Yoichi is one of those distilleries we keep coming back to, not out of duty but out of sheer affection. There is something about that coastal peat, the old‑school direct coal firing, and the quietly uncompromising house style that makes even a simple line‑up feel like a mini‑masterclass in what a Japanese single malt can be when it leans into its roots rather than chasing trends. In this session, we are looking at three expressions that map out very different phases of Yoichi’s story: the Yoichi Single Malt, the Grande, the 12‑year‑old Sherry & Sweet, and the venerable 20‑year‑old.
If you have followed our previous Yoichi coverage, you will know we have already spent time with several distillery exclusives and the NAS trio that effectively stepped into the space once occupied by the 12-year-old Sherry & Sweet and its two siblings (the woody and vanillic, and the peaty and salty). This new line‑up lets us reconnect with that lost benchmark, place it alongside a more contemporary ‘Grande’ interpretation, and then look up toward the long‑aged 20-year-old as a sort of North Star for mature Yoichi character. Taken together, these three whiskies should give us a useful snapshot of how the distillery’s profile stretches from youthful, cask‑forward charm to fully developed, time‑polished depth – and why, after all these reviews, Yoichi still feels like a distillery we haven’t finished exploring.
Yoichi Single Malt (2025) Review
The Yoichi Single Malt NAS was launched in 2016 as Nikka’s permanent replacement for the discontinued age-stated Yoichi range (10, 12, 15, and 20 Year Old), all of which were withdrawn due to stock shortages caused by the surge in Japanese whisky demand. It is the entry-level flagship of the Yoichi distillery’s core range, designed to maintain the house character of the coal-fired, heavily peated spirit while drawing on a variety of casks across multiple ages. Bottled at 45% ABV in a 70 cl bottle, it matured in new American oak and ex-sherry casks. Chill-filtration and colouring status are not officially disclosed. The expression is widely available at primary retail worldwide. Current pricing is approximately €70 – €75 in Europe and £68 in the UK.
Colour:
Old gold.
Nose:
Neat: Peat smoke is present but restrained and coastal rather than aggressive – a curl of soft smoke alongside briny sea spray, salt, and seaweed. Behind this: ripe orchard fruit (pears, apples, citrus) and a light floral note with sweet herbs. Vanilla, stewed fruit, and salted caramel develop with air. Some batches show lamp oil or phenolic notes characteristic of the coal-fired still, alongside honey and autumn leaves.
Palate:
– Neat: Smoke is considerably bolder on the palate than the nose suggests — maritime peat, earthy, and slightly savoury, with seaweed and a salty edge. Orange marmalade, toffee, oak spice, and a touch of vanilla run alongside the smoke. Oily mouthfeel with moderate body: it is thinner than the older age statements. Honey and spice dominate the mid-palate, with some vegetal root and oak bitterness toward the back.
Finish:
The finish is a bit short, with light smoke, oak spice, and caramel or dark chocolate persisting briefly. Brine and rich malt linger alongside the peat, with some drying oak bitterness.
Comments:
Lovely dram but clearly inferior as the discontinued age statement single malts from before the mid-2010s. It’s nonetheless a solid single malt, but a bit sweeter than pre-2020 batches of this single malt.
Rating: 6.5/10
Yoichi Grande (2022) Review
The Yoichi Grande is a travel retail exclusive released by Nikka Whisky in April 2022, available only at Japanese airport duty-free shops alongside its sibling the Miyagikyo Grande. Yoichi distillery, established in 1934 in Hokkaido by Masataka Taketsuru on the northernmost tip of Japan’s main islands, is historically characterised by coal-fired distillation, heavy peating, and a maritime, briny spirit profile that echoes the Scottish west coast style its founder admired. The Grande was designed to amplify Yoichi’s defining character: the blend uses a higher proportion of heavily peated malt and virgin oak-aged malt than the standard NAS at 43%, deliberately emphasising smoke and wood rather than sherry fruit.
Bottled at 48% ABV, non-chill-filtered, natural colour, in a 70 cl bottle, no outturn figures or vintage components were disclosed. The retail price in Japan at release was ¥10,000 (approximately €65 – €70 at release). Outside Japan, availability is secondary market only: approximately €220 from specialist EU and UK retailers, so you’ll have to try your luck at auction, where its value seems to have dropped to more reasonable prices.
Colour:
Deep gold.
Nose:
Neat: The nose is intense, starting on cold smoke and smoked black tea leaves. Unripe pears, green apples, and honey drops follow, giving a fresh and approachable character. Floral and clove honey, with mild citrus and a slight herbal touch running underneath. The virgin oak contributes a light cedar and pine freshness. Overall more delicate and aromatic than the standard NAS, but also more intense, and the components’ relative youth is perceptible.
Palate:
– Neat: Medium-bodied, slightly acidic, and initially punchy, settling into a more composed mid-palate. Sooty and herbaceous peat — mint, parsley — arrive quickly, alongside malty Ovaltine-biscuit notes and a touch of salted fish. Honey from the nose recedes somewhat; the virgin oak pushes fresh wood shavings, vanilla, and cedar into the mid-palate. Savoury, lightly smoky malt and dried grass (hay). The smoky and honeyed elements do not fully integrate — the youth of the components shows in a slight disconnect between the peated top notes and the sweeter base.
Finish:
Short to medium, clean, with fresh wood astringency, mint, and parsley recurring from the palate. Honey persists briefly before the wood and herbal notes take over. Pine and a hint of peat noted at the very close. The finish is the expression’s weakest point across reviewers — shorter and less complex than the nose suggests.
Comments:
This Yoichi Grande feels younger and a bit disjointed compared to the standard Yoichi NAS. The usage of heavily peated malt and more virgin oak does not provide the balance we’re used to from the standard Yoichi, but it feels more hastily made in order to fill a void in duty-free shops. That’s a shame, as it is really nice, but a bit more patience and less haste, maybe a period of calm in refill wood after emptying the virgin oak casks, would have help the spirit settle and harmony to arrive.
Rating: 6/10
Yoichi 12-Year-Old Sherry & Sweet (2010s) Review
The Yoichi Key Malts series was a distillery-exclusive range sold only at the Yoichi distillery shop in Hokkaido, comprising three expressions highlighting the core cask types used in Nikka’s Yoichi single malt: Sherry & Sweet, Woody & Vanillic, and Peaty & Salty. These bottlings were designed to expose the component malts that make up the broader Yoichi profile rather than present a finished, blended single malt. They were later replaced by NAS versions of the same three expressions, that we reviewed years ago on More Drams.
This Yoichi 12-year-old Sherry & Sweet was bottled at 55% ABV, from sherry-seasoned oak casks, in a 500 ml bottle, with no outturn published. The 12 Year Old expression is fully secondary market only, with prices these last few years around €250 to €350.
Colour:
Spice.
Nose:
Neat: Dunnage warehouse is the dominant first impression: musty, earthy, with damp stone and a hint of sandalwood. Red fruits emerge behind this: strawberries, wine gums, and dark grapes, with brown sugar, cinnamon, honey, a hint of tropical fruits and a buttery shortbread note developing with air. It sometimes feels almost like a Grande Champagne cognac for its lacquered wood and slight tropicalness.
With water: Water pushes the nose toward more pepper and fizz, with the earthy dunnage quality gaining more definition and a floral note – possibly lavender – emerging. The red fruit recedes slightly and the oak and spice become more prominent.
Palate:
Neat: Quite a first-fill sherry arrival: cinnamon, spices, and red fruits with a creamy mouthfeel and dark chocolate. Warm cherries, strawberry jam, prunes, ginger bread, and bitter chocolate follow. A peaty, smoky undercurrent reasserts itself in the back palate – lightly maritime, slightly saline – which is the Yoichi house character pushing through the sherry layer. The ABV feels well contained; this is really nice.
With water: The palate gets drier and fruitier with water, with more oak structure and the chocolate deepening in layers. Sandalwood and further spice emerge. Reduction opens and integrates the sweet and smoky components more cleanly. Again there’s a resemblance with cognac, a Borderies one this time.
Finish:
Long, on sherry oak spice, dark chocolate, and lingering red fruit. A hint of milk chocolate and smoke persists, with the characteristic Yoichi peat fire note returning faintly at the very end.
Comments:
The sherry influence on this 12-year-old Yoichi is clearly pronounced, yet long maturation has brought it into very good integration, with an excellent balance between peat, sherry and the underlying distillery’s character. At times, both on the nose and the palate, it evokes elements reminiscent of mature Cognac while still retaining a recognisable Yoichi profile. Excellent whisky.
Rating: 8/10
Yoichi 20-Year-Old (2012) Review
The Yoichi 20 Year Old was the oldest expression in Nikka’s core age-stated Yoichi range, discontinued in 2015 along with the entire age-statement line-up when stock shortages from the Japanese whisky boom made it impossible to sustain. The 20 Year Old was bottled from a multi-cask marriage, including ex-sherry, ex-bourbon, new oak and heavily peated malts. This version was bottled at 52% and without a vintage, but several earlier editions featured a vintage and a higher ABV.
Colour:
Cider.
Nose:
Neat: Cedar wood, cigar box, and tobacco leaves open prominently, with old leather and incense adding depth. Some orchard fruits – plums, apricots, dried figs – develop alongside toffee, butterscotch, and maple syrup. Earthy peat smoke, burnt cake, and a hint of tar push through as the nose opens, alongside dried mushrooms and soft spices.
With water: Water pushes the wood back, brings forward more of the bright fruit – apricots, orange peel – and adds an earthy, mossy quality alongside gunpowder notes. The butterscotch and toffee expand further. Quite nice with water.
Palate:
Neat: Punchy and bordering on pungent on the first sip – quite savoury and leathery. Walnuts, roasted pecans, deep earthy peat smoke, pepper, liquorice, anise, and a pinch of salt build through the mid-palate. Behind this, a bitter-sweet harmony of burnt fruit cake and dark chocolate sits in the background. A cup of coffee, cinnamon, and a touch of apples. A flash of sharp wood spice appears on the second sip before the fruit takes over.
With water: The wood recedes, the fruit becomes more expressive – apricots, especially – and the spice integrates more cleanly, though the overall profile becomes somewhat less tightly wound. Flint, sandalwood, and polished furniture notes develop, with leather and oak asserting a structural dryness.
Finish:
Very long, smoky, and chocolaty with traces of dry oak and slightly sourish tobacco leaves. Earthy, savoury soup-spice notes from the palate carry through into a long, consistent memory.
Comments:
An utterly superb Yoichi, showing substantial complexity and more punch and peat than the age might suggest, already at an excellent bottling strength. A few drops of water elevate it further, it makes it even more perfect, if that’s a word! There is a distinctive character here that sets Yoichi apart from most peated Scotch, giving it a recognisable signature that feels rooted in its production style. Maybe the fact that the stills are with direct coal fire? Anyway, superb stuff.