Tasting

Anyone smelling a Yamazaki for the first time often expects smoke and instead finds honey, ripe apricot and a hint of orange peel. This surprises even seasoned Scotch drinkers. Peat is nearly nowhere to be found here. The distillery relies instead on fruit and wood.

The Yamazaki 12 Year Old shows this most clearly: vanilla, apple, a dash of salt, plus tropical notes reminiscent of pineapple. The finish brings black cherry and white pepper.

The Yamazaki 18 Year Old matures longer in sherry casks and tastes correspondingly darker, with notes of brown butter and damp forest floor. The finish is long and dry. Six years separate the two bottlings in cask, yet the character is entirely different.

The Yamazaki 18 Year Old Mizunara Cask goes a step further, maturing entirely in Japanese oak. Sandalwood, incense and a slightly resinous sweetness come through here as clearly as in almost no other whisky. Comparing the two cask types side by side, you can immediately taste how strongly the wood alone shapes the character.

In Japan, Yamazaki is often not drunk neat but as mizuwari, diluted with still water and plenty of ice, or as a highball with soda. This may sound unusual at first. But it opens up the delicate, rather quiet aromas better than too concentrated a sip from a nosing glass.

Anyone wanting to try it neat should still taste it without ice first: at room temperature, Yamazaki shows its fruit most openly, before water or cold pushes it back.