Yamazaki 18 Years Old

Yamazaki 18 Years Old is a senior single malt from Suntory's Yamazaki distillery in Osaka Prefecture, Japan's first malt whisky distillery, founded in 1923 in the valley of Shimamoto where the Katsura, Uji and Kizu rivers meet and humidity aids long maturation. This global release at 43% remains one of the most celebrated expressions of Japanese single malt, the deeper, older companion to the benchmark 12.

Its depth comes from a marriage of Oloroso sherry, Ex-Bourbon and Japanese mizunara oak. The sherry drives dried fruit and chocolate, the bourbon wood gives honey and vanilla, and the mizunara threads sandalwood and incense through the long aged spirit. The listed old wood and new wood notes frame the distillery's orchard fruit, giving a rich, layered malt with real weight. Eighteen years in this cask mix lend resin and complexity, and the result shows the full Yamazaki house character at its most complete.