Nose: Heavenly seductive and rich. Vanilla oak, banana milk, and soft chewy style banana confectionary. Light honey drizzled over vanilla and cinnamon bread (hot cross buns). Coconut milk. Cadbury Summer Roll (lightly roasted peanuts and coconut flakes wrapped in milk chocolate). Then, Eggnog. With prolonged time a lot of the creamy sweetness subsides giving way to vegetal and rich malty notes. With water honey bush tea with a drop of vanilla essence and a dash of milk.
Taste: Extremely silky and buttery. Lightly spiced mellow honey caresses every part of your mouth. Arnott's Milk coffee (no pun intended) biscuits and/or Malt-O-Milk biscuits. Then, a transition to chai spiced banana bread. Grated coconut mingles with dark chocolate. Eggnog moderately spiced with nutmeg. Dried oats. With time celery stalks and malt. When diluted milky, honey bush tea.
Finish: Moderate to long with mild spiced chai tea, dried oats, malt, and milk coffee biscuits.
Comment: Pretty exciting stuff. Great to break away from the norm and have something slightly different. Nikka has impressed me yet again. The Coffey Malt expression, along with the Taketsuru NAS sherry wood finish and Date have become my all time favourites from the whisky giant (excluding single casks naturally). And lets not forget that it is extremely affordable.
Great tasting notes. Clint! This is available here in Switzerland, too, so I might consider it as a lush dram for warm summer nights. Actually, after having read your review I made up my mind and will go out and buy a bottle (retail price approx. 7,000 yen). Thanks for another informative piece! Oh, and by the way, that Date is great stuff!
ReplyDeleteHi Pierre. The price point here is around 5,600 yen, which in my opinion makes it affordable. As for your price point I think it is worth it, I would however be hesitant if it was only a 500ml bottle but luckily they are 700mls across the pond also. The Nikka Coffey Malt with the huge banana notes is perfect for summer. Looking forward to hearing your opinion on this when you get your bottle. Thanks for the kind words.
DeleteI was able to pick this up locally here in Yokosuka and I have to say that your notes describe this whisky perfectly. I was also able to buy the Nikka Coffey Grain whisky at the same time and it's quite tasty too!
ReplyDeleteGood to hear from you Mike, it's been a while. Nice to see you are still around and enjoying the local drams. The Coffey Malt is exceptional, there is nothing at all to dislike about it. This is again another bottle which has become my daily dram. I'm actually a big fan of Japanese grain but if I must be honest, although the Coffey Grain (NAS) is good, it lacks complexity in the flavour profile department, well, for me anyway, and in comparison to other single grain whiskies from other local brands. The lovey banana notes on the Coffey Malt are just perfect right now for these warmer days. Thanks for the encouragement.
DeleteHmm... interesting, I noticed I tend to shun the NAS, I think it's time I need to open up to that .... I'll drop by my local LMDW next week. They have a new shipment coming in, hopefully this is one of the bottles - getting a chichibu 'on the way' too.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion most Japanese NAS expressions, not all, but the majority, especially from Nikka, are stellar whiskies. Certainly something you should consider and not over look Andy. Although there are a few NAS expressions I will not buy from the competitors, simply because I don't agree with the quality, I will however give praise, as mentioned, and in relation to this post, to Nikka's Date, Taketsuru Sherry Wood Finish, and the above Coffey Malt. If you buy a bottle of Coffey Malt please do share your thoughts. Regards.
DeleteHi Clint,
ReplyDeleteI ordered a couple of these, but they've been held up in customs for over a week.
I have to pay duty to the blood-sucking leeches for the first time in ages.
Still, it's heightened my anticipation - I can't wait to try it!
Hi Alan, I hope it will be worth all the effort - I'm sure it wiki be as this is a lovey tropical dram. Still, nothing worse I guess when your whisky gets held up. Please do share your thoughts once you had a few drams. Cheers.
DeleteHi Clint,
ReplyDeleteI've tried it now & it WAS worth the wait - it's absolutely delicious!
Your tasting note covers it well - I would also add that it reminds me of some of those luscious Caribbean rums.
The only down side is that my first bottle is disappearing fast, so I really need to get some more!
Glad to hear your bottles arrived Alan. Sounds like two won't be enough. If you will be in the market for an extra be sure to check out the pricing at Yamaya. I popped into a store today and it was priced below RRP. Not sure where you got yours or for how much but worth checking out.
DeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts on this. When you mentioned the resemblance of 'luscious rums' I immediately wanted to go and pour myself a dram. I love this, as you know many Japanese whiskies change over time however, with this it retains all that tropical and milky influence all the way. Enjoy, it certainly goes quick. Hope your next delivery will be a bit more breezy. Cheers, Clint.