Yamazaki 25 Year Sherry 700mL

This is the earlier style of Yamazaki 25 Year Old, when the whisky was built largely on sherry-cask malt. It is a quarter-century-old single malt from Suntory's first distillery, bottled at 43%.

About This Whisky

Yamazaki 25 first appeared in 1999. In its original form it leaned heavily on sherry casks, which gave a dark colour and a dense profile of dried fruit, coffee and old wood. Suntory later reworked the recipe as a vatting of American, Spanish and Japanese mizunara oak to bring it in line with the 12 and 18 Year Old. Chief blender Shinji Fukuyo has said the new version drew on the limited Yamazaki 1984 bottling. This bottle belongs to the earlier, sherry-led style, so expect more raisin and less incense than the current release.

Tasting Profile

• Nose: Prune, raisin and baked fruit, then cinnamon, old oak and a little smoked honey.
• Palate: Thick and oily. Sherry richness first, then espresso, caramel, liquorice and more dried fruit.
• Finish: Long and drying, with polished oak, cocoa and a trace of spice.

Serving & Food

Serve at room temperature in a small tulip glass and let the glass sit for ten minutes before nosing. Water is rarely needed at 43%. Try it with dark chocolate truffles, roasted chestnuts or a slice of Christmas cake.

How to Enjoy

Marking a 25th anniversary or milestone birthday, or comparing the sherry-era 25 against the current mizunara-influenced bottling.

Product Details

About the Distillery

Shinjiro Torii established the Yamazaki Distillery in 1923, making it Japan's first and oldest malt whisky distillery. He admired Scotch but wanted something distinctly Japanese, so he looked for a site whose terrain and climate were quite unlike Scotland's.

He settled on the edge of Kyoto, in an area once called Minaseno and known for the purity of its water. A century on, Yamazaki is still owned by the company he founded.