Speaking of Japan, Hibiki Japanese Harmony blended whisky graces my glass today. I had tried this before and found it uninspiring. Its fancier cousin (the Master's Select) left me feeling the same. So why on earth did I buy a full bottle of the stuff at Binny's last year? Well...
- I'm smitten by highballs during these Midwest summers.
- Fond remembrances of age-stated Hibiki.
- Friends encouraged me to give it another try.
- I adore the bottle shape, those lovely 24 facets.
- It was on sale for $79.99. Yeah, a real frickin' bargain. 😐
Since I've almost finished the bottle, I can start to drop spoilers. Am I sorry I bought the whisky? No. Am I going to buy it again? Not unless I find for clearance prices someday.
Hibiki Japanese Harmony blended whisky has a 🙂 side and a 🙁 side. Before I use any more emojis, I should just begin the review.
Brand: Hibiki
Type: Blended whisky
Country: Japan
Distilleries: Yamazaki and Hakushu for malt, Chita for grain
Age: ???
Maturation: "The spirit ages in five types of casks, including rare Japanese oak Mizunara, as well as sherry and bourbon casks."
Alcohol by Volume: 43%
NEAT
There's a lot of moderately-aged grain whisky in the nose. It's bready and floral, with touches of toasted oak, lychee candy, banana, and vanilla. That toasted oak registers louder in the palate, with lots of baking spices to go with mild tannins. Wheat and flowers, oranges and maple. Gently sweet. It finishes sweeter with more oranges and straightforwards oak.
HIGHBALL
Dangerously refreshing. The sweetness remains mild, yet the citrus reads more varied and complex than when the whisky is sipped neatly, while the wheat shifts towards barley.
WORDS WORDS WORDS
The contents of this bottle of Hibiki Japanese Harmony have disappeared very quickly via spring and summer highballs. Yes, using an $80 whisky for highballs is obnoxious, but if one is to do so, the bubbly results had better be damned good. And they are. At the same time, I like Suntory Toki's highballs too, and that blend is one-third the price of Harmony here in Ohio. And I'm not going to say a word about Suntory's magical $15 blend in Japan. Circling back to Harmony, I wouldn't suggest drinking it neatly, it wasn't engineered for that purpose. The right balance of bubbles though...
Availability - Wide
Pricing - $70-$120 in the US, $90-$160 in Europe
Rating - 82 (highballs only, when neat it's 5-10 points lower)
Pricing - $70-$120 in the US, $90-$160 in Europe
Rating - 82 (highballs only, when neat it's 5-10 points lower)
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