Nose: Barley sugars, red apples, dried pears, lemon pie, nougat, apricots, subtle wild flowers.
Palate: Lemon sherbet, barley sugars, dried pears, oak, nougat, macadamia nuts, marzipan, white pepper, spearmint, a little smoke and ash.
Finish: Nougat, macadamia nuts, barley, oak, ash, mineralized water.
Last Word: This is a smooth and subtle style of whisky with enough quality and complexity for the price point in Japan. Nice summer sipper. As this will be the main single malt offering from Miyagikyo for a number of years to come I hope they will tweak the make up from time to time to give us some variety. I have open bottles of both the 12 and 15 year olds and they are definitely bolder and more complex whiskies.
Rating: 84/100
Of the new NAS stuff from Suntory/Nikka/Mars, I like this and Yamazaki the best. For me, the Miyagikyo has some strange “cream cheese” thing going on that I like… but it’s a very different experience from the 10, 12, or 15 were. Honestly, for anyone looking for something similar in experience to the old Miyagikyo line (especially the 15), I think the Date & Nikka 12 blends or Taketsuru 17/21 are much closer, despite having other malts/grains…
Still, while the Nikka/Suntory NAS bottlings are selling for ~4000yen/$33 dollars in Japan (not a bad value compared to malt whisky from other countries), the NAS bottlings that do show up in the US (Taketsuru & Hibiki thus far) are selling for $60~65… that’s a tough sell when Yamazaki 12 & Hakushu 12 are sitting nearby $65~70, and when Taketsuru 12 & Hibiki 12 were selling in the same range before being phased out.