HIBIKI 21Y ~ JAPAN

89/100 Whiskybase

Hibiki 21 was named World's Best Blended Whisky at the 2013 World Whiskies Awards and was awarded 96 points in Jim Murray's 2014 Whisky Bible. Dr. Whisky says it's 'Unbelievably balanced, and dangerously drinkable'. So basically, it's pretty good stuff!

Nose - Sweet oak and vanilla, rich, intensive, also fruity like citrus fruits, tropical fruits, passion fruits, ripe bananas, pineapples

Taste - Very oily, liquorice, mellow and thick, nice fruity notes with rich vanilla and oak aromas, nice sweetness, after a while also some nutty and cinnamon notes come up

Finish - Long and smooth, still having some citrusy and vanilla

Hibiki whisky was launched in 1989, in order to commemorate Suntory’s 90th anniversary. The Hibiki line is not only Japan’s most highly awarded blended whisky, but it has been recognised internationally numerous times with countless awards and stands tall as a proud bastion of Japanese whisky-making prowess. Rather beautifully, ‘hibiki’ means resonance in Japanese, and this speaks to the artistic sensibility of the product. Hibiki was born in the form of a blend that was the result of sampling and tasting aged malt whiskies from one million casks at Suntory.

The current incarnations are made from a blend of more than 30 individual malt and mellow grain whiskies, and the final blend is topped off with a whisky aged more than 30 years. This concludes a process that sees the master blender taste over 300 malt whisky samples a day. From its inception to its current forms, Hibiki’s craft and method reflects its core ideologies of harmony and resonance with a caring and precise vision.