Nikka's founder Masataka Taketsuru is considered the father of Japanese whisky. After completing studies in chemistry, he was recruited by the Settsu Shuzo company, who sent him to Scotland in 1918 to complete his apprenticeship. There he developed a passion for whisky and decided to dedicate his life to it. In 1934, he built Yoichi, his first distillery, on the island of Hokkaido. Its growing success enabled him to establish a second distillery in 1969, near Sendai, named Miyagikyo. It is from the single malts of these two distilleries that the Nikka Whisky group produces its entire range of Japanese whiskies.

Nikka All Malt is a blend of whiskies from the group’’s two distilleries, Yoichi and Myagikyo. What makes it unusual is the use of malt whisky distilled using Myagikyo’’s Coffey still, referred to as Coffey malt. This is therefore a malt whisky rather than a blended scotch, part of which has been distilled in a column still and the other in a pot still.