A C- is two stars.ĭ+ to D-: Below average whiskey. A B- is three stars.Ĭ+ to C-: Average whiskey. The best of the mass market whiskeys fit in this category, as do the bulk of the premium brands. Five stars.Ī-: A fine bottle of whiskey, representing the top end of the conventional, premium range.ī and B-: Good and above average. Above five stars.Ī: An outstanding bottle of whiskey, but lacking that special something which makes for a true masterpiece. A+: A masterpiece and one of the ten best whiskeys of its type. Some "premium" whiskeys really are quite terrible, while some mass market products are good enough to pour into a decanter and serve to the Duke of Edinburgh. The following indicators should be taken as only a guide and not a set of hard and fast rules. The Whiskey Reviewer uses a letter-based rating system, instead of the numerical 100-grade rating system. In addition to the aforementioned World Whisky Awards, Nikka Taketsuru 21 Year Old also won gold at the International Spirits Competition in 2012, 2010, 2009, and 2008. It averages around $165 US but you may find it a bit cheaper if you hunt around a bit. But it doesn’t come cheap – quality rarely does. It’s a pleasure to drink and a great dram to come home to. Coats your tongue for a good bit after you’ve finished drinking. Light burn but smooth all the way throughįinish – Long mellow lingering burn. The mouthfeel is soft, a little dry and gets drier with the addition of water. Hold it in your mouth and the dessert notes of the nose reappear. With water, the spice notes get a little more aggressive, the fruit comes more to the fore, the malt feels a little fuller somehow. Taste – Malt, with hints of vanilla, fruit, and spices with hints of leather and tobacco as you roll to the finish Nose – Rich malt with a hint of oak, light ginger notes, and what seems like a bit of tiramisu This is one of a line of vatted malt whiskeys named for Masataka Taketsuru, a founding father of Japanese whiskey-making, and is bottled at 43% abv. Vatted malts are sometimes also called “pure malts,” hence the appearance of that term in the title. It just hasn’t been available Stateside, until now.Īs a bit of clarification, the Nikka 21 YO is a vatted malt, a blend of malt whiskey from different distilleries, and in the Japanese case, malt whiskeys of markedly different styles from the same distillery. In fact, it won the World Whisky Award (WWA) for “World’s Best Blended Malt” 4 times between 20, so its quality has been appreciated and acknowledged around the world. This release should not be new to our international readers. I’ve already reviewed one of these, the Nikka Coffey Grain, and now I want to discuss their 21 Year Old Taketsuru Pure Malt Whisky. Late last year, this changed with the release of four new spirits in the U.S. This is because, until recently, Nikka only released a small amount of their full range here in the States. Nikka is one of Japan’s premier whiskey distillers, with a much larger profile internationally than is apparent from a purely American perspective. Nikka Taketsuru 21 Year Old Pure Malt Whisky
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