Yoichi 1987 / 2006 #113200 62%

The best of the big four. You may already know that each Japanese distillery is designed to be able to produce a variety of styles since the custom of cask exchange never took root. This Yoichi is very much on the peatier end. Lovely stuff, I do not think we are far from Brora. It’s an earthy kind of peat, feet firmly sunken into sandy earth and oozing oils, dank leaf litter, decaying wood, mud on rubber boots. It almost wants to be farmy. The strike of phenols and combustion is never far, old grease cans, rustic sausages on coals and purring engines. Garage floors and crushed minerals. Dirty straw mats and geosmin. On the tongue white smoke rapidly emerges and something sappy and mentholated awaits behind the haze. A powerhouse. I like this one very much. 92 pts