A blend of the two Nikka single malts, Taketsuru combines the strong character of Yoichi with the elegance & precision of Miyagikyo.
Both masculine and feminine, traditional and innovative, this outstanding pure malt is a worthy tribute to Masataka Taketsuru, the father of Japanese whisky and founder of Nikka.

Selected as world’s best blended malt four times, the Taketsuru 21 is quite simply one of the great whiskies of our times.

From NIKKA WHISKY official site

When Taketsuru aged 17 years and Taketsuru aged 21 years were discontinued, I was really disappointed. But before long, even Taketsuru NAS started selling for over 10,000 yen, and those crazy prices continued for quite a while. Recently, though, the price seems to have come down a bit. I’m not sure if the demand that pushed the prices up so high has finally cooled off, but it definitely looks more reasonable now. Still, it’s expensive compared to the old days. I remember when the 21-year was around 9,000 yen and the 17-year was under 5,000 yen. If you lived through those times, it’s hard not to compare.


I hadn’t had it for a while, but after tasting it again, I was reminded that it’s a really good whisky. I’d love to see the 17-year and 21-year expressions come back while I’m still alive… though I imagine they’d be very expensive. If the 21-year were reissued today, the MSRP might easily be over 40,000 yen. In that case, I’d probably just buy a good Scotch instead.