Hibiki 35 Year Old from 2016, in a cylindrical Arita porcelain bottle painted in underglaze blue with peonies and butterflies in the early Arita style. Suntory released it on 29 November 2016, together with a Kutani counterpart.
About This Whisky
The bottle is a straight-sided cylinder decorated in sometsuke, underglaze blue, with peonies and butterflies. The whisky is a Hibiki blend in which every component has aged for at least 35 years, blended from long-aged malt and grain whiskies. The cylinder form gives the painter a broad, even surface, so the flowers and butterflies wrap right around the body. Suntory made 150 bottles of the Arita version.
Tasting Profile
- Nose: Old sandalwood, beeswax and dried apricot, with a hint of temple incense.
- Palate: Soft and concentrated, with prune, dark honey, cocoa and gentle mizunara spice.
- Finish: Quiet and very long, fading through polished oak and dried fruit.
Serving & Food
Most bottles like this stay sealed. If it is opened, serve tiny pours neat at room temperature in fine crystal and give each glass time. Accompany it with very little: a few roasted chestnuts, plain rice crackers or a piece of wasanbon sugar.
How to Enjoy
Collectors of both Japanese whisky and porcelain, and private cellars building a Hibiki archive.
Product Details
Producer: Suntory
Style: Japanese blended whisky
Age Statement: 35 years old
Presentation: Arita porcelain, early-Arita style cylindrical bottle, underglaze blue peony and butterfly design
Release: 29 November 2016, 150 bottles
Volume: 700mL
Country: Japan
About the Distillery
The year 2016 marked four centuries of porcelain in Japan, counted from the first firing at Arita in 1616, and the design looks back to that beginning. The earliest Arita wares, often called shoki-Imari, were painted only in cobalt blue under the glaze. Because the pots were glazed without a separate biscuit firing, the surface is soft and slightly uneven, and traces of iron in the unrefined stone show as small dark specks.
Hibiki 35 has been paired with named ceramic artists more than once. One edition came in a vessel made by the living national treasure Sakaida Kakiemon XIV, and another in the 'Hekiyo' bottle by Tokuda Yasokichi III.