Japanese whisky recommendations?

The celtic whiskey shop have a sale on japanese whisky at the moment,
japanese whisky
Some reasonably priced 18yo whisky there, has anybody here tried any of these? Got any recommendations?

IrishWhiskeyCha

I've had the pleasure of having a bottle of about half of these and tasting all.

The Yamazaki 18yo is a lovely whiskey and very interesting. Plenty of complexity and a nice sweetness with unusual underlying charistics.

I also found both 12yo's he has very rewarding but bolder with more kick than the 18yo if you prefer a bigger chalange.

I've also had both 10yo's but can remember I was dissappointe dwith one of them but can't remember which

The Hibiki 17yo is a beautifully smooth and sweet blend. Would remind me of an Irish whiskey along the lines of Midleton Very Rare but a bit richer.

Very tasty and too easy to drink

Red Sleeping Beauty

I've heard that Suntory is "Scotch made by machines". Don't know anything other than that...

Brockagh

A Japanese whisky won whisky of the year in a Whisky Mag blind tasting, I believe. That was a few years ago.

The Japanese make great whisky and I'd second IWC's suggestions.

They can be expensive. The CWS has a sherry finished Yamazaki, which is not bad value.

The Hakushu stuff is nice too - very like a scotch single malt.

I've been buying Karuizawas recently. They can be really excellent, expensive though.

Thanks for the replies guys, I reckon I'll try a bottle of Yamazaki for Christmas

Karl Hungus

Hibiki 17 is truly fantastic, I'd highly recommend it.

Karl Hungus

Alan Rouge wrote: »

I've heard that Suntory is "Scotch made by machines". Don't know anything other than that...

I'd honestly take Japanese Whiskey over Scotch. Have a read of this. It was the Suntory Hibiki that won best blended whiskey, and Nikka Yoichi taking the best Single Malt.

BraziliaNZ

I thought Ireland and Scotland were the only people allowed to call anything Whiskey or Whisky no?

Brockagh

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

I thought Ireland and Scotland were the only people allowed to call anything Whiskey or Whisky no?

No, anyone can, basically.

In india, as well as making whisky, they make a spirit from molasis, which they call whisky. They can call it anythign they like there, but they could not export it to some countries as whisky because of the regulations in those countries.

They make whisky in ireland, france, germany, canada, argentina, thailand, austria, new zealand, australia sweden, japan, wales, america...

Red Sleeping Beauty

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

I thought Ireland and Scotland were the only people allowed to call anything Whiskey or Whisky no?

No pal, no no no. Welcome to the wonderful world of whiskey!


Apparently Irish monks created whiskey, then through economic swindling, the Scottish got a foot in the world (read: American) market and then Scottish became the whisky to have. Irish whiskey has slowly been clawing its way back into the market.

There's Welsh Whisky, Indian, Canadian... there's millions more!

Brockagh

Well, that, combined with prohibition, war with the British Empire, Dev's policies...

Irish whiskey is one of the big growth categories, but it's miles behind Scotch, Bourbon and even Indian whisky. We only have four working distilleries, while they have about 100 in Scotland.

Red Sleeping Beauty

Brockagh wrote: »

Well, that, combined with prohibition, war with the British Empire, Dev's policies...

Irish whiskey is one of the big growth categories, but it's miles behind Scotch, Bourbon and even Indian whisky. We only have four working distilleries, while they have about 100 in Scotland.

Are you counting the old Kilbeggan one that's been started up?

Brockagh

Alan Rouge wrote: »

Are you counting the old Kilbeggan one that's been started up?

Yeah, Kilbeggan is a working distillery. So we have Midleton, Cooley, Bushmills and Kilbeggan. Dingle is on the way too...