Suntory Toki versus Hibiki Japanese Harmony

Though Kakubin is likely their biggest seller, due to its budget pricing in Asia, Hibiki has long been positioned as the king of Suntory's Japanese blended whiskies, its luxury blend with big prices and gorgeous decanters. Not too long after Suntory phased out their single malts' age statements, the company followed suit with Hibiki. The 21, 17 and 12 faded out and Hibiki Japanese Harmony faded in by 2016.

As Hibiki Japanese Harmony arrived in the US, so did a new Suntory blend, Toki. "Toki" means "time". So yes, it is in fact Suntory Time. Though I'm usually not seduced by marketing fluff, I really enjoyed the erotic highball videos on Toki's official site. So I bought a bottle. And finished it in three weeks. Normally I don't even finish a bottle in three months. I'm not going lavish Toki with superlatives regarding its quality. When neat it's very sippable (likely designed for relaxing times), but it seems well-engineered for its actual advertised purpose, the highball. If you're wondering what I mean by "well-engineered", may I refer you back to the fact that the whisky vaporized down my gullet in record time.

What I didn't do during the bottle's brief life was conduct an official tasting. Luckily I saved a sample. 

Meanwhile, I sourced a sample of Hibiki Japanese Harmony just this month. I've been underwhelmed by Suntory's NAS single malts and found Japanese Harmony Master's Select to fall short of the old 12's quality.

It's time for the two blends to meet in the Thunderdome that is my hermetically-sealed whisky tasting cave.

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Brand: Suntory
Ownership: Beam Suntory

Type: Blended whisky

Country: Japan
Distilleries: Yamazaki and Hakushu for malt, Chita for grain

Age: ???

Maturation: ???

Alcohol by Volume: 43%

NEAT NOTES

I normally don't comment on color, but this stuff is as pale as straw. The nose is peachy and grassy with mellow notes of walnuts and orange Smarties. It's all very light with neither ethyl nor The Turps. The palate begins with crisp limey citrus, hints of malt and salt, then almond cookies and cashews. It starts tilting grainier after 30 minutes. The simple, warm finish shows salt, limes, toasted grains, a hint of graphite and touch of sourness in the back.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

As I inferred above, this works very well in highball form, all crisp, citrussy and refreshing. You may blanch at the idea of spending $40 on a mixing whisky, but do keep in mind this is the cheapest whisky Suntory has in The States and it's (probably) 100% Japanese whisky. It also works pretty well neatly, especially in late summer months. The nose is light and pretty; the palate is cuddlier than the major 12-year-old scotch blends. The finish is its weakest element, showing signs of considerable Chita grain, but it still beats most of those scotch blends. I'll buy another bottle of Toki when spring comes around.

Availability - Widespread, even at supermarkets or state liquor shops
Pricing - $30-$50, though usually around $40
Rating - 82

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Brand: Hibiki
Ownership: Beam Suntory
Type: Blended whisky
Country: Japan
Distilleries: Yamazaki and Hakushu for malt, Chita for grain
Age: ???
Maturation: ???
Alcohol by Volume: 43%

NEAT NOTES

While Toki was the color of straw, Japanese Harmony is gold. The whisky, I mean. At first the nose is loaded with Elmer's glue and paint VOCs. After 10 minutes those notes recede bringing lemons, grains, vanilla and new carpet. A few musty sherry casks appear after 30 minutes, as do hints of canned peaches, soap and metal. In additional to being lightly sweet and tangy, the palate offers up a note that sits somewhere between ground pepper and coal dust. Some orange juice as well. Compared to Toki, it has a harsher alcohol bite. The brief finish has oranges, flowers and toasted oak. It's also much more cloying than the palate would lead one to believe.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

While it's not a particularly great drinker when neat, Japanese Harmony does make for a good malty, nutty highball. But it's ninety-freaking-dollars. Should we not expect a little more for our money than "It goes well with a little club soda"? Like Suntory's NAS single malts, this Hibiki falls substantially short of its 12-year-old predecessor.

Availability - Most specialty retailers
Pricing - $75-$120(!)
Rating - 77 (lifted up a few points by its highball)

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Suntory's blenders have done good work on Toki which beats a lot of scotch blends at its price point, both as a sipper and mixer. It was $34.99 in my state, so I took a risk on it and was pleased by the results. Hibiki Japanese Harmony is $99.99 here, but I wouldn't pay half that. The only Hibiki premium I can see is its nice decanter, though Toki's rectangle isn't half bad. If you spy Toki at a bar (whenever you do go back to a bar again) give it a try in a cocktail or highball or straight up. I do not encourage you to do the same with Harmony, especially if you're a Hibiki fan from years past.

I miss Japan

From a year's distance, I can still feel the thrill of the night I started to plan my third trip to Japan. Though my original trip in 2014 was triggered by whisky inspiration, the more time I've spent in Japan the more it becomes about everything that isn't whisky. Each moment, each stop, becomes more intense, more personal than the previous. From a half-finished basement in Ohio, I longed to visit the tea fields in Uji during the harvest, drift through the Inland Sea, linger in every Shinto shrine and find quiet in Hiroshima in April 2020. For three months, every non-blog moment I could steal for myself went into aligning this experience. Two weeks of PTO was saved. I increased my cardio routine, as I prepared for the 100+ miles I'd walk. I even scheduled when I'd start growing my lumberjack beard to top the one I'd fashioned for my second excursion, three years earlier.

January 2020 brought the news of a new virus that had hit Wuhan, China. My wife's Asian business travel was cancelled. But my trip planning continued cautiously and hopefully. I had to go to Japan, because what else would fill that space?

Then people started dying. Then the virus came to America. Then I cancelled my plans.

I won't get into how wrong things have gone in my personal life in the months that followed because in light of the tens of millions of people who have contracted Covid-19, and the millions who have (or will) perish from it, my problems are small. My struggles will continue into 2021 because nothing stops after December 31st, other than writing a '0' in the fourth digit of the year. And I won't venture out to Japan in April 2021, firstly because the virus won't have vanished by then, and secondly there are things to tend to here.

2022 may bring better days, and whenever I make it back to Japan I will still peek into whisky bars. Maybe all the dusty bottles on those methodically lined shelves won't be emptied. And perhaps Suntory and Nikka will have some decent single malt by then. But there are other paths leading to other places, and they're all mysteries, and my heart is there.

Johnnie Walker Blue Label versus Johnnie Walker Oldest

Nearly everything I've been directly told about Johnnie Walker Blue Label has turned out to be horseshit. It was Jack and Bobby Kennedy's drink? Off by three decades. Nixon drank it over the rocks in the Oval Office? Two decades too eager. That its contents are at least 30 years old? I'm closer to 30 than it is.

Via some googling one may read about Brora and Port Ellen being in the Oldest version, or that Oldest and/or Blue was/is an average of 25 or 28 years old. I don't believe a word of it, but I will admit the whisky's packaging has always been very handsome, something necessary for the sort of status symbol bottle one buys for clients, vendors and fathers-in-law.

Here's some history that is probably close to being true. United Distillers designed an ultra-luxury blended whisky from some old low ABV whisky during The Whisky Loch, and released it as Johnnie Walker Oldest in 1987. The notation "Aged 15 to 60 years" conspicuously vanished from the labels after the first couple of batches. Keeping its label and packaging design, it became Johnnie Walker Blue Label in 1992. The standard Blue Label's bottle has gotten a little bluer and more angular with time, while the whisky itself has never been provided with an age statement.

I have had the luxury of drinking Blue Label on more than a dozen occasions thanks to very generous friends. It was always a drinker, never a thinker, with "smooth" being the first word coming to mind. But in 2015, my opinion of it took an abrupt turn. I hosted two separate four-bottle private tastings that included Blue Label as the final, and most expensive, bottle. One tasting was blind, one was not. It was the least liked whisky in both instances, which simultaneously disturbed and delighted the guests. It had one of the thinnest mouthfeels I'd ever experienced, and tasted of nothing but grain, caramel, sugar and smoke. It was like "making love in a canoe" as the saying used to go. It was approaching Coors Light territory. It was kinda shit.

At a Columbus Scotch Night event two years ago (November 2018, in fact), Johnnie Walker Blue was lined up next to a Clynelish and a Glen Ord, and it finished dead last again. The event felt like a public service for the attendees. Many got to try Blue Label for the first time, and not one was motivated to spend $200 on his own bottle afterwards.

I bottled a Blue sample from that tasting. This year I had the pleasure of taking part in a bottle split of Johnnie Walker Oldest. And now's as good a time as any to compare the two.

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Johnnie Walker Blue Label, 40%abv

Batch AV1, bottle AV105049

NOTES

The nose begins with whole wheat bread, nectarines and lychee candy. Some light grassy notes and mint extract gradually sneak in. 30 minutes in, a floral perfume note develops and pushes forward. Toasted nuts, tangy lemons and woody bitterness lead off the palate. Then come the burnt raisins, salt and pencil graphite. It grows bitterer and more burnt with time. A hint of cigarette smoke and lemon juice join the mildly short sweet finish. Though the burnt and bitter notes linger longest, even they don't stick around long.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

While the nose is quietly pleasant, the palate starts mediocrely then descends from there. It's "smooth" no longer, just watery, over-filtered and heavily dyed. I don't think a 46%abv strength would help it much more. Had Black Label not taken a recent unfortunate turn, I'd recommend that over this. I'm almost afraid to try the current version of Green Label. As for Blue Label, you can buy it for a loved one, but you'll be better off investing in a vibrator or Cialis. You know, something that lasts.

Availability - Widespread
Priced - $160-$225
Rating - 75

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Johnnie Walker Oldest, 43%abv

Batch E, bottle E24152JW
(thanks to YY for making this happen!)

NOTES
The nose begins with a mix of cask iron skillets, mothballs and musty basements. It opens up after 20 minutes, revealing white chocolate, apples, white peaches and a hint of pipe tobacco. The palate is simple, grainy, grassy. A little herbal and dusty. Small notes of yuzu, almond brittle, bran muffin, black pepper and cigar tobacco float about. It finishes sweet and almond-y, with golden raisins and thyme.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
It's......fine, clearly two steps above Blue Label but absent anything memorable. It does have a slight dustiness, but that may be influenced more by 30 years in a bottle as opposed to old dunnages. Minus that element, this whisky doesn't deliver much more than a reasonable 12-year-old blend. Even though I found the rumors of its contents suspect, I expected more.

Availability - Secondary market
Priced - $300-$400
Rating - 82

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This tasting confirmed my experience two years ago, the quality of this Blue Label isn't even worth discussing. Meanwhile, the odds there's any Brora, Port Ellen or Rosebank in the Oldest are very very very small. Like Trump-winning-Vermont small. If any old malt is present it's likely from severely underproof casks. I can't believe I'm still surprised by this. One begins to wonder if the entire Blue Label brand is based on an illusion. One naked-ass blue emperor.

Quintuple Springbank Local Barley Taste Off

As I told the Columbus Scotch Night crew last Monday, there ain't much Scottish about Scotch whisky. Most distillery owners are not Scottish, and the SWA makes sure those owners pay as little tax back to the local area as possible. Fewer and fewer locals are hired by those owners as automation takes over. The casks are from America or continental Europe. And a considerable portion (or majority?) of the barley used by the distillers is not sourced from Scotland.

With their Local Barley series, Springbank brings Scotland back. The owner is Scottish, the low-tech distillery's employees are from Campbeltown and the barley is sourced from Kintyre Peninsula farms. And, for what it's worth, local microflora may find its way into the whisky thanks to the distillery's open mash tun.

The CSN event referenced above was indeed a Springbank Local Barley night with four LBs side-by-side-by-side-by-side. I took samples home so I could live though the evening (also I was masked-up for two hours).

As a huge added bonus, Secret Agent Man (brandy, whisky and espionage extraordinaire) provided me with a sample of Local Barley new make.

I am happy to report my liver made it through the home-based Taste Off intact. And here is the sensory experience in full:

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Local Barley New Make, distilled 6 Jan 2010
63.4%abv (barley and farm unknown)

Nose - It really is barley eau de vie, leaning close to kirschwasser and apricot brandy. A little bit of yeast, a little bit of rubber cement (❤). Sugary peat, toasted seaweed and toasted sesame seeds.

Palate - Loaded with citrus, herbs, cinnamon, cocoa(!) and slight mossiness in the background. Very very very easy to drink.

Finish - Cinnamon and tangy lemons up front; stones, herbs and peppercorns in the background.

Comments - Oh my goodness. As I've said about Yamazaki, Springbank should bottle new make like this. It's lovelier than most of the whiskies I've consumed this year, and easier to sip than anything else I've had at this ABV level.

Rating - 88

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Local Barley 6 year old 2009, refill bourbon hogshead, rotation 268
57%abv (barley and farm unknown)

Purchased at Campbeltown's Cadenhead Shop, via THE CAGE, by the 748th most popular whisky blogger in his area code. Said blogger had been waiting to share this bottle for four years.

Nose - There's a burly mix of farm, industry, seaweed and Hampden muck on top, briny shellfish in the middle, brown sugar at the bottom.

Palate - It's sweet and citrussy, like lime popsicles, but with a wallop of herbal liqueur. Notes of charred beef and tart berries emerge after 30 minutes.

Finish - Herbs de Provence + lime juice + wet wool.

Comments - The cask hadn't yet realized there was spirit inside it when it was emptied. The nose leads one to believe the palate will be very raw, but it's not. The new make's fruit and herbs live on, while the alcohol remains calm. It's a bit more difficult than the rest of these single malts, but still very good.

Rating - 85

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Local Barley 9 year old 2009, 80% bourbon cask / 20% sherry cask
Optic barley, High Cattadale Farm, 57.7%abv

Nose - Citrons and eucalyptus dominate at the start, with damp mossy peat and band-aids lingering behind. Burlap, lemons and darker smoke emerge with time.

Palate - It shows the rawest peated spirit of the bunch, with fresh ginger, tart oranges, fabric and roots in the mid-ground. It gets brinier and savorier with time.

Finish - It balances salty, smoke, savory, pepper and citrus very well.

Comments - At times this 9 year old small batch reads younger than the 6 year old single cask, but it finishes very well. While those sherry casks (and bourbon casks) were no match for the Local Barley brawn, I would have loved to try this stuff at twice its age.

Rating - 84

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Local Barley 10 year old 2007, 70% bourbon cask / 30% sherry cask
Belgravia barley, West Backs Farm, 57.3%abv

Yep, I reviewed this whisky eight months ago, calling it "an adorable little baby whisky", but with limited enthusiasm. Trying it again...

Nose - It's like a creamy mango and rose pudding. And toffee pudding. There are also notes of spearmint, roasted corn, sugary smoke, mustard seed and musty basement.

Palate - The maltiest of the whiskies, this also unfurls layers of lychee, nectarines and flowers. Molasses and wood smoke balance out the fruitiness.

Finish - Peppercorns, limes, lychee and flowers. Sweet and tangy.

Comment - Okay, now I dig it. Though it's the prettiest of all the Local Barliez I've tried, it never goes overboard thanks to its darker Springbank heart. I remember this being one of the two favorites during the event, and I understand why.

Rating - 88

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Local Barley 16 year old 1999, 80% bourbon cask / 20% sherry cask
Prisma barley, Low Machrimore Farm, 54.3%abv

Yes I've reviewed this before, and yes I loved it.

Nose - It's sooty and greasy and medicinal (almost South Islay-esque). Notes of hookah smoke, toasted barley, citrus, musty dunnage and machine shop keep funneling forth.

Palate - Intensely salty and earthy......Oh and the minerals......herbs, lemons, limes......dunnage and something very dusty. A whisky from another time.

Finish - All the good things. Stones, soil, herbs, salt, dust and limes.

Comment - HOT TAKE. This is the best official bourbon cask batched single malt distilled at Springbank since the place reopened 31 years ago. Yes, there are sherry casks in the mix but they've clearly run and hid, letting the (likely refill) bourbon casks and beautiful spirit have all the glory. Heavy but graceful, this will be the modern Local Barley by which all future Local Barleys will be judged.

Rating - 91

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Thank you to the leadership of CSN for making this happen. This Taste Off was an utter joy and I feel spoiled rotten. The blog will need to take a break for a few days while I recover.

Glen Garioch 25 year old 1990 Signatory, cask 2752 (re-review)

This whisky was just supposed to be utilized to gain perspective on yesterday's Glen Garioch, and I'd already reviewed it (one day away from exactly three years ago, creepy!), but then I drank it and adored it. So there. And here:

Distillery: Glen Garioch
Distilled by: Morrison Bowmore
Current Ownership: Beam Suntory
Region: Eastern Highlands
Bottler: Signatory





Age: 25 years (April 9, 1990 to April 16, 2015)
Maturation: hogshead
Cask #: 2752
Alcohol by Volume: 50.6%
(from a bottle split)

The autumnal nose is loaded with new neoprene, band-aids and seaweed. Grapefruits and white peaches. Toasted almonds, toasted pecans, toasted barley. Cloaked in medicinal smoke and Laphroaig-like iodine, the palate spins out lemons and soil and menthol and a light herbal bitterness. It picks up a good farminess with time, while the lemons and herbs grow bolder. It finishes intensely with lemons, earth, leaves, hay and that medicinal smoke.

Serge loves it, the whiskybase community loves it and, yes, MAO loves it. Now damn it I love it too. It lands in this beautiful spot, combining the best Ledaig, Ardmore, Longrow and Laphroaig angles with considerable age and NO oak intrusion. If you have a bottle of this, treasure it, snuggle it, then drink it. Damn it.

Availability - Sold out
Pricing - ???
Rating - 91

Glen Garioch 21 year old 1993 Adelphi

Adelphi's sherry cask bottlings are in demand in some single malt circles here in the US of A, as the whiskies are dark as mud and the prices are high. I can't say I've found the trio I've tried to be anything but very tannic and tight. But today's whisky has/had some positive word of mouth so I went in on a wee bottle split for an official review. I have positioned it in a head-to-head matchup with a 20+ year old GG I've previously reviewed, and I'll reveal that one on Friday. First, the Adelphi sherry cask:

Distillery: Glen Garioch
Ownership: Beam Suntory
Region: Eastern Highlands

Bottler: Adelphi
Age: 21 years old (1993-2015)
Maturation: 1st fill sherry butt
Outturn: 221 (likely split with a second Adelphi release)
Alcohol by Volume: 58.6%
(from a bottle split)

NEAT
At first the nose signals a big dessert-y whisky, with milk chocolate, toasted nuts, baklava and toffee. Gradually pine, forest floor and brine notes rise to meet up with the sticky treats. A bit of long-aged rye whiskey spices linger in the background. It's difficult to find the palate at first due to a wall of heat. After some time the notes sneak out: dates, golden raisins, limes, toffee and a hint of pecans. The finish goes from sweet to nutty to tangy, but the heat stays the longest.

DILUTED TO ~48%abv, or 1¼ tsp of water per 30mL whisky
Though the nose has a slight herbal edge to it, the desserts win out. Think vanilla powder and butterscotch. Cookies loaded with white chocolate and toffee chips. The calmer palate has gone creamy and nutty. Some dried herbs in the midground and over-steeped black tea in the back. The finish matches the palate with maybe a few peppercorns thrown in.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
Luscious nose, simple palate. No heat on the sniffer, an ethyl blaze in the mouth. Water mellows everything out, but provides no new sensations. While it's truly a snuffer — maybe rub some in your hands, behind the ears, elsewhere as needed — this Glen Garioch's palate raises nowhere near the excitement. There's plenty of alcohol to it, so perhaps dilution experimentation is required to find the sweet spot. It's another whisky that may have scored higher had its competitor not been so damned good. More on that tomorrow.

Availability - Sold out?
Pricing - $200+
Rating - 86

Glen Garioch 16 year old 1998, cask 987 for Binny's

Monday's sherry cask Glen Garioch and today's bourbon cask Glen Garioch were excellent sparring partners, both fascinating while different in every possible way.

Like last Friday's Glenfarclas, this Glen Garioch was an official bourbon cask selected by a popular American retailer. But these two whiskies also occupied nearly opposite ends of the whisky spectrum.

Distillery: Glen Garioch
Ownership: Beam Suntory
Region: Eastern Highlands
Age: 16 years old (March 1998 to 28 April 2014)
Maturation: "North American Oak Cask" (Saskatchewan is that you?)
Cask: 987
Outturn: 201 bottles

Exclusive to: Binny's
Alcohol by Volume: 55.1%
(Thank yous go out to My Annoying Opinions for the sample)

NEAT
Toasted grains, honey and almond butter lead off the nose, with hot cereal and hot bricks in the midground. It's young and spicy, with cinnamon red hots and green peppercorns in the background. The palate begins sweet and lemony up front, slowly revealing loads of barley and almonds. Then wee highlights of tart tropical fruits and pickled ginger. It finishes long, tangy and crisp. Almond butter and lots of tart citrus.

DILUTED TO ~48%abv, or > ¾ tsp of water per 30mL whisky
The nose delivers a lovely combination of barley, pears, apples and raw manuka honey. The palate leans even closer to wort than before. It also holds chile oil, herbal bitterness and cinnamon red hots. There might be a hint of soap in the background, though. The finish is all roots and herbal bitterness.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
While the Astor Wines Glenfarclas seemed to target a contemporary American palate with all its oak and sugar, this Binny's pick couldn't give less of a shit about that audience. The whisky reads about half its age, but in a good clean way that will appeal to those of us who miss the spirit-forward stuff. MAO found very similar notes in his review, down to the (good) apples and ginger, as well as the (odd) diluted soap thingy. As he does, I prefer it neat. I'd take this "North American Oak Cask" whisky over the 1999 Sherry Cask Matured Garioch any day.

Availability - Sold out
Pricing - ???
Rating - 87