Japanese Whiskey

I reached out to a pretty big retailer through a friend for any (or all) of the tightly allocated US bourbons/ryes of which I have quite a strong knowledge about. His response was to ask if there were any Japanese whiskeys that I might want…he had quite a few “hard-to-come-by” Japanese whiskeys that I could have access to. In unfamiliar territory here. I drink a little scotch but not that much. Partial to Highland Park 18 or Macallan 18. Can anyone make any suggestions of what I might want to “score” if a Pappy or BTAC is no longer an option? Merry & Happy.

Habiki 12 year old!! also their 17 year old but for me the 12 is the stuff!

What I know about Japanese Whiskey is that is is closer to Scotch than Bourbon. I am not an expert on Japanese Whiskey, so there could be exceptions.

Age statement Japanese whiskey is wiped out in supply.
I’m in Japan and out of several places I went only one had some hibiki 17, and I bought the last 3 btls.
Hibiki 12 is discontinued. No way to find these now. The new harmony is NAS, and tho not bad, not quite the same as the 12.

Agreed the Harmony is good but certainly not the 12 or the 17. this poster mentioned this guy had unicorns so he may as well as for the their blood

A true ‘score’ would be something like Ichiro Malt ‘Card Series’ or Karuizawa.

Yamazaki Sherry Cask '16 would be a really nice find and it is quite good. That would be hard-to-come-by but not totally rare or insane pricing.

Depending on the pipeline, stuff like 17 Taketsuru has been showing up recently in tiny amounts. And Irai, iirc. Am guessing these got lost in the chain somewhere and then redirected to more savvy markets.

I have a slight prefence for the Harmony to the '12, but I am somewhat alone in that.

Yamazaki is pretty damn good.

Honestly, if you like the flavor profile of scotch, I’d drink scotch over Japanese whiskey any day of the week. There are better values, more easily available, at almost every price point. To me, much of the Japanese whiskey craze is fashion and hype. Don’t get me wrong - the good stuff does taste good. But I wouldn’t spend the energy or money to chase it when there’s nothing (in my mind) that makes it superior to what you can get in the world of scotch. Almost by definition, they are trying to perfect someone else’s idea, not make an interesting-on-its-own product.

Of course, if you have a line of some great ones at good prices, I doubt you’ll be disappointed. Just sayin’ that if you want something like scotch…maybe try more scotch.

This^.

I was about to post what Sarah said, more or less. I’ve enjoyed Japanese whisk(e)y many times and, when it was reasonably priced, I liked it. But never once did I say “man this is definitely worth drinking over scotch!”

I’ve got a Hibiki 17 in my bar that I rarely grab over scotch and should just sell it off since pricing has gone nuts.

Japanese whiskey = bourbon in terms of pricing craze. I’ll buy Highland Park 18 all day for the price of these gray market bottles of the other stuff and enjoy a significantly superior dram.

+3

anyone have the Yamasaki 18 ?

Wise words from Sarah, very well put.

It may be that the Japanese learned to make good Whiskey by emulating Scotch, but I think they now do it best in their own styles. I’ve been in Tokyo for the past few days and sipping a 180ml bottle of The Chita Single Grain I picked up in a convenience store. It’s a really nice drink which sells for about $30-35 here (in the regular size - my bottle was $10). Chita is one of the distilleries from which Hibiki is blended. This one is light and very fruity with just a bit of smokiness. If you’ve had Suntory Toki in the US, the Chita is similar in body and color but I like it quite a bit better than Toki for its complexity.

I also found some 50ml bottles of Hibiki 17 for $7.50. They’re so cute!

Love the Hibiki. Picked up some last time I flew through Tokyo airport. Limited edition bottle, which was pretty cool. Tastes closer to an Irish whiskey than scotch for my taste, with hints of vanilla. Excellent stuff.

Ohishi, i sell this, not expensive, but really good, if you get a chance, buy it…

It’s not widely available and I have no reason to pimp this, just tasted the 2 today and they are great for around $50…

Not sure if you picked up anything, but the Yamazaki single malt 12 may be going the way of the Hibiki 12.

just got my hands on the yamazaki 18 limited edition. never had it. for those that have, how is it? t.i.a.

it’s fine. doesn’t taste like an 18 yr old to me

thanks brother - i will probably open it with other 18s to see if this is even worth chasing again.

[cheers.gif]