The Mother of Japanese Whisky

[Gill Davies]

If you love Scotch, you'll love this programme I made for Radio Scotland on Rita Taketsuru, the Scots woman who moved to Japan with her husband, Masataka, and helped him set up Nikka Whisky. You can listen to it here on the Radio Scotland website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qxqgl

[michael]

Nicely done.

[Mchevalier]

I was sad to find out that the broadcast has expired. I was unable to find a way to retrieve a transcript from the BBC site. Any info on Rita you can provide would be greatly appreciated. My company just recently started importing Nikka to the U.S., and I've been studying her life story. What an AMAZING woman. I believe that her name will become more prominent as the days go by. Please let me know what resources you would recommend for further research. Cheers!

[valuetl]

Have a bottle of their 21yr Taketsuru pure malt. Fantastic Scotch.!;)

[Islay Peat]

Make sure and keep us updated on which products you're bringing in, and I hope that both Miyagikyou 10 and Yoichi 10 will be among them.

I've tried the whole Taketsuru lineup, which includes: 12, 17, 17 non-chill filtered (limited production, sold out), 21, 25 and the also sold out 35. The Taketsuru 17 was given an award for best blend in the world last year.

[valuetl]

Just finished my Hibiki 21 so I'm planning on replacing it with Yoichi 20 yr and Nikka Single Coffey Malt 12 yr if I can find it.

[opelfruit]

Make sure you try before you buy on the Yoichi - wide batch variation. If you sample one thats good make sure the one you get is from the same batch. Generally a stunning malt.

Good luck getting hold of a Coffey Malt 12yr - they were sold out ages ago everywhere I could find. I managed to pick up a 14yr (1998 cask 143228) but the shop I had only had an allocation of 2 bottles, there are some knocking about online still. Careful though, it's weird....good, but weird :)

[Islay Peat]

Just finished my Hibiki 21 so I'm planning on replacing it with Yoichi 20 yr and Nikka Single Coffey Malt 12 yr if I can find it.Have you tried any of the older Taketsuru lineup, meaning the 25 or 35? If you can get up to Miyagikyou distillery about 40 minutes from Sendai they still have some of the Taketsuru 35, which is all sold out everywhere else.

I really like their distillery only Miyagikyou 10 single cask as well, but you'd probably prefer the 15, 20 or 25 year versions.