise a nice Bourbon matured whisky. Total score 86 points.

Quite strange whisky. It's positioned as a premium one (the price and the package/bottle), however, the premium bottle content feels very young. You can feel rather sharp maltiness and the whisky itself is very flat, no complexity whatsoever. Maybe the cause of that is the grain part of the blend, I don't know. But otherwise the whisky is quite OK and the decanter is really beautiful. In any case this whisky is enormously overpriced and I don't know who can buy it unless you're going to invest in a nice decanter :)

Nikka The Nikka 12 Year Old Blended Whisky 43%. Aroma very sweet tropical and spiritous. Jelly babies, pineapple, vanilla-infused tropical fruits. Very fun. Nice nose. Slight highlighter pen. Taste is light up front, spiced, oaky and fruity in three equal parts, then caramelised bourbon-like oak bringing up the rear. I think that's pretty impressive. It has well defined flavours and cohesiveness. Lots of tropical fruits. It speaks of being uniquely Japanese in that unusual fruity way, but with some bourbon and Scotch leanings. Great weight, subtle complexity. Long woody linger. Makes you smile. I had a 30ml sample and I feel like I might have scored this slightly higher if I'd had twice as much of it. At the price though (at least £100), while not that bad for Japanese whisky, I wouldn't be buying a bottle. 3.65/87

It's sweeter than I expected, with a straightforward palate sandwiched between between a floral, fruity, dessert-sweet nose and a developed and more complex tail. There's grain in the sugary nuttiness at the end of the nose and again as the tail winds down, but it's not very malty. It might actually be a bit too sweet for me at the very end of the finish, but I enjoyed the journey through the very carefully deployed leather, tobacco and chocolate, that got me there. The balance is off, but it's still very good, even if its not a perfect fit for for my tastes.

"Modern Whisky": Apple, pear, spicy, caramel. Very good blend!