Yamazaki 12 Years Old

Yamazaki 12 Years Old is the bottling that anchored Japan's reputation for serious single malt, made by Suntory at the country's first malt distillery in the valley of Shimamoto in Osaka Prefecture. Founded in 1923 where the Katsura, Uji and Kizu rivers meet, the distillery runs many still shapes to build a wide spirit palette, and this twelve year old is its calling card.

Maturation spans American oak, Spanish sherry oak and Japanese mizunara, a combination that gives the whisky its layered signature. The fruit leads with fresh orchard notes and citrus, vanilla and malt extract fill the middle, and a nutty chocolate richness settles underneath, with the mizunara lending a faint incense edge that grows on the finish. Bottled at 43%, it stays soft, balanced and unmistakably in the Yamazaki house style.