Miyagikyo once again carries an age statement.

After Nikka discontinued Miyagikyo 10, 12 and 15 Years Old in 2015, the distillery spent roughly a decade without a regularly announced age-statement Miyagikyo in this line.

Miyagikyo Single Malt 10 Years Old brings the number back: a limited-release Japanese single malt made only with malt whisky matured for at least ten years at Sendai Miyagikyo Distillery.

The return of an age statement after 2015

In 2015, Nikka reorganised its Yoichi and Miyagikyo ranges around new no-age-statement single malts.

As part of that change, Miyagikyo 10, 12 and 15 Years Old were discontinued at the end of August 2015. Nikka and Asahi explained at the time that rapidly growing whisky demand made it necessary to use limited mature stocks more flexibly.

A new Miyagikyo 10 Years Old was announced in 2025. After a launch delay caused by a systems disruption, the limited release began rolling out from 3 February 2026.

The significance is therefore larger than the number “10” on the label. It marks the return of an age-stated Miyagikyo after the range had been absent since 2015.

Made from malt whisky aged for at least ten years

The whisky is made from malt spirits distilled at Miyagikyo and matured for at least ten years.

It is bottled at 45% ABV in a 700ml bottle.

Nikka’s official tasting notes describe aromas of apple, citrus and sweet vanilla. On the palate, fruit and gentle malt sweetness unfold together, followed by a subtly bittersweet finish shaped by oak maturation.

For readers familiar with the standard Miyagikyo Single Malt, the direction remains recognisable: elegant fruit and softness, but with greater ripe-fruit depth and a more pronounced mature oak finish.

Why Miyagikyo tastes different from Yoichi

Sendai Miyagikyo Distillery was established in 1969 as Nikka founder Masataka Taketsuru’s second distillery. His purpose was to create malt whisky with a character distinctly different from the powerful style of Yoichi in Hokkaido.

The central technical difference is the way the pot stills are heated.

Yoichi continues to use direct coal firing at temperatures above 1,000°C. Miyagikyo instead uses indirect steam heating at around 130°C, allowing the spirit to distil more gently.

Miyagikyo also uses large pot stills with rounded bulge-shaped necks and upward-sloping lyne arms. More vapour repeatedly falls back into the still before passing onward, helping produce a lighter, smoother and more floral new make spirit.

A distillery built to be the opposite of Yoichi

Miyagikyo lies in a green valley west of central Sendai, where the Nikkawa and Hirose rivers flow through a forested landscape.

Taketsuru wanted a second malt style that could complement Yoichi and give Nikka a broader palette for blending.

According to Nikka, he tasted whisky diluted with water from the Nikkawa River and decided that this valley should become the site of the new distillery.

The fruitiness of Miyagikyo 10 therefore does not come from age alone. It grows out of the distillery’s original design: soft water, a cool green valley, steam-heated pot stills and a deliberate pursuit of a gentler spirit.

A limited return

When the whisky was announced, the planned allocation was 9,000 bottles for Japan and 9,000 for overseas markets.

That makes Miyagikyo 10 more than simply an older version of the standard bottling. It is the return of a type of whisky the range had not carried since 2015: a Miyagikyo whose age is stated clearly on the label.

Miyagikyo Single Malt 10 Years Old

Japan | Sendai Miyagikyo Distillery, Miyagi | Single malt Japanese whisky | Aged at least 10 years | 700ml | 45% ABV | Limited release

Apple and citrus fruit, sweet vanilla from maturation, gentle malt sweetness and a softly bittersweet oak finish: Miyagikyo’s floral, fruit-led character given greater depth through more than a decade in cask.

Available at IMAMI

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