Nikka Miyagikyo 12 Year Old

Miyagikyo

Just over 30 years after Mastaka Taketsuru founded the Nikka whisky company, he opened his second malt whisky distillery in Miyagi, Sendai. Seeking an expansion to the types of malt whisky available for his blends, Taketsuru looked to build a distillery site that was the polar opposite of his first site Yoichi. Situated in between two rivers and surrounded by mountains, the Sendai distillery, renamed Miyagikyo in 2001, was constructed and finished in 1969. Unlike the Yoichi distillery which utilised a direct flame and was coal powered, the Sendai distillery used indirect steam heating. Additionally, Yoichi utilised worm tub condensers which produce a heavy spirit, so Miyagikyo chose to use shell & tube condensers to produce a lighter spirit. More unpeated and light peated barley is utilised at Miyagikyo, with the majority of the barley imported from Scotland. 
 
The pot stills at the Sendai site are considerably bigger than Yoichi and include boil balls along with an upward sloping lyne arm. This all contributes to a considerable amount of copper contact, stripping out the heavier compounds in the spirit and leaving a light and delicate style of newmake. This means that Miyagikyo is typically a fruity and floral expression whereas Yoichi is a dirtier and heavier style of whisky. Grain whisky production was also moved to Sendai when the Coffey stills at Nikka’s Nishinomiya bottling plant were closed in 1998. A huge pair of stills, Nikka primarily utilises maize imported from the US as well as running malted barley through them. This has led to the exceptionally popular Nikka Coffey grain & Coffey malt releases.