Yamazaki 13 Years Old 1999

This 1999 Yamazaki comes from Suntory's Osaka Prefecture distillery, the first malt site in Japan, set where three rivers meet in the humid Shimamoto valley between Osaka and Kyoto. Bottled in 2012 at 13 Years Old as a single cask for the Japanese market, it shows the lighter, bourbon cask face of the house rather than its sherried side.

The whisky matured in an Ex-Bourbon puncheon, a large barrel giving slow, gentle oak. At 58% it leads with honey and vanilla, a basket of fresh fruit and a citric lift, set on a hay-like, husky malt noted in the cask. Bright and softly oaked, it stays clean and lively for a cask strength malt, true to the distillery's fruit forward style.