Dressed in its smart ‘kimono’ bottle like its younger sibling The Nikka 12 Year Old, as well as a wooden presentation box, this extraordinary well-aged blended Japanese whisky is something very, very special indeed. Utilising some of Nikka’s oldest stock (it’s said to contain 1940s Yoichi and late 1960s Miyagikyo!) it’s also made up of only a third grain whisky. It’s universally agreed that this is a true masterpiece of blending.

Founded in 1934 by Masataka Taketsuru, considered the father of Japanese whisky, Nikka Whisky produces a wide and diverse range of whiskies at its two distilleries located in the north of Japan: Yoichi and Miyagikyo. Renowned for both its single malts and its precisely blended and unmatched complex whiskies, Nikka was born out of a true passion for whisky that Taketsuru discovered in Scotland. It was also there that he met his wife Rita, who inspired and supported him in the realization of his dream to produce an authentic whisky in Japan.

40 years is the age of maturity, it is also the age that Masataka Taketsuru was when he created his company Nikka. Thus, this single cuvée sensitively and subtly evokes the complex and subtle journey of its founder. Alternating between twilight (underbrush, precious wood, noble spices, caramelized fruits) and bright (exotic fruits, red fruits, citrus, juniper berry) atmospheres, this venerable Nikka is transcended by the purity of the spring water it drinks, a true elixir of eternal youth.