Yamazaki Suntory Pure Malt Whisky

Yamazaki Pure Malt is an older single malt from Suntory's distillery in the valley of Shimamoto, Osaka Prefecture, bottled in 2003. Yamazaki was Japan's first malt distillery, opened in 1923, and this earlier expression carries the house signature of layered fruit alongside the distinctive Japanese oak the distillery is known for.

Maturation drew on puncheons and Japanese mizunara casks, the latter the defining element. Mizunara is porous and slow to give, lending the sandalwood, incense and temple wood note that is a signature of Japanese whisky, and here it sits over the distillery's orchard fruit and vanilla with a soft, rounded body underneath. At 43% it is balanced and composed, an older Yamazaki that puts the mizunara character to the front, a clear example of why Japanese oak became so closely tied to the distillery's name.