Hibiki 17 and 21 Japanese Blended Whisky's US Launch And The Nature of Beauty

Hibiki 17 and 21, Suntory's blended whisky in the sweet spot age statements, will hit the US market this fall.  The announcement came in May, at a launch event in New York which was interesting in a number of ways.  For me, the whiskies (and the event) provoked an internal debate about the nature of beauty.  While it's subjective - and "in the eye of the beholder", there are some real philosophical issues.  Beauty is about ideas such as "harmony", "regularity", and "balance".  These are exactly the aims that whisky blenders strive for when making blends.  There is a tension between the individual and the harmonic whole in the notion of beauty - and it shows in a wide variety of domains.  It comes back to whiskey because Suntory chose to do something interesting in introducing the mature Hibiki 17 and 21 year old blends to the American market: they did a tasting with the major components tasted separately and then, at the end, together as the blended expressions.  G-LO over at It's Just The Booze Dancing... put it thus: "a Deconstructed tasting of Hibiki":

http://boozedancing.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/the-art-of-hibiki/

The structured tasting treats each of the components as an individual instrument in an orchestra.  Then you finish with the ensemble.  Suntory spoke a narrative of obsessive perfectionism in the crafting the many components and, indeed, the individual whiskies, from the grain, to the ex-bourbon, sherry cask, and Japanese oak all were stellar.  Indeed, they overshadowed the ultimate blends in some ways.  And this got me to thinking - as I have many times before, about the divide between the individual and the collective and the issue of averaging when it comes to beauty.

For example, in Bach's Violin "Double" Concerto BWV 1043:  I Vivace and III Allegro particularly - the 1960s version with  Itzach Perlman and Isaac Stern and Zubin Mehta and the NY Philharmonic - all these elements are laid bare.  

(you can hear the first movement, Vivace here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vesrqFeq9rU )

(and the third movement, Allegro, here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6gOeE5QTXk )

Bach's piece, among the most brilliant and beautiful pieces of music ever written in my opinion, features a tension, fire, and relentless drive in an aching minor key.  The melody shifts back and forth among the orchestra, and two dueling violins.  In this case we have the youthful brilliance of Itzach Perlman ascendant taking on the old master, Isaac Stern.  Some times they play together and other times taking turns with the same melodic phrases, each one challenging the other to match the virtuosity, timbre, and verve just laid out.  Beauty happens in the massed strings.  The solos are not timbrally as rich, but they are more exciting, delineated, and clear.  Each is a tightrope act.  It's the solos I remember and why I put this track on over and over again.  The sonics of the recording are pretty flat, but the energy these two geniuses bring to celebrating (and out-doing) each other produces the finest performance of this amazing piece.  Is it more powerful and beautiful when they play together or when they are alone?  It's subjective, but I find the moments when they are alone to be more affecting.  But it's the contrast of the back and forth that really makes it that way.

This put me in mind of the topic of averaging and the study of how humans perceive beauty in human faces. I wrote about how this relates to whisky several years ago in a guest writer post on Rachel MacNeill's  WhiskyForGirls.com that was about how carefully tasting whisky can transport you, intellectually and emotionally, called "Whisky is a Time Traveler":

"Blends can be delicious but the definite sense of terroir is lost. For example, when I drink Johnny Walker Black Label I enjoy the sweet heathery Highland opening, the firm malt foundation, and then the whiff of peat smoke and oak in the finish. But the lightness and glossed sameness of each encounter I sense the blender’s art in barrel averaging and expression blending as a way of making beauty exactly like the way a number of faces computer averaged looks very pretty – but not like any one human’s actual face."

"These averaged faces are attractive, but they are not real. Real faces have imperfections that reflect their actuality, their history, their individuality. These faces are more attractive than most people, but somehow cannot match the great beauties who have real character. The same thing goes with whisky. Barrel averaging and blending produce a smoothed impression, more perfect and beautiful than the average barrel, but without the depth of character and individual fidelity that you can find in a great cask."

http://www.whiskyforgirls.com/?p=607

Lisa DeBruine and Ben Jones, who run the Face Research Lab at the University of Glasgow Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology run a web site as part of their research into face averaging and perceptions of beauty.  In the historical summary area they write:

"In the 1800s, Sir Francis Galton created composite images of faces by projecting face photographs of many different individuals onto a single piece of photographic film. This was done in an effort to visualise the facial characteristics that were common to a particular group of people (e.g. to represent the typical face of criminals or soldiers). When Galton showed these images to his colleagues, however, they unanimously agreed that these composite faces tended to be more attractive than the individual face photographs from which they were manufactured (i.e. the composites tended to be more attractive than their constituent faces)."
http://faceresearch.org/students/averageness

The great thing about this site is that you get to try it out for yourself - here:

http://faceresearch.org/demos/average

Here's an example.  I selected the 3 faces on the left, below and then averaged them and got the face on the right.  It's rather stunning.  

These three faces combine to yield this...

...averaged face.

The individual faces are each distinct, unique and individual.  They include features that are deviations from the norm.  The averaged face pulls all these deviations towards the mean - a "regression to the mean" which produces more average proportions, angles, and sizes, to the features.  Our human interpretation of this is "beauty".  By picking flawed faces it highlights the improvements.  If you tossed Grace Kelley's face in there, or any other face you love (Meryl Streep), you might consider the end result a step down, however.  But take the point: beauty is harmony and averaged to the mean is harmony.

Her's the interface where can select many faces to average, exploring the process.

This is, in a visceral and immediately comprehensible visual way, what's going on with barrel averaging and good blending.  Individuals - "warts and all" become beautiful when they regress towards the mean in large batch averaging and blending of whisky.  This was the genius of 19th century Scotch blenders like John Walker, John Dewar Sr., and Archibald Ballantine, who took individual malts that were inconsistent and sometimes unpleasant and produced blends which created a happy medium that possessed, somehow, more beauty than the average component.

(right): Sarah B. of  http://beautifultangiblethings.com

Sarah B. and Allison Patel watch the presentation by Suntory chief blender Seiichi Koshimizu

The Hibiki 17 and 21 launch event in New York in May was designed to emphasize the beauty of the blend, not from the point of view of averaging out the flaws - but from an obsessive artisanship that is about making each of the components perfect.  Elegant simplicity in the layouts and graphic elements which included references to trees (with the connotations of the seasons - fall being the launch date) and visual reference to the simplicity and art of classical Japanese calligraphy.  Suntory's Chief Blender Seiichi Koshimizu spoke eloquently about the crafting that goes into the component whiskies that make up the Hibiki blends.  These components formed the body of the tasting.  On the tables were 6 selections:  Chita Grain Pure Whisky, Yamazaki American White Oak Malt Whisky, Sherry Cask Malt Whisky, Mizunara Cask Malt Whisky, followed by Hibiki 17 and Hibiki 21.  It wasn't clear if the Yamazaki White Oak, Sherry, and Mizunara were the OB bottlings of these expressions sold in Europe and the Far East, as reviewed by Alwynne Gwilt in October of 2012 on her blog misswhisky.com:
http://misswhisky.com/2012/10/11/trying-the-stylish-yamazaki-four-woods/

Alwynne provides fantastic tasting notes and some insights into those expressions - which jibe very well with what we drank.  It's also possible that they provided examples of what went into Hibiki - which would have been older.  Update: Thomas Øhrbom of http://www.whiskysaga.com/ just provided a photo of a menu at the Yamazaki Distillery bar which showed that Suntory does sell the Hibiki 17 ingredients (fully 17 years old and over-proof) as pours there.  I will use the age and proof statements from that menu in the post below.  One thing is for certain - these Yamazaki wood examples were superb - and they were clearly a higher proof than the Hibiki blends which followed them.  

The following tasting notes are a composite of notes taken at the event and follow-up tasting sessions at home using samples I took from the event.  I'm providing composite star and points ratings to underscore fine differences in how I rated these excellent whiskies. 

Sarah B.(left)  and Allison Patel of Brenne (right) get into the Chita grain.

Chita Grain - 17 years old 55% abv

The intensity of flavor definitely indicates a bit higher proof than 43%.  Tasted head to head with Nikka Coffey Grain (45%) and Greenore 15 (43%) (the subject of an upcoming post) the Chita was definitely more intense and richly flavored.  And while all 3 were delicious, the Chita took the grouping hands down.  A really special and very tasty set of flavors.

G-LO of Booze Dancing

Color: gold
Nose: sunflower, honey, dust, vanilla, creamy custard, and some distant notes of red bean and sawn oak..
Palate:  lush sweet vanilla cream opening with creme broulle custard.  Light and elegant mouth feel.  Butter and creme broulle with some herbal aspects of sunflower and gorse.  The sweetness becomes incense-intense on expansion, waxing in buttery Scotch-malt highland flavors with a hint of salt.  The expansion continues into rich malty flavors and white oak.  The finish is moderately long and lightly herbal.  Just beautiful grain whisky - stunning and intense and as fully flavored as any grain whiskies under 30 years I've tried.

91 *****

Yamazaki American White Oak - presumably 17 yo 54% abv 

Color: gold
Nose: floral vanilla, coconut, creamy tropical fruits (papaya, and mandarin orange)
Palate: honey and floral vanilla on the opening - which was big, sweet and explosive.  Honey, brown sugar, stone fruits and rich malt on the mid palate.  The bourbon barrel's influence is clear, but the Yamazaki distillate is in command with fruitiness, and Highland malt flavor fully in the Scotch whisky wheelhouse. The turn was full of rich oak.  The finish long and satisfying with oak tannins, herbals, and a hint of char.  Stunning.

90 *****

Yamazaki Mizunara Oak - presumably 17 yo 52% abv.

Color: dark gold with an amber tint
Nose:  Complex and sweet with floral perfumed intensity, stone fruits and cherry and a nutty (almond or pecan) quality that rode over a buttery aspect.  Hatbox oak lurked underneath.
Palate:   Big, intense, and stunning on the opening with candied citrus and rancio.  The expansion brought tropical fruits and darker complexity of tobacco, some coastal iodine notes, and a bit of char.  Spiciness and herbal bitters blossomed on the turn and the finish - which was incredibly long and amazingly satisfying with herbs and  a touch of smoke.  This was the pour of the night for me.

A drop of water took the spiciness higher, and enriched the mouth feel and sweetness.  Stunning.  The spiciness had a clove/nutmeg spice aspect, rather than peppers.

93 *****

Yamazaki Sherry Oak presumably 17 yo 49% abv.

Color: dark amber.
Nose:  sweet sandalwood, cocoa powder, mashed dates, old polished oak furniture.  Deeper, some plum fruit and magnolia florals.  

Yamazaki Sherry Oak

Palate:  The opening is unexpectedly dense and dry, with focused oak, dark and tannic, up front with bittersweet chocolate, raisins, and prune essences.  The mouthfeel is light.  The expansion brings a ton of congnac-like rancio, old sherry, and oak furniture.  The turn is bitter with tannins.  The finish is long with dark oak, bitters, rancio, and some residual spiciness.

Adding a few drops of water introduces a kiss of sweetness up front, more body to the mouth feel, and a note of malty molasses to the mid-palate and finish that is beguiling.  The finish takes on a vibrant spiciness that I have come to associate with Spanish oak.  This is downright luscious with a drop of water - strongly evocative of great Glendronachs.

92 *****

Hibiki 17 - 43% abv.

Color pale gold
Nose: floral plum blossom, magnolia, and honeysuckle.  Richer aromas of honey, honeycomb, tropical fruits, linen, light oak and mineral.
Palate:  sweet and floral on the opening, with honey, vanilla, and the characteristic Japanese musky sweetness I used to call "orchid" (until Sarah B. challenged me that most orchids don't have an aroma).  Purple fruits (plum and fig) and light hints of lighter green fruits (quince, green apple, and mango) and malt richness on the expansion.  Rising spiciness and oak on the turn.  The finish is fairly long with spiciness, oak tannins as light bitter, lingering toffee and hints of floral fruitiness.  Just lovely.

A few drops of water increases the sweetness and, particularly, the spicy notes in the mid-palate and finish but reduces the floral intensity of the nose and opening.  It's worth trying with a drop, however, as it ends up making Hibiki 17 a tad more lush and involving overall.

89 *****

Hibiki 21 - 43% 

Color: dark gold with amber tints
Nose: richly floral:  magnolia and roses, dates, honeyed cakes, tropical fruits, linen, and sharper notes of dark oak.
Palate:  big dark fruity sweet opening with plum jam, some complicated filigreed incense sherry or port dark vinous sweet, and toffee.  There is also that particularly Japanese complex sweet fruitiness which I have trouble putting a name too, but is diagnostically Japanese.  The mid-palate expansion brings clove-cinnamon spiciness, a mixture of dark fruits like plum and fig and lighter acidic fruits like green plums, green apple, pineapple and mango and clear note of sherry with cocoa.  Oak tannin shows up too in the mid-palate and the turn adds sheery-like rancio, dark oak, and herbal bitters.  The finish is long, sherry rich - nutty and cocoa - and lightly herbal as well.

92 *****

Conclusions:  The big issue with Suntory in the US is the availability of the good stuff in the US.

When Suntory took over Beam International earlier in the year I wondered aloud (i.e. on this blog) whether this would mean more availability of the top expressions here.  There was little reason for hope - given the limited quantities.  The timing of the Hibiki 17 and 21 introduction in the US indicates, to me, that it was probably in the works even before the purchase of Beam.  But it's clear the US market matters to Suntory and that's great.  Maybe part of it is that Anchor is now importing a big portion of the Nikka line (and we American's are all the richer for the competition).  Last fall brought Hakushu Heavily Peated to the US, now this Fall we get these Hibiki gems.  However this tasting left me pining for Chita Single Grain and the Yamazaki Four Woods series which are not available in the US.  They were the unintended stars of the show.  They were introduced as examples of the quality crafting that goes into Hibiki, but, tasted head to head, they rivaled, and in some areas exceeded the Hibikis.  Part of this almost certainly is because they were bottled at higher proof.  This left me pining for Hibiki at higher proof.

On The Nature of Beauty

The tasting underscores the issues between the beauty of the individual voice and power of the massed chorus introduced earlier.  Just like those moments in the Bach Double Concerto when Perlman and Stern took solos, the Yamazaki individual wood expressions were direct, powerful, and compelling.  The Hibiki blends filled in with greater complexity and balance, but less compelling interest overall.  Part of this I firmly believe is the fact that Hibiki's are lower proof.  But part of it has to do with the nature of blending itself.  It is intuitive that a combination made of fantastic components will be fantastic - and the Hibikis are.  But it says something to me that the brilliance of the individual components is not immediately additive to yield a whole greater than the sum of its parts.  In the blending to yield Hibiki something is gained and something is lost.  Gained is complexity, a cohesive beauty, and evolution across the palate.  The Hibikis are glorious.  But lost is the power and distinctive natures that made tasting the Yamazaki woods thrilling.

After the tasting the Hibiki launch event was glorious too.

The Hibiki 17/21 launch event was a party with lots of friends and Exposure's consummate production which included gourmet food bites, superb Japanese style mizuwari, highballs, and ice balls.  There was a superb demonstration of a new ice ball called the Ice Diamond (I refer you to Mark Gillespie's WhiskyCast video and interview - links below).  Incredibly impressive to me, the correct glassware was used to serve what seemed like limitless quantities of the top expression: Hibiki 21.  This top notch event spawned a number of interesting blog posts and conversations.  Here follows links and some pictures to give the flavor:

Mark Gillespie prepares to interview Seiichi Koshimizu - on WhiskyCast episode 480

Malt Maniac, Mark Gillespie, produced several posts from this event on his top podcast and blog WhiskyCast.com.  

The Hibiki 17 & 21 launch notification:

http://whiskycast.com/suntory-to-export-hibiki-17-21-whiskies-to-us-market/

An interview with Seiichi Koshimizu, chief blender for Suntory:  

http://whiskycast.com/episode-480-may-24-2014/

A WhiskeyCast HD video of  Hidetsugu Ueno of Tokyo's Bar High-Five cutting ice diamonds:

http://whiskycast.com/whiskycast-hd-whisky-on-the-rock/

and an interview with  Hidetsugu Ueno about his bar and the Tokyo whisky bar scene:

http://whiskycast.com/episode-481-may-31-2014/

G-LO and Miracle Max

G-LO wrote up a consummate description of the entire event, including cooperatively blogged comments from most of the #WhiskyFabric in attendance including Allison Patel, Susanna Skiver Barton, Miracle Max, and Sarah B:

http://boozedancing.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/the-art-of-hibiki/

Sarah B. and G-LO

Sarah B - a correspondent of It's Just The Booze Dancing... blog as well as a gifted photographer took the best pictures of the event:

http://beautifultangiblethings.com/2014/05/16/a-new-york-suntory-story/

Mark Gillespie and G-LO enjoying Hibiki 12 ice balls.  Mark also has a Hibki 21

The author meets up with with Allison Patel (left) and Sarah B., right.

Bram Hoogendijk from Holland meets Edrington Group rep Nicola Riske

Bram and Allison meet Seiichi Koshimizu

Susanna Skiver Barton and Allison Patel enjoying Hibiki 21

Hidetsugu Ueno of Tokyo's Bar High-Five pours Hibiki 21 on a hand cut ice diamond

Suntory becomes a caretaker of American Bourbon traditions. And that's OK.

High end Suntory whiskies glitter like the jewels they are.  Yamazaki 25 is the second from left.
Look at the color  of it:  all natural - and yet supernatural

The news that Suntory purchased Beam International for $13.6 billion has provoked a host of reactions - some of them racist and negative.  It's not surprising in a way.  There are few products more iconically American than Bourbon and the number one rye mash Bourbon is Jim Beam and the number one wheater is Maker's Mark.  And Japan bombed Pearl Harbor... as I remember every December 7th.  Here are a few of the thousands of comments floating around social media and the comments sections of the news articles all over the Internet to illustrate what I'm talking about:

"Another American iconic brand sold to a foreign company ... 

You will never get another cent from me .. 

Go count your yen and choke on it..."

"You sold heritage to a bunch of japanese businessmen. Sell outs! Sure, it might taste the same but it's not and ya know it. You just sold out a kentucky tradition to another country."

" I don't own a Japanese car I will not drink a Japanese bourbon. I would drink saki if I wanted a Japanese drink"

"SELL OUT... Continue to brew your whiskey, I for one will not buy 'Japanese Whiskey'"

Do all of these people understand that Bourbon, by law, must be made in the USA and thus every single drop of Bourbon is American?  Do they understand that Beam's management team, not to mention all the distillery jobs, aren't going anywhere?  That no one is changing the mash bills or recipes or the flavors of the iconic Beam Bourbon brands?  That other major Bourbon distilleries are already foreign owned?  Who knows?  It's an emotional "gut" sort of thing with some people.

But there is an irony here.  Japan is a major savior of Bourbon.  When Americans had forgotten it in the 1980s and Bourbon distilleries were going bust, Japan fell in love with mature Bourbons and began sucking out the aging glut stocks.  And that helped teach the world that Bourbon wasn't just an old American's uncreative fallback drink but was a legitimate epicurean product worthy of notice and demand.  Japanese whisky epicures became obsessed with Bourbon and it's a true love that helped resurrect a dying Bourbon industry.  To support that I'll quote Michael Veach, Bourbon historian for the Filson Historical Society who wrote, in his 2013 book "Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey: An American Heritage":

"The Japanese economy, which had grown at an outstanding rate in the 1960s and 1970s and continued to do so in the 1980s, also paved the way for bourbon’s comeback. Along with such best-selling brands as Early Times, Four Roses, Maker’s Mark , and Jim Beam, Blanton’s caught on in the Japanese market, selling for a very high price, and making Age International a nice profit. But the favorite was I. W. Harper. It sold so well that Schenley pulled it from the American market in order to circumvent its profits being funneled off by the gray market—"

Why?  Veach gives a very revealing and coherent explanation for that as well:

"Just as Scotch whiskey went global by following the armed forces of Britain to every corner of its empire, so too bourbon whiskey followed the U.S. military to its bases in South Korea , Japan, Germany, and Italy. Initially available only through base exchanges, bourbon was soon among the standard offerings of local bars catering to servicemen, giving the locals a chance to develop a taste for it as well."

Veach, Michael R. (2013-03-01). Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey: An American Heritage (Kindle Locations 1185-1188). The University Press of Kentucky. Kindle Edition.

To return to the irony of the "patriotic reaction", there is also the fact that Japanese whisky companies are already deeply involved in the Bourbon business - from Kirin's ownership of Four Roses to Age International being owned by Takara Shuzo Ltd.  (That's the company that flipped what became Buffalo Trace at the turn of the current century, but kept ownership of the Buffalo Trace Mashbill #2 brands like Rock Hill Farms).  Japan's involvement with Bourbon is nothing new - but somehow, with Jim Beam and in the current cultural mania over Bourbon it's different this time.

Or is it?  Of course Beam International isn't just Jim Beam Bourbon, it's a multinational conglomerate with distilleries and products around the world - and that's true for Suntory as well.  Suntory owns Morrison Bowmore and their moves there, such as making Rachel Barrie master blender and giving her tremendous freedom to be creative have resulted in some stunning whiskies and a some major turnarounds.  As far as patriotism goes, generally speaking, major multinational corporations are multi-national.  If you buy a Ford made in Mexico is it a more patriotic act than buying a Toyota made in Tennessee?  The idea that "the dollars stay here" is simply out of touch with the reality of the global economy.  The real issues are functional:  will it serve the whisky?

That's why, on Chuck Cowdery's excellent blog post about this sale, there is a comment that got to the root of it for me:

"Soonami said...
Will acquisition by a private company ultimately be beneficial to the brand from an enthusiast perspective? Will it be good for us like Kirin ownership of 4 Roses? Or will it be more like Campari, literally watering down Wild Turkey?"

http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com/2014/01/its-suntory-time-for-beam-inc.html

I answered by equivocating - talking about how Suntory sticks to its guns and many of their expressions are just sold out a lot of the time and they aren't building new distilleries.  But I also noted that they are lowering the proof of Hakushu Heavily Peated for imports to the US (starting this year) to 43% abv. from the 46% abv. it's sold at in Europe.  But I had an experience in the Spring of this last year that really taught me something about Suntory.  It's something that gives me comfort and should give you some too if you have concerns about this deal.  What I saw was an obsession with quality and with the production of some of the worlds greatest whiskies.  The experience was an event: Suntory's 90th Anniversary celebration.  If you want to know about that astounding event, I'll refer you to the excellent work of several other whisky bloggers who were there and who all wrote up great posts about the event (links at bottom).  I wasn't blogging at the time, so I didn't.  There was something about that event that was really special.  Not just because it was the most astoundingly slick and beautiful whisky event I have ever attended or even ever heard of (because that is about the event - and not the whisky) - but because the whisky they were pouring was extraordinary and really astounded me.

Hiroyoshi (Mike) Miyamoto - former Master Distiller and General Manager of Suntory leads 
the first tasting.  His final selection, served to hundreds of people: the rare and 
stratospherically expensive Hakushu 25.

I'm not here to write up the event 6 months too late.  I'm here to tell the story of the whiskies they poured.  You see, I took samples - and I did follow up tastings (actually with a number of people including Peter Silver and Steven Zeller - The Smoky Beast.  And the whiskies that they served on the main bar (depicted in the photograph at the top of this post) rocked my world.  From left to right they were Yamazaki 18, Yamakai 25, Hakushu 18, Hakushu 25, Hibiki 17, and Hibiki 21.

I'm going to brief (ha ha).  Here are tasting notes for just a few of the highlights (Suntory's entire line of single malts was poured that night and I had them all - but will limit tasting notes to my top 3) and a a conclusion to wrap this all up.

In the glass.  Left to right: Hibiki 21, Hakushu 25, and Yamazaki 25. 

Hibiki 21 43% abv.

FYI - Hibiki is complex blend of Hakushu and Yamazaki malts and Chita grain (which is just wonderful - a butterscotch bomb).  As a blend there are a wide variety of malt, grain and wood influences which include American oak, Spanish oak, Japanese oak, and Japanese plum wine cask.

Color: rich gold

Nose: achingly lovely orchid florals, honey, bee's wax,

Palate opening is sweet and richly floral with plum blossom, and melon.  The mid palate is rich with honey, malt, bananas and butterscotch (which I recognize from the Chita grain).  The turn to the finish adds the complexities of mineral, forest, and a kiss of iodine and distant smoke.  A delicious whisky that takes sweetness close to the line, but stays dry enough and complex enough to be an absolute stunner.

*****

Hakushu 25 43% abv.

Neyah White, Suntory West Coast BA,
pours for grateful people including,  G-LO.  Center.

Color pale gold

Nose: big waxy estery fruity florals.  Orchids, magnolia, and ambergris.  Underneath there are complicating notes of mineral, forest oak leaves, and iodine.  There are distant notes of high grade leather and whiff of smoke.

Palate:  sweet, complexly floral in a tropical jasmine and magnolia vein, malty buttery, waxy and brilliant on the opening.  It just gets better on the mid palate as tropical fruits (quince, mangosteen, gogi, pineapple, and apple) emerge and dance with the complexity of mineral dust, oak tannins and smoke.  The turn to the finish is lovely as the elements turn toward oak and roasted seeds.  The finish is long, fruity, malty, oaken, and still, somehow, floral to the very end.

Complex, and richly intense, but what's special is how it melds light and dark aspects of the uniquely Japanese unsherried flavor profile.

*****

Would have been the dram of the night except for...

Yamazaki 25 43% abv.

Color: an astonishing scarlet dark reddish amber with mauve, almost purple glints.  I'm sorry to go on about the color but it is outstanding.

Nose: really big and involving evolving progression of dried roses, raisins, plum and berry jam, old oak, red fruits, rosemary herbals, and sandalwood incense.  

The palate, even at 43%, luxuriates in a syrupy thick mouth feel with mouth filling flavors of rose floral and chocolate covered raspberry sweetness expanding into elegant rancio, toffee, sherry, dried fruits (fig loaf, black raisins) and pipe tobacco. The finish is extremely long with dried figgy fruits, pannatone, and old money fancy oak furniture.

An incredible dram.  Truly memorable.  I wish I could even think about affording a bottle.  Definitely one of my fantasies.

*****

Conclusion:  Suntory is a company that is obsessed about quality whisky and has a deep and abiding love for whisky.  Having tasted their top expressions (which have won pretty much every award in sight, by the way) has convinced me that something special is in the DNA of that company.  A company that can make whiskies like this as OBs (Original Distillery Bottlings) is clearly deeply into the topic of what makes a whisky great.  All in all, I'm sure Beam International is in fine hands.  Here's to hoping that they consider bringing some of this magic to Beam's Bourbon line up.

Linked image of some whisky bloggers at the Suntory 90th in LIC
from The Whisky Woman Blog

Links to proper blog posts about the event:

G-LO and Limpd's write up on It's Just The Booze Dancing - with excellent photographs:
http://boozedancing.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/event-review-suntorys-the-art-of-japanese-whisky-long-island-city/

Stephen of the Malt Imposters uncharacteristically un-tongue-in-cheek and non-hallucinatory version - a very thorough and lucid bit of journalism:
http://www.maltimpostor.com/2013/05/suntory-art-of-japanese-whisky-event-in.html

Allison Patel's perceptive and beautiful post on The Whisky Woman blog: http://thewhiskywoman.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/suntorys-art-of-japanese-event-nyc/

Some weirdos from Malt Imposter and Booze Dancing... 

Update:  I just noticed that Sku said much of what I've said - but more succinctly and clearly written - on Sku's Recent Eats:  http://recenteats.blogspot.com/2014/01/bourbon-bigotry-suntorybeam-deal-brings.html

Hibiki 12 succeeds brilliantly

Hibiki 12's rich full gold color

I wasn't prepared for the Hibiki 12. I hadn't read the rave reviews or seen the awards and accolades. I had been sent review samples of the 12 year old expressions of the portion of the Suntory line that is distributed in the USA: Yamazaki, Hakushu, and Hibiki (thanks Danielle from Exposure). I started with the latter because it's a blend and blends are never as good as single malts, right?  If you don't know the full story, here are my tasting notes first so you can experience my surprise with me, then the story afterwards:

Hibiki 12 43% abv

Color: rich full gold

Nose: Oh my my. Rich honeyed beehive. Clover honey, baking biscuits or maybe pecan pie, magnolia blossom, ripe cassava melon, mango and some strawberry component. A rich sweet appetizing nose with some complexity and evolution over time to hold you nosing a while.

Entry is sweet with honeyed crumpets and a silky slightly viscous mouth feel. There's a nice mid-palate expansion with white pepper, malt, green melon, sweet butter, and some warm musk and floral perfume. The finish is moderately brief, gentle, and mild with little wood, but a clean and malty afterglow and a gentle flavor of toasted seeds.

With extended air it becomes lushly, tropically, floral. Hibiscus, jasmine and more in a loud and riotous profusion over the juicy fruity malt. Puts me in the mind of Balvenie, but more juicy and effusively floral.

A drop of water amps the sweetness up into pure whole cane sugar territory. It doesn't need it, but is vibrantly and effusively sweet if you add a drop or two.  It's so lush that I highly recommend a bit of experimenting in this regard.

Smooth and easy going but also rich and full of character. Luscious. Youthful, sweet, intensely feminine. Just lovely. High four star - almost five.

****

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Hibiki 12 in the glass

So how does Suntory achieve this amazing flavor profile?  According to the .pdf fact sheet I received from Exposure, "Hibiki is created from a selection of pure single malt whiskies, aged in various types of casks, including Mizunara, a very rare Japanese oak"  elsewhere it says "Hibiki’s soft yet complex taste profile is created from unique bamboo charcoal filtering and plum liqueur cask maturation."  Charcoal filtering is pretty unusual - but anyone who has tasted Jack Daniels Tennessee whiskey knows it produces a softness.  However it's not usually associated with such density of flavor.  Presumably the component whiskies are Yamazaki and Hakushu, Suntory's two distilleries.  I'll be tasting 12 year old expressions from those two next - with great anticipation.  Plum liqueur cask maturation is also unusual in my experience.  No doubt it has a significant impact on the tropical fruits and floral aromas and feeling that bless this excellent whisky.  Bravo, Suntory.  A home run.