Nikka Miyagikyo

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Nikka Miyagikyo

Nikka Miyagikyo

(NIK-ah mee-yah-gee-kyoh) Nikka was founded in 1934 by Masataka Taketsuru, a Hiroshima-born brewer’s son who travelled to Scotland in 1918 to study whisky-making. After establishing Yoichi in Hokkaido, Taketsuru completed Miyagikyo in 1969 in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, as Nikka’s second distillery and a deliberate contrast to Yoichi’s bolder style.

(NIK-ah mee-yah-gee-kyoh) Nikka was founded in 1934 by Masataka Taketsuru, a Hiroshima-born brewer’s son who travelled to Scotland in 1918 to study whisky-making. After establishing Yoichi in Hokkaido, Taketsuru completed Miyagikyo in 1969 in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, as Nikka’s second distillery and a deliberate contrast to Yoichi’s bolder style.

About Nikka Miyagikyo

(NIK-ah mee-yah-gee-kyoh) Nikka was founded in 1934 by Masataka Taketsuru, a Hiroshima-born brewer’s son who travelled to Scotland in 1918 to study whisky-making. After establishing Yoichi in Hokkaido, Taketsuru completed Miyagikyo in 1969 in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, as Nikka’s second distillery and a deliberate contrast to Yoichi’s bolder style.

Miyagikyo sits in a forested valley between the Hirose and Nikkawa rivers, using low-hardness water from the Nikkawa River, which flows from the Zao Mountain Range. The distillery uses pot stills with bulging necks and upward lyne arms, heated by indirect steam, producing a softer, more floral and fruit-led malt than Yoichi. Miyagikyo works with both lightly peated and unpeated malted barley, giving the whisky its elegant profile and delicate mouthfeel.

The site is also important to Nikka’s wider production, with Coffey stills used for grain whisky that supports blends as well as releases such as Nikka Coffey Grain and Coffey Malt. Miyagikyo Single Malt was relaunched as a permanent no-age-statement expression in 2016 after the age-stated versions were discontinued, with official limited releases such as Miyagikyo Peated showing a richer, smokier side of the distillery.

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