Hello there, my name is Kristy and this is my colleague Avi and today we are at
the Reynolds Retreat and the glorious Kent countryside to taste some whisky.
Yeah absolutely, so today we're going to be tasting Nikka From The Barrel which is
an absolutely amazing Japanese blended whisky, you know it's won multiple
awards so I'm really excited about this one today. Yeah it's one of our best sellers
it's super popular, people love it and with really good reason, it's absolutely delicious
So Nikka From The Barrel is made up from multiple
different blends, so there's the Yoichi distillery whisky in there, there's
Miyagikyo as well, as a bunch of others as well.
Yeah there's all kinds of stuff going on in there and it's a really
interesting kind of product of Japanese whisky as a category. In the recent past
there have been loads of supply shortages, that's why kind of you don't see so many
age statement Japanese whiskies, so many anymore and they're often super
expensive if you do get them, but we do still get awesome
expressions and this is one of them. This is a distillery that was founded by
Masataka Taketsuru back in 1934, prior to that though he actually went all the way
to Scotland which is a huge journey in itself even now, imagine doing it back then in 1918.
Yeah so he kind of studied as a chemist, went to Glasgow University
and then just basically fell in love with Scotch whisky and distilling, which
I completely relate to, and he really learned the craft, learned the trade took
all that knowledge with him when he went back to Japan and then setup some distilleries.
Yeah, it's a really cool fact as well so the Taketsuru family
actually were sake brewers, so they kind of had that kind of knowledge anyway but
taking distillation over there was really something that kicked it up a notch.
Yeah he's kind of generally regarded as the father of Japanese whisky and I
think we've got a lot to thank him for. Absolutely, so shall we jump straight in
with your tasting? Absolutely, enough chat, let's get some whisky.
It's not the easiest bottle to pour from, almost guaranteed to make a mess if you
give it a go but there we are! So actually worth pointing out as well so
this is quite a high strength whisky, this is 51.4% ABV you know this would be
really good with some ice as well actually I think.
Yeah definitely and again, I think we've chatted about this in some previous videos, never be afraid to
add water to your whisky, especially a whiskey at this ABV, add a few drops and
it will completely transform in the glass and you'll get so much more out of your dram.
Right, straight into the nose.
I love the warm spices, there's a lot
lovely warming sweet spices going. Maybe a bit of vanilla pod.
There's definitely some floral notes as well. Yeah absolutely, and this is, well it's
delicious for a number of reasons but there are all kinds of cask types going in here right?
Yeah so there's bourbon barrels, there's sherry butts, there's refill hogsheads,
a bunch of others as well so see if you can pick any of those out.
Yeah I really feel that complexity comes through, so maybe like fig notes like
you get in some like sherry finished whiskies, that's in there.
Yeah it's really delicious and warming. Time for a taste? Let's do it.
So obviously 51.4%, there's quite a high
alcohol burn but it's much, much smoother than you'd expect actually.
Yeah for sure, and actually I think the thing that jumps out to me first of all is like
that texture, there's a bit of peppery spice as you'd expect and maybe
a little bit, kind of like a slightly woody texture but it really is all
wrapped up in this lovely silky mouth-filling warmth, it's incredible.
Yeah there's even kind of, I'm getting notes of
dark cherries kind of from those bourbon barrels I think.
Definitely, maybe a bit of chocolate going on in here as well.
Bitter chocolate, it's really lovely. And on the finish it just goes on and on
and on, which I very much appreciate.
Yeah this is absolutely amazing stuff.
It's awesome, as bang for buck goes it's incredible it's
like yeah £36.99 at the moment I think. Which is incredible values for a whisky of this kind of level.
It's kind of universally loved, if you haven't tried it yet
get one and let us know what you think of it in the comments.
Amazing, yeah. Cheers!