Whisky Posts

Hibiki 12 Year Old

I came back from our Japan trip last year with a fairly decent haul of Suntory whisky, so you'll have noticed a theme in my whisky tasting lately! This is Hibiki 12 Year Old, from Suntory's blended range. I've previously been impressed by the Hibiki range, so I'm curious to see how the ...

The Hakushu 12 Year Old

Hakushu is Suntory's second distillery, constructed half a century after the Yamazaki distillery in the Japanese Southern Alps – a location which makes it one of the highest distilleries in the world. This is The Hakushu 12 Year Old, the youngest of their aged expressions. The nose has that sweet fruitiness that I'm coming ...

Suntory Old Whisky

Suntory produce a baffling array of whiskies, certainly far more than their English language website will admit. This is Suntory Old Whisky – a miniature I picked up when we visited the Yamazaki Distillery last year. It seems that the "Old Whisky" label has, over the years, been applied to quite a variety of different ...

Whisky Mac Ice Cream

This month's BSFIC Challenge over on Kavey Eats is a very seasonal Booze theme. This plays right into my area of expertise! Following on from my exploration of the perfect Whisky Mac earlier this year, I decided that an ice creamed version would be the perfect winter warmer. It's a 'proper' ice cream, being ...

Milroy's Tweet Tasting

Milroy's was the first proper whisky shop I ever visited. Not long after my whisky tastebuds were given a wakeup call in Aberdeen, I found myself in London and couldn't resist the enticing shop window. A good whisky shop feels a little like a book shop to me. I can happily browse the shelves for ...

Suntory Single Grain 'Chita'

Suntory have quite a collection of distilleries and one of them, Chita, is dedicated to making grain spirits and whiskies. While much of this goes straight into their blended brands (Hibiki apparently has quite a high level of grain whisky in its makeup), some makes its way into bottles in pure form. This is ...

Master of Malt 40 Year Old Speyside

This week marks the end of an era – it's the last dram from Master of Malt's brilliant 3cl sample offerings; I've raved about this before, but it really is a fantastic way of getting to try all sorts of whisky (in case anyone was trying to think of what to buy me ...

Yamazaki Whisky Library

The Yamazaki Distillery tour is an interesting but fairly standard walk around the distillery. First timers learn more about the process; the rest of us peer more closely and scope out the similarities and differences between Yamazaki and the distilleries we've seen before. What is most exciting to whisky lovers is the onsite bar in ...

Yamazaki Distillery Tour

Yamazaki is one of Suntory's two distilleries in Japan and is described as "the birthplace of Japanese whisky". It was impossible to resist a visit when we were staying a few nights in Kyoto, just a short train ride away. As you can see, it's quite easy to get to by train! It's ...

Hibiki 21 Year Old

Hibiki is Suntory's blended whisky brand. Somehow, the Japanese whisky industry seems to have avoided being totally sucked in by the "single malt" obsession of Scotch and produces blended whiskies that are every bit as high quality (and expensive!) as their single malt brothers. Here, we have the Hibiki 21 Year Old, which has ...