Making the experience of super-luxury spirits crazily affordable and accessible!
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- Suggested retail price: $75 / $125 / $165
- We will pour one half-ounce of each for $6
You've never considered Japanese whisky? You don't know what you're missing. There is a strong tradition of Japanese bartending and of Japanese whisky-making. It's not much followed in this country, but any serious whisky aficionado must be conversant in this area.
The best Japanese bartenders took the American art to a very high and meticulous level decades ago. When American bar tending lost its way and went into the Valley of the Fuzzy Navel, the Japanese held the art of the bar frozen in time. Now that American we have returned to our former level of professionalism and artistry, there is still much to be learned from the Japanese style, which retains elements of the old school American bar as if they were preserved in amber.
Japanese is whisky similar. They can have structure and flavor profiles that clearly remind me of the antique bottles of American or Scotch whisky I've been fortunate enough to drink. Japanese whisky is like a history lesson in whisky.
In 1918, Masataka Taketsuru went to Scotland to study chemistry, distilling and blending. There, he met Jessie Roberta Cowan. They fell madly in love and, together they returned to Japan. It took Taketsuru 10 years to realize his dream and found his own distillery. Nikka released its first bottle in 1940. The war years presented their own challenges, but Masataka and Jessie persevered and so did their distillery. In 1969, they opened a second distillery called Yoichi. With the addition of Yoichi, they began their own on-site cooperage and, to this day, manufacture their own hogsheads on-site from new oak.
The whisky is meticulous, old-fashioned and delicious. We are going to open one bottle each of three different ages of Nikka Whisky: 7, 12 and 21 years. We're going to pour a half ounce of each in a flight, beginning at 6:30. When they're gone, they're gone. I hope to see you Thursday night.
Next Week in The Spirits Project
Balvenie 17 yr Doublewood