Hibiki 30 & Yamazaki 25 [Road to #1000, Reviews #997-#998]

Hi everyone,

Today I have two very special whiskies that I tasted last year.

I have mentioned before that I am attempting to complete my edition of Ian Buxton’s 101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die and one of the hardest to get hold of and most expensive in there was the Hibiki 30yo.

And I’ve always wanted to try the Yamazaki 25.

Though, to perfectly honest, I didn’t expect to enjoy these whiskies quite as much as I did. I was really expecting to be saying that these are over-oaked, over-Sherried and under-proofed. I wanted to say that the hype is all noise and you can live out your lives in the contentment of knowing that you’ll never have to hunt these down to try them.

Unfortunately, that just isn’t the case…

Hibiki 30 43%

Colour: Dark Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Ridiculously complex. Standing in a carpenter's workshop with loads of different types of wood being worked on, polished oak, pine, as well as loads of others that I couldn't begin to guess at, Acacia honey, leather and cigar box, complex oils, dry forest floor. Menthol and complex herbs and subtle spice, spearmint, freshly crushed mint, chocolate powder too. The balance here is insanely good.

Taste: Dry arrival, incredible balance and silky texture, then more powerful with leather and chilli and ginger spices and old honey, delicate oils, evolves through endless layers. Dried leaves, there is some smoke in there too but its interwoven into the fabric of everything else, dried apple. Slightly sweeter into the finish with very old brandy.

Finish: Long length. Softer, more delicate, very subtle earthy flavours then the most incredibly delicate oak you can imagine. Moving.

Blended? Really, with what? 5% grain whisky? Seriously, this stuff is kinda magical. The heft, weight and poise of this is exquisite for a blended whisky.

92/100

 

Yamazaki 25 43%

Colour: Dark Amber

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Complex herbal and Sherried nose, wood sap and marker pens, pine forest aromas, sweet orange, orange peel, something light and ethereal yet also heavy with burnt thyme, pine smoked ham?, Lapsang Souchong and Ginseng tea, honey comb, some forest floor, something medicinal perhaps? Even more complex as it opens up.

Taste: Full on from the off (despite the 43%) with a great balance of sweet and dry, pine and sap, orange and oak, cherry and cough sweets, very oily mouthfeel- chewy, very old Sherry, dry dark chocolate, raisin and prune, something perfumed then some very slight rubber into the finish.

Finish: Long length. A long slow bleed of sweet and dry, some oak and Sherry, tobacco and all sorts of chocolates. Stunning finish.

Not quite the equal of the also stunning Hibiki 30 but damn close. I really wanted to believe that this would be a little tired and over Sherried like the 18yo but no, alas not.

If the 2013 Sherry Cask is something like this then I can see why Jim Murray would have given his whisky of the year to it.

91/100

Updated Distillery Rankings

Japanese Reviews #25-#26

Whisky Network Reviews #997-#998

Network Average: 75.2

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as the Global Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Johnnie Walker Ghost & Rare- Port Ellen [Road to #1000, Review #982]

Hi everyone,

Despite being the devilish diabolical despot of the whisky industry, Diageo also bring out some damn interesting whiskies.

There seem to be never ending different editions of the Blue Label (London Edition, year of the Monkey, a cask strength one, King George V, among others) but this newer series of blended whiskies that celebrate some of Diageo’s closed and rare stocks did stick out. For one, they had a list of the distilleries used on the back and for another this version focusses on Port Ellen.

How much Port Ellen was actually used in the batch we have no idea. However, we do know that it was blended with grain whisky from Carsebridge and Caledonian (both closed) with malts from Mortlach, Oban, Dailuaine, Cragganmore and Blair Athol.

Once again, thanks go to Colin Dunn for the sample.

Johnnie Walker Ghost & Rare- Port Ellen 43.8%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Closed at first, red apple and faint Islay smoke, malt, creamy vanilla, definite Talisker-esque spice- black pepper, cumin. After a bit there’s a little garden shed thing, spiced honey but it’s all a little flat.

Taste: Soft but lacking power, creamy grain, some vanilla, cream soda, spice and malt coming in then, black pepper, long development with smoke and chocolate, more malt, lightly earthy.

Finish: Medium length. Seems to fall short but comes back with late earthy malt and dark chocolate.

Not amazing on the smell (it might need more time to open up) but good taste and finish. I think the grain may have been a bit flat and that’s dragging it down. I do love the information on the label giving us the different distilleries used and this is an interesting take (and a slight improvement) on the usual Blue Label.

74/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #824

Whisky Network Review #982

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as the Global Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Slane Irish Whiskey & 2003 Irish Single Malt Exclusive Malts Reviews

Hi everyone,

Two quick Irish whiskies today, one blended and the other a single cask, single malt.

Slane Blended Irish 40%

Colour: E150a

Body: Medium

Nose: Wine gums, slightly green, tropical, sour green apple, vanilla.

Taste: Soft and oily, quite a bit of malt before some rubbery tropical fruit comes in. Quite fat for a blend.

Finish: Medium length. Creamy, green Apple, some sour oak.

Not bad at all! Decent, cheaper Irish.

66/100

Ireland 2003 Exclusive Malts 54.2%

Colour: Light Amber

Body: Medium

Nose: Rubbery tropical fruit gums, slightly smoky oak, car sweets, some dust?, vanilla custard, charcoal. Dry nose.

Taste: Soft and dry, then creamy with oak and vanilla, red and black liquorice, car sweets, fruit gums, slightly rubbery into the finish.

Finish: Long length. Rubbery fruit and oak. Unbalanced and again quite dry.

13yo from refill Sherry cask. Was expecting more from this one, it just doesn’t quite come together the way it should.

73/100

Thanks for reading!

Irish Whiskey Reviews #26-#27

Whisky Network Reviews #934-#935

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

White Horse 1950's Review

’And I saw, behold it was a white horse... and hell followed with him.’

And if by ‘hell’ we mean Lagavulin, that quote would make sense. (I’ve been playing too much FarCry 5…)

Old White Horse Blended Whisky is pretty sought after because the blend reputedly contained a lot of Lagavulin. The stuff made in the 60’s & 70’s may even have contained some Malt Mill. This is a little too early for that but fascinating to try all the same.

Many thanks to Andrea (the old blend aficionado) for letting me try this.

 

White Horse 1950's 43%

Colour: Gold

Body: Light/Medium

Nose: Musky and ethereal, very old grain whisky notes, oak and cream, soft and complex, soot and apple, musky cologne, a little 'old bottle effect' with this dusty fruit note. Not much smoke that I can see.

Taste: Soft arrival, oak and spice, creamy grain, biscuit then some smoke, ginger beer, nice spice. The lemon is still alive. A little more smoke here but I’d be hard pressed to say it was from Lagavulin.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Creamy grain then the ginger beer tingles.

Spring cap! What a rarity. Amazing to be able to try but to me this tastes like 90% 20yo grain whisky and less than 5% young Islay whisky. No idea of the true proportions but the grain is really dominant with the creamy/biscuit notes, only allowing a little of the smoke to come through as a subtle sootiness.

70/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #728

Whisky Network Review #866

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Johnnie 'White Walker' Review

Hi everyone,

A new Johnnie Walker has landed in our midst and it is very gimmicky.

Capitalising on the success of the Games of Thrones series, they are releasing a series of whiskies based on the various warring factions with this blended whisky being the first. Is there anything different about this one? I don’t know but the bottle shares a secret message when iced…

Winter is coming…

 

Johnnie White Walker 41.7%

Colour: E150a

Body: Light

Nose: Light and floral, grain based, Cameronbridge but quite true to the spirit, clean, pretty much 100% grain whisky here. BUT it isn’t bad grain whisky. Not ethanol-y or nail polish remover-y.

Taste: Creamy vanilla, soft, lots of Cameronbridge grain but not unpleasant, floral, slightly waxy and oilier as it goes on.

Finish: Medium length. Creamy vanilla, some biscuit and wax. Maybe a tiny touch of smoke (Highland style Caol Ila?) Better complexity here. Good finish.

Not bad at all. Mid-aged Cameronbridge with a touch of Clynelish and an even tinier touch of unpeated Caol Ila for a little body? Could probably do with being plopped in the freezer for a while.

66/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #677

Whisky Network Review #811

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

TBWC Scotch-Japanese Blend 21yo Review

Hi everyone,

April 2018 saw That Boutique-y Whisky Co (Atom Brands, AKA Master of Malt) being bought by the much larger company InBev, who own Budweiser. They stopped shipping to the US but few other changes occurred.

This one is an innovative, perhaps Adelphi inspired, take on whisky, blending Japanese and Scotch.

Are these two things related?

Probably not, but in my mind it looks like someone pushing crap whisky onto the public by screaming ‘JAPANESE!!’ Which, isn’t a bad way to sell whisky but falls short of TWBC’s quality standards in this case. Just my two cents…

 

Scotch-Japanese Blend 21 TBWC 43%

Colour: Dark Gold

Body: Light

Nose: Quite grain driven, almost Bourbon-like corn, creamy, some sharp oak, very dry leaves.

Taste: Soft and creamy, lacking a lot of power, lots of grain, some strawberry, a little vanilla.

Finish: Short length. Lacking, some late strawberry.

Disappointing. Tastes like there’s a lot of Grain whisky in this one, with very little malt. There’s very little complexity for 21 years, no power to speak of whatsoever and the balance is majorly off. I would like to apologise for being harsh but TBWC is usually so good that this is quite a shock.

64/100

Thanks for reading!

Whisky Network Review #805

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Review #800: Johnnie Walker Blue Label

Hi everyone,

These hundred whisky reviews that come along every so often feel a little like ‘and now… for my next trick!’ Trying to one up ourselves with rare and/or ridiculous whiskies that will impress all.

Instead of that, for my 800th review I’ve decided to do a whisky that I should have reviewed a long time ago, the classic premium blend: Johnnie Walker Blue Label, touted as one of the most overpriced and perhaps the most disappointing whisky in the world. A dual accolade that has always made me curious. Hosting some high-end London bartenders in Swansea, I thought I might as well…

 

Johnnie Walker Blue Label 40%

Colour: E150a

Body: Medium

Nose: Quite full for a blend, malty, spice, oak, elegant fruit, a bit of chocolate, a subtle touch of old peat.

Taste: Soft, vanilla, oak, some very nice fruit, malt, milk chocolate, then some grain building and loses balance. Loses more balance as it develops in the mouth.

Finish: Medium length. Quite good here, less grain, more chocolate, malt and some old peat notes.

Better than I expected this. There’s enough going on and it doesn’t feel to thin or like there’s too much grain whisky, well perhaps in the mid-palate but the nose and finish surprised me, especially with the aged peat notes. Yes, this isn’t worth the money, you can pick up a decent malt that will be infinitely better for half the price.

73/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #667

Whisky Network Review #800

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Compass Box Delilah XXV Review

Hi everyone,

Allow me to be lazy on this one because it’s a CB release and that means percentage proportions of what’s in it:

29% Original Delilah recipe: Of which 48% older Cameronbridge, 40% older Teaninich & 12% Glen Elgin aged for an additional five years after the first Delilah release

10.5% More Cameronbridge from 1st fill Bourbon

10.5% Miltonduff from 1st fill Bourbon

20% Teaninich from 1st fill Sherry

15% Mystery Malt from town of Aberlour (Glenfarclas perhaps?) from 1st fill Sherry

15% Linkwood from 1st fill Sherry

This was released to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Delilah punk rock whisky bar and I tasted it at the Stoke whisky festival earlier this year.

 

Compass Box Delilah XXV 46%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Malt hits first, wild strawberry, biscuit, very creamy, orange citrus, creamy vanilla, the grain comes out more with time.

Taste: Strawberry hit, very creamy, malt, biscuit, some heather and chocolate, some spice and oak, gingerbread, vanilla, a little grain whisky into the finish.

Finish: Medium length. More of the same. Orange, chocolate, heather and lots of malt.

A nice one from CB, middle of the road really. No peat, no Clynelish, just a pleasing whisky for all. I’ve said it before but I’m a big sucker for strawberry in whisky and this is no different. Good stuff.

75/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #657

Whisky Network Review #790

Network Average: 75.0

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?