Nikka Taketsuru Pure Malt 17 Year 750ML

Nikka Taketsuru Pure Malt 17 Year 750ML is a 17-year-old Japanese blended malt whisky bottled at 43% ABV, marrying malt whiskies from Nikka's Yoichi and Miyagikyo distilleries. Now discontinued and increasingly scarce, this expression has won World's Best Blended Malt at the World Whiskies Awards more times than any other whisky on the planet — taking the title in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2018. The whisky was matured primarily in sherry butts alongside bourbon barrels, coaxing harmony from the robust, peated character of Yoichi in Hokkaido and the refined elegance of Miyagikyo in Sendai.

Tasting Notes:

Aroma: Yellow plum and peach open the nose with a spicy delicacy, giving way to dried apricot, fig, and old leather. Deeper layers reveal chocolate, dried tobacco leaf, dark honey, and a faint undercurrent of seared oak.

Taste: The entry is generous and unctuous, with candied orange and Morello cherry coating the palate immediately. The mid-palate thickens into toffee, mocha, and hazelnut, supported by a satin mouthfeel of vanilla custard and caramel. Wisps of smoke appear at the peak, a signature trace from the Yoichi component.

Finish: Long and elegant, trailing praline, charred wood, and aniseed into a clean citrus-and-dried-grass fade. The sherry influence lingers without becoming heavy, leaving a balanced warmth.

How to Drink Nikka Taketsuru 17 Year:

A whisky of this age and complexity deserves to be sipped neat or with a few drops of water to open the sherry cask character. For a Japanese-style serve, a Taketsuru Highball with cold, high-quality soda water highlights the dried fruit and citrus notes in a refreshing format. The rich mocha and toffee profile also makes it exceptional in an Old Fashioned with demerara syrup, where its fruit-forward sweetness replaces the need for excessive sugar. A Rob Roy made with sweet vermouth pairs naturally with the sherry-matured backbone.

Best For:

• Collectors seeking discontinued Japanese whisky with proven award pedigree
• After-dinner sipping alongside chocolate or dried fruit desserts
• Gifting to whisky enthusiasts who appreciate rare, aged expressions
• Side-by-side tastings comparing Japanese and Scotch blended malts

Frequently Asked Questions:

What does Nikka Taketsuru 17 Year taste like? It delivers rich candied orange, Morello cherry, and toffee up front, transitioning into mocha and hazelnut with a long praline-and-charred-wood finish. The sherry cask maturation gives it a dessert-like sweetness balanced by subtle smoke from the Yoichi malt component.

How does Nikka Taketsuru 17 Year compare to Yamazaki 18? Both are premium aged Japanese whiskies, but the Taketsuru 17 leans heavier into sherry cask influence with darker dried-fruit and chocolate notes, while the Yamazaki 18 tends toward a more floral, Mizunara oak-driven profile. The Taketsuru 17 also carries a distinct advantage in competition pedigree, holding more World's Best Blended Malt titles than any other whisky.

Is Nikka Taketsuru 17 Year good for beginners? While approachable for its age due to the smooth, fruit-forward profile, this is a collector-grade bottle best appreciated by those with some whisky experience who can identify the interplay between the Yoichi and Miyagikyo malt components.

Where is Nikka Taketsuru 17 Year made? It is produced by Nikka Whisky using malt whiskies from two distilleries: Yoichi in Hokkaido, known for its peated, robust character, and Miyagikyo in Sendai, known for its lighter, more elegant malts. The whiskies are matured for a minimum of 17 years in sherry butts and bourbon barrels before blending.

What foods pair well with Nikka Taketsuru 17 Year? Dark chocolate truffles, aged Comté or Manchego cheese, dried fig and apricot platters, grilled unagi (eel) with tare sauce, and crème brûlée all complement the rich sherry and toffee character.

Why Buy Nikka?

Nikka Whisky was founded in 1934 by Masataka Taketsuru, widely regarded as the father of Japanese whisky, who studied distillation in Scotland before returning to Japan to build his own distillery in Yoichi. The Taketsuru Pure Malt range was named directly after him and represents the pinnacle of Nikka's blending philosophy — achieving the smoothness typically associated with grain-inclusive blended whiskies using only malt whisky. The 17 Year expression, now discontinued, earned World's Best Blended Malt at the World Whiskies Awards five times across a seven-year span, a record unmatched in the category. With a meta-critic score of 8.77 out of 10 across 14 professional reviews, the Taketsuru 17 remains one of the most critically validated Japanese whiskies ever released.