Hibiki (whisky)


Hibiki is a premium blended whisky produced in Japan by Beam Suntory. It is a premium-category product, and has won several awards.
For producing the blends available as of 2010, more than 30 whiskies were used in the mix, including some that were aged more than 30 years and some that were aged in old umeshu casks. A bamboo charcoal filtering step has also been used. The company said the process "Gives it a very sweet and gentle flavor". In 2015, it was reported that at least 10 malt and grain whiskies were used from three distilleries, aged in five different cask types, with some elements aged up to approximately 20 years or longer. Three brand expressions are currently available as of October 2017.

History and brand expressions

The brand was introduced in 1989 by Suntory, originally with expressions having age statements of 17 and 21 years. A 30-year expression was introduced in 1997, and a 12-year expression was introduced in 2009.
In 2014, the brand was moved into an American-headquartered subsidiary called Beam Suntory when the subsidiary was created following the company's purchase of Beam Inc.
A new expression called "Japanese Harmony", with no age statement, was introduced in 2015. The new blend was said to use the same malt and grain whiskies used in the first Hibiki blend, being a blend of at least 10 malt and grain whiskies from three distilleries, aged in five different cask types, with some elements aged up to approximately 20 years.
As of October 2017, the brand is available in three variations :
In May 2018, reports started coming out indicating the discontinuation of the Hibiki 17 expression. However, as of July 2019, the Hibiki 17 expression remains on the company website.