Nikka The Grain Whisky 2023 – 70cl

The third and final chapter of Nikka's celebrated Discovery Series — and the most ambitious, wide-ranging, and historically resonant release of the three. Created in the year leading up to Nikka Whisky's 90th anniversary in 2024, The Grain Whisky brings together seven distinct grain whisky personalities from four Nikka distilleries spanning three decades of production — a feat of blending archaeology that simultaneously celebrates where Nikka has been and illuminates where it is going. The 2021 Discovery explored peat; the 2022 Discovery explored yeast; and this final 2023 edition takes the most fundamental and overlooked building block of blended whisky — grain — and reveals the extraordinary diversity, complexity, and character that Nikka's vast accumulated stocks have quietly been developing across its distilleries for over sixty years.

The blend draws from Coffey Grain and Coffey Malt distilled at Miyagikyo in the 2010s; rare Coffey Grain and Coffey Malt from the now-closed Nishinomiya Distillery, distilled in 1988 — making some components at least 35 years old; unmalted barley whisky from the Moji Distillery using a stainless steel pot still technique closer to shochu production than conventional whisky distillation; and further unmalted barley, corn, and rye grain whiskies from Satsuma Tsukasa — a portfolio of production methods, grains, and distilleries of remarkable breadth. Non-chill filtered, aged in refill, remade, and re-charred casks with a light influence of American oak and new hogshead barrels, and bottled at 48% ABV. Only 3,300 cases produced worldwide.