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The House of Suntory presents its oldest bottle of blended whiskey in the brand’s history that reinvents even its own legacy with which it has elevated Japanese whiskey to the pinnacle of spirits.
The iconic label, which celebrated its centenary last year, will release 400 bottles of ‘Hibiki 40’ for $35,000 each. At 43% abv, this ultra-premium whisky blends five of its malt and grain iterations, all at least 40 years old, from each of its historic distilleries, such as Yamazaki, Hakushu and Chita.
The five liquid expressions called ‘Yamazaki American Oak, Yamazaki Spanish Oak, Yamazaki Mizunara Cask, Hakushu Peated, Chita Grain Whisky’, were blended and rested for six months. After that time, each of the whiskies acquired a distinct flavor profile in Yamazaki’s American oak barrels, which contribute notes of tropical fruit and cream pie.
As for the bottle’s design, it features a detailed sculpted, luxury aesthetic in crystal, with 30 hand-cut facets, mother-of-pearl inlays and gold lacquered details. To symbolize the seasons, the bottle is presented in a box of 12 types of wood, all indigenous to Japan: cherry, hanki, birch, mizunara, senna, konara, walnut, chestnut, maple, poplar, beech and katsura.
Japanese artist Eriko Horiki has just elevated the product design with a handmade label on the box with 12 faces representing the months of the year through paintings of leaves that change color with the seasons.
