Nikka YOICHI 10 Year Single Malt (700 ml)

When Masataka Taketsuru founded the Yoichi Distillery in 1934 at the base of Hokkaido's Shakotan Peninsula, he chose direct coal-fired distillation — the same method used at Longmorn in Scotland — deliberately preserving the heavier congeners and complex flavour compounds that steam-heating strips away. That decision, labour-intensive and difficult to control, has never been reversed, making Yoichi one of the last distilleries in the world still operating this way.

The site sits where mountains on three sides funnel cold Sea of Japan air and coastal fog across the distillery, with snowmelt from the Yoichi River providing the water source. That cool, damp maritime microclimate — combined with historically local peat and coal from the Ishikari Plain — drives the distillate toward weight, brine, and smoke from the outset.

Straight-head pot stills with downward lyne arms suppress reflux, pushing oils and heavier esters into the new-make spirit. After 10 years of maturation, the result carries the full structural density that Yoichi's production philosophy demands. The 10 Year is the entry point into Nikka's age-stated Yoichi range — a category where most Japanese producers have suspended age statements entirely due to stock constraints, making this expression a genuine rarity in the current market.

The maritime peat character is present but measured against a decade of cask integration; the drinking window is open now and will hold comfortably through the mid-2030s.