Hibiki Japanese Harmony
Blended Whisky | 43% ABV
Score: 5/10
Average. In a good way.
TL;DR
Harmonious, if a little underwhelming
Has the rising passion for Japanese Whisky finally set?
I have always marked my explosion of whisky passion as the year of 2020, which as you can imagine had multiple factors fueling those flames. Yet as I got halfway through writing this review, researching how much I paid for this bottle, I was shocked to find my whisky deep dive started at least two years earlier.
Way before the time when we first heard the phrase “lockdown” in every news report, this bottle, as well as quite a few others, was purchased in November 2018. It feels a little surreal to think I have been a whisky enthusiast for at least five years.
I continue to still see myself as a newbie splashing his toes into scotch. If I could tell my 25 year old self that Dramface would allow me to spew incoherent whisky wibble online, I would’ve confused myself, and rightly so. Of course, having said power I would provide myself a mighty long shopping list of bottles to grab while the going was good, but let's move past this Doc Brown tangent and get back to the review.
Back then, as I sat alone, watching every Scotch documentary, detailing every drop I sipped in my chicken scratch notebook, there was one hype train I quickly discovered. That was Japanese whisky.
I always felt that I was a fraction too old (or financially tight) to get caught up in the culture of being a “Hypebeast” which took alot of my friends by storm. This term stems from a streetwear and culture blog, stirring a frenzy of demand for the latest red rectangle Supreme t-shirt or a pair of chunky “ugly sneakers”, yet I wonder if this culture also occurs in the whisky world?
The closest I would say now would be the highly demanded Springbank but fortunately they are not selling branded bricks for $30… even though I can imagine the flippers hovering over the add to cart button if they did. At the beginning of my journey and in truth long before I explored anything Campbeltown, those Hypebeasts wanted Japanese Whisky.
Kicked off by Yochi 10 Single Cask from Nikka Whiskey taking the number one spot in the “2001 Best of the Best” Whisky Magazine blind tasting, the hype was still high as I rocked up to the party 17 years later. As my curious and naive eyes skimmed all the “best whisky” articles I could find, a bottle of Japanese (or not so Japanese, as it turned out) whisky always seemed to have a high ranking place. This tied in with an appreciation of Japanese culture from a young age, stemming from being fascinated by the woodblock print of The Great Wave Off Kanagawa and spending far too many hours on the PC game classic Shogun:Total War. Neither, I grant you, are even close to the surface of true cultural elements, but enough to make me want to dive deeper.
While this was the hazy days before Dramface, I scoured many great review websites as well as spending many a late evening sat at my kitchen table, iPad propped up on my latest bottle purchased, flitting from Youtube review to review like a bee at a picnic. Doing more research than I ever put into school homework, I narrowed it down to two bottles which seemed to truly stand out.
Nikka From The Barrel and Hibiki Harmony. Both seemed easily accessible online and didn’t send my low tolerance for expensive whisky into shock. Granted, back then the £50 mark was pretty excessive compared to my supermarket bottle of Highland Black 8yo at £14.
Solely due to being the cheaper of the two, Nikka From The Barrel was the most likely to have been clicked into the checkout first, yet a stroke of luck came my way and both appeared at my door within a week of each other.
If I could give any advice to the new whisky folk who, like me, are a bit financially impaired when it comes to whisky money, get involved with as many competitions and giveaways as you can. In 2018 The Whisky Exchange launched a festive treasure hunt where a clue would drop on one of their social media accounts, stirring a mass panic through their website to find the “whisky sleigh” providing you with some tasty gift vouchers. That glorious year gave me the golden ticket of £120 to spend at Wonka's Whisky shop and boy did I try to spread it as far as possible.
Nine different samples and miniatures gave me the power to explore everything from Glenlivet 18 to Wild Turkey 101, a bottle of Glen Garioch Founder's Reserve, the 50cl delight of Nikka From The Barrel and of course the Suntory Hibiki Harmony. Yes, I was proud of that “bang for buck” basket making the most of their offer section. The Glen Garioch even came with two Glencairns, which in truth was the reason behind the purchase.
Within a week of delivery the samples had been consumed and reviewed in my juvenile style, with the bottles washed and ready to contain a new whisky sample for someone else. Glen Garioch followed quite quickly in a haze of unremarkableness while the Nikka From the Barrel was a delight that I struggled to reach past.
That leaves Hibiki Harmony, now five years on, still sitting on the shelf. It has even outlasted that already outdated iPad I purchased it on. It was one that I hesitantly opened and slowly sipped at year after year. Now in 2023, that halfway threshold was crossed and begrudgingly became the bottle I grab as my go-to, ensuring its final moments are not muddled or faded.
Now on its final pours it helps me realise that it’s not that I think Japanese hype bubble has burst, it has instead become washed away by the rising tide of new world whisky. Spoiled by today’s diverse whisky landscape, I have turned from a spotlight on Japanese Whisky to a floodlight on World Whisky.
Review
Hibiki Japanese Harmony, Blended whisky, official release, 43% ABV
£82 readily available (£56 paid)
This stunning 24-sided bottle has been my go to grab over the last few weeks and it’s truly a thing of beauty. From the thick etched glass top connected to a delicately smooth artificial cork, the whole bottle experience is something to behold. With the echizen washi paper label not giving much away as to what’s inside this bottle it’s time to get it poured.
Score: 5/10
Average. In a good way.
TL;DR
Harmonious, if a little underwhelming
Nose
Rose petals and milk bottle sweets waft straight out of the glass giving a very light and pleasing welcome. It very swiftly becomes quite perfumey with lots of sandalwood, plum and cantaloupe melon. Friendly and delicate this is a real sumptuous scent which softly adapts to each sniff.
Palate
Maybe a bit more dissonant on first taste as sharp green grapes clash with the vanilla oaky note. Trying this blind in the past I noted that it came across as youthful which is something that I still feel today but I can’t quite put my finger on. Peppery spice and orange came at the end with a delicate little twinge of what feels like metallic smoke seeps in at the back of the tongue.
The Dregs
Of course with a bottle being open for so long this review takes into account all of my experiences with it over the years and I’m glad to report it doesn’t seem to have diminished in any way. Why visually, at least to this Westerners view, I would describe this as the flagship of Japanese whisky taking into account how readily available it seems to be, there is better liquid on offer. It’s simply a question of whether or not you’re happy to pay for it.
Score: 5/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. GG
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