What order would you drink these in?

[flahute]

Background: Every year our office does a charity auction in conjunction with a local brewery (where they serve a barrel of a limited edition beer) with all proceeds going to the Ronald McDonald House. In addition to donated items and items made by employees for auction, some people donate "experiences" that are enticing for a variety of reasons.

Myself and two colleagues donated a "rare whiskey tasting night" where we will provide 1 oz. pours for three people (each gets a 1 oz. pour) of the following: George T Stagg, Thomas H Handy, 4RLE Small Batch '14, ORVW 10yr, and Hibiki 17yr. (We will have others on hand such as WFE, OFBB, etc., but the first five are guaranteed)

I know how to order the bourbons. I'd go ORVW 10yr, 4RLE SmB, THH, GTS in that order. I have no idea where to slot in the Hibiki 17yr. (I've never had it, and don't do Scotches and Japanese Whiskies much.)

How would you guys do this?

I'm happy to report that this sold for $400. (Pretty surprised by that actually).

[DonutsNBourbon]

to me, it tastes light, floral and fruity, so it might be best served towards the start of it all.  maybe somewhere around the 4RLE, maybe before it.  and wow, that's an awesome idea!

[TheVilleWRX]

This is easy:

Hibiki 17yr - ORVW - GTS - 4R - THH

Start light and finish with spice

[tanstaafl2]

3 hours ago, TheVilleWRX said:

This is easy:

Hibiki 17yr - ORVW - GTS - 4R - THH

Start light and finish with spice

I agree the Hibiki first is the best idea. Not sure I would put the higher proof GTS ahead of the FRSmBLE. The ORVW is higher proof as well but as a wheater I think it would work second.

[DonutsNBourbon]

yea, I think GTS should be last at barrel strength

[SebastianLloyd]

How come you're choosing the Hibiki?

[flahute]

5 minutes ago, SebastianLloyd said:

How come you're choosing the Hibiki?

It was the only rare whiskey that one of the guys owns and he wanted to contribute. The bourbons are owned by myself and the other so we have that covered. We listed the Hibiki as a "bonus" to the four bourbons so it made sense as an outlier.

[b1gcountry]

You could hold the hibiki in reserve, and anyone who finds the gbs too strong can finish with a light one. 

[Paddy]

Steve,  I think you need to experiment... 

[fishnbowljoe]

I've heard some folks say that if a scotch is included in a tasting with bourbons, save it for last. From what I can gather, it's because the different flavor of scotch could throw off the taste of the bourbons that followed it.

[s8ist]

40 minutes ago, fishnbowljoe said:

I've heard some folks say that if a scotch is included in a tasting with bourbons, save it for last. From what I can gather, it's because the different flavor of scotch could throw off the taste of the bourbons that followed it.

I would agree with this to an extent, but definitely if the scotch is peated (and pretty much all of the Japanese ones are).  That peat flavor is going to stick around and color the palate, plus not everyone is going to enjoy it.

So I would follow TheVilleWRX's lead, but put the Hibiki last.

ORVW - GTS - 4R - THH - Hibiki 17yr

 

[b1gcountry]

Jap. Whisky is peated? You learn something new every day

[b1gcountry]

Can't edit, but Jap. is abbreviation for Japanese because I always spell it wrong.

[flahute]

Lot's of good suggestions. I knew I could count on the membership here to give some good advice.

I just read a bunch of reviews of the Hibiki 17 and it's definitely not peated. If it was, I'd place it last for sure as suggested above. I think I'll take Paddy's advice and experiment! Need to see what happens if the Hibiki is first.

I'm curious why some of you would place GTS before 4RLESmB and THH. I understand the rationale of increasing the rye content with each pour but wonder if it's better to increase proof as you go. Not sure which one wins out. Only thing to do is try it both ways!

[meadeweber]

On 12/12/2015, 12:28:58, b1gcountry said:

Jap. Whisky is peated? You learn something new every day

Not in my experience.

Specifically I drink Yamazaki 12 and a few Nikka and they are not.  Of course there are some Japanese whiskeys that are but to say "pretty much all of the Japanese ones are" is probably not correct.  I think there is a good mixture of peated and non-peated.

I have not had Hibiki 17 but one review mentions "gentle smoke" on the nose without any mention on the palate or finish.  Another review I read mentioned nothing indicating peat.

[tanstaafl2]

Of the two major producers we see in the US the bottlings from Suntory include Yamazaki which is typically not peated while Hakushu whisky (a completely separate distillery) is typically peated although usually not to the degree you see in typical Islay whiskies. Not all Islay whisky is highly peated either though most of it has a little (Indeed most scotch has a little peat influence in the malt but distilling and aging often obscure the tiny amount of peat).

Yamazaki also has a grain whisky distillery called Chita.

Hibiki is a blended whisky consisting of distillate from Yamazaki, Hakushu and Chita so it likely has a bit of peat in the mashbill but it is certainly not peat forward and indeed the blending, distilling and aging further reduces any peat impact to the point I don't typically get any peat from it.

There are several other brands in Japan including one called Suntory that are rarely seen in the US unless you know somebody who goes out of their way to find the occasional oddity...

 

 

Nikka is similar in that it also has three distilleries that include the malt distilleries of Yoichi (peated) and Miyagikyo (not peated, They also make grain whisky there) as well as an all grain facility called Tochigi. The Taketsuru line is the blended or vatted malt line. They also have several blended whiskies not typically available in the US (Nikka from the Barrel is one example) and an all grain whisky (In the US we get the Nikka Coffey Grain).

Nikka is currently dropping many age statements because they are reaching a period when older whisky is very limited due to Japan's own whisky slump 15-20 years ago when they didn't make much whisky.

 

Edited December 14, 2015 by tanstaafl2

[s8ist]

Sorry, didn't mean that all that Japanese whiskey was peated ala Laphroaig, Talisker, or etc, but more that they almost always seem to have some element of smoke in the taste, kind of in the same way that the Caol Ila unpeated still has it.

 

[tanstaafl2]

I think a lot of Japanese whiskey is made without any peat. But the Caol Ila unpeated comparison is a good one for some Japanese whisky, especially some of the blends where a hint of peat, or really more smoke in a lot of cases, is present. Of course there are some that are fairly peat forward as well, if not to the level of some of the peatier Islay whisky.