In a valley outside Sendai, between two rivers and a wood of broadleaf trees, stands a column still from 1963. It was bought second-hand in Scotland, shipped to Japan and has been running there ever since. Nikka uses it for whisky, for gin and for this vodka.
Expert description
Nikka Coffey Japanese Vodka is a Japanese Vodka from Nikka Whisky, distilled from corn and malted barley in a Coffey still at the Miyagikyo distillery and bottled at 40%.
A Coffey still is an old-fashioned column, named after the Irishman Aeneas Coffey who patented it in 1830. It is less efficient than a modern column, and that is the entire point. Because it does not strip the distillate all the way down, body and texture come across with it, the very things a modern column would have shaved away.
Nikka brought its Coffey still to Japan in 1963 and still runs it. The grain is a mixture of corn and malted barley, where the corn brings round sweetness and the malt lays a soft layer underneath. It is the same thinking about raw material that sits behind the house Coffey Grain Whisky, only without the cask.
Finally the vodka is filtered through white birch charcoal. White birch is soft, porous wood, and its charcoal works gently: it takes the edges without dragging the sweetness along. The result is a vodka where texture is the first thing you notice and purity arrives second.
Tasting notes
Nose
Soft and clean. Cooked corn and a touch of lemon peel, with a distant floral note behind.
Palate
Creamy and lightly sweet. Corn sweetness fills the middle, the malt lays a soft layer beneath, and there is a suggestion of white pepper at the edge.
Finish
Short and velvety. The sweetness slips quietly away and leaves a clean, almost powdered impression.
Specifications
Name: Nikka Coffey Vodka
Distillery: Nikka Whisky
Region/Country: Miyagikyo, Sendai, Japan
Type: Japanese Vodka
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Distilled from corn and malted barley in a Coffey still, filtered through white birch charcoal
EAN no.: 3700597303276
Serving suggestion: Neat and cool in a small glass, or in a Vodka Martini where the texture gets room without too much vermouth.
Flavour profile
Creamy · Lightly corn-sweet · Clean · Soft texture
Did you know?
The same Coffey still is used for the house Coffey Grain Whisky and Coffey Malt Whisky. So Coffey never refers to coffee at Nikka, even though the name makes plenty of people assume it does. It is a surname.
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