![]() A great nose, it’s a pleasure to come back to it between sips ![]() Nose: Sweet and rich aromas of raisins, sultanas and plums. Everyone who has tried mine just assumes this is a single malt, given its flavour and quality. ![]() Suntory certainly seems to know how to age grain whisky well. Again, the age statement is only a minimum – everything in there (including the grain whisky) is at least 17 years old. This surprises almost every experienced whisky drinker who tries it, as you do not taste any of the typical “graininess” or rounding-off of flavour common to traditional Scottish blends (even higher-end ones). The Hibiki line is actually blended whisky, not pure malt. In fact, I’ve had to ration tastings from that first bottle, to ensure as many as possible could try it at least once. Since then, everyone who has sampled from my bottle has been very impressed – from newbies to experienced scotch drinkers alike. There were a number of other whiskies that I had thought I might return with – but the Hibiki 17 yo was a surprise hit for me. Personally, I was so impressed with the 17 yo on my first trip to Japan that it became the one bottle that I chose to bring back through duty free (Canada has strict import limits). The more budget Hibiki 12 year old (which until recently was more widely available) gets a reasonable 8.65 ± 0.27 score on 13 reviews. I initially hesitated in including it in the list at all, given how oddly low three of those reviews were – although the overall average is now a more reasonable 8.75 ± 0.43 on 8 reviews. It is exceedingly rare outside of Japan, so there were initially very few reviews of it in my Whisky Database. The Hibiki 17 year old is an interesting whisky to profile. Note: This commentary has been updated with the expanded scores from the Oct 2015 build of my Whisky Database.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |