Nikka Yoichi - Japanese Market

Yoichi distillery was constructed by the legendary Masataka Taketsuru in 1934 after his departure from Suntory forerunner Kotobukiya to found the Nikka whisky company. Taketsuru built Yoichi at his preferred location in the mountains of Hokkaido, where the landscape and climate conditions were similar to the Scottish Highlands where he had learned the art of whisky-making.

As Nikka’s only distillery, Yoichi produced all the whisky for Nikka releases until the construction of the Miyagikyo distillery in 1969. Yoichi started life with just one pot still; today the distillery has six stills, all of which are direct-fired by coal in the traditional manner. Yoichi’s robust, smoky house style has become hugely popular in Western markets since the turn of the millennium and stock is now very scarce; the distillery’s core range was axed in 2015 and replaced with a single NAS bottling.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.