Ouch the bottle is less then that... or it was when i got it.


Ok after research....

It’s a dead bottling ie no longer produced. It was about $60 a bottle when it was sold. It’s yet another Japanese whisky that got named a top whisky after it went out of production by people sitting on a lot of bottles( don’t get me started). Unopened bottles are trading at $600-1000 now.

It’s good but it needs to be the first dram. It’s massively subtle in its flavors. If you drink anything else before it you’ll miss the point of it.

Personally I’d never put it at that 600+ price... it’s a solid $60 purchase and was priced correctly for what it is.

There are a few reasons why it’s no longer produced due to lead times and high demand for Japanese whisky. I had no idea that one got market manipulated and became “famous. “

 

what! $800? no way! I bought two 17 y/o bottles in Okinawa, July 2018, roughly $100 hit my CC for ea bottle!

 

FIFY

on those two above statements, I'm completely with you...

 

Ya, but they aren’t exporting to US right now. There’s even an issue with fake bottles being made from Taiwan and China, just like watches. I saw 589 locally for a 17 the other day and I was strongly considering.

 

Insane. I paid today €120 (~$135) for this one, far superior IMO than any Hibiki outhere, even the 21 y/o variant

 

Ya, I haven’t had an age statement for Hibiki but I’ll take your word for it. I have several nice Nikka, 17, 21, etc and they are going up now too.

My wife is Japanese, and I spoke to my in-laws about the Japanese whisky pricing here in the US. As they explained, the supply is drying up for the aged stuff so they are keeping it in-country. Hibiki is hoarding what they have in anticipation of the tourists for the 2020 Olympics.

 

It’s more lead time and current high demand. Hard to predict 12 years out, which leads to no age statements on all whisky esp scotch and Japanese. With no age statement you can sell 3 year old juice blended with older stuff to meet a good flavor profile.

Which leads to a lack of age statement stuff in the upcoming decade. Sucks for the Scotch industry as they have been training people that older is better for decades. Over the past decade I’ve watched the industry adapt to the new high demand in sometimes hilarious ways.

Everything goes in a random cycle and last time it spiked in the late 70’s they ramped production and demand fell off leading to many distillery closures and they are afraid the same might happen again.

 

bingo! something I learned from my Scottish host... "don't buy "age", instead buy flavor"..

 

@Foo2rama I agree, “whiskey from the barrel” proved you can get a very refined Japanese pour with no age statement. The thing with Japanese though, that country loves luxury. They see an age statement as better, as it’s more expensive. I’m not so sure the age stuff is drying up, I think it’s possible they just want to keep it in-country.

 

I know, I've had Hibiki 12 before. It's all right, nothing special, well worth its $60/bottle price. I was really annoyed at the gouging

 

A very nice 40yr old Port

 

Exactly!!! Which leads into another discussion that Single Malt people get into after a few drams. Most scotch production still goes into blends. Technically blended Scotch is/should be better as it “fixes” the problems in Single malts. Blended should be smoother, more complex, and nicer. Yet we have a love for mechanical watches... I mean single malt

 

Ask and you shall receive

 

Whisky Advocate just lost all credibility with me....

 

If we frame the discussion in terms of quality and not personal taste, then any quality blended Scotch will always be better than any mediocre SM..

that is, if a "problem" exists in a given SM...there are lots of SM that are IMO just perfect.

 

Single pot Irish is where it’s at fellas.

 

I stay away from smoking ...

 

I figured it was their list. There have been rumors of them market manipulating esp in the Japanese stuff, where it had been off the market for almost a year and then large batches appeared after they named it to that list from anonymous private sources via exchange and auction.

They also have weird criteria that they do not always explain... 2-3 years ago Canadian Club 100% rye got put on the list at the top and it was a 20 dollar whisky and they graded it on that scale... It was decent esp at $20 but not the best whisky of the year as they claimed. That list is not necessarily the best available the previous year but sometimes standouts at certain price ranges or bones thrown to heavy advertisers... (think R&T/C&D and BMW.) They have also put contentious whiskies at the top to get the list to go more viral... see the Canadian Club Rye and the first time they put a Japanese whisky at the top 5-8 years ago.

 

Lunch time.

Unremarkable Chang Thai beer (tasteless Lager), paired with spicy prawn Phad Thai.

 

You don't think that Mr. Shanken rates his high dollar advertisers' products higher than they really are in all of his publications