Nikka Taketsuru Pure Malt (Discontinued)

I’m a sucker for a full/rich profile. Prefer this over the 12 year. Love the nose burn.

Delicious and yet not really essential at all: smells of honey and heather and vanilla, some cut green grass; white oak and green apples. Floral with a light smoky backbone. A taste that's light and yet quite hot at the same time. Some sweet caramelized wood char, candied apple, honeycomb and heather, clean smoke (if that makes sense). Pear or apple, but not tipping over too sweetly. A woody, clean smoky finish that's short: there and gone. I bought this bottle to celebrate, and it really served its purpose: unique and clean and crisp and nice, enjoyable even for those who aren't crazy about whisky. But it's also not truly remarkable, and there's a lot of other whiskies out there that fill a similar purpose--many of which, given the current craze for Japanese whisky, are much cheaper and more readily available.

Feel like they could be variations from the ones I tried in Australia vs the ones in Japan and must say they’re nonetheless still good with the ones in Japan tasting with honey cream and supple - very good 4* while the aussie ones felt like a 3 when compared to the taketsuru 12

Smokey and smooth