Once again Suntory is holding a "Hibiki art lounge ART OF BLENDING" event at Roppongi Hills. This year it runs May 25 4PM-May 26 2AM.
Part bar, part education, and part blatant marketing, the Hibiki art lounge allows you to get up close and personal with the blending behind a bottle of Hibiki.
There will be three main attractions:
- 220 glasses of whisky taken from the 1.2 million casks that Suntory currently owns will be lined up for nosing, each with information on the individual cask and maturity
- ten of the component whiskies that go into Hibiki itself will be available for nosing
- Hibiki Art Works, featuring some of the more artistic bottles they've done over the years
The bar will of course be serving Hibiki, and only Hibiki: 500 yen for a Hibiki Japanese Harmony served on the rocks, 1000 yen for Hibiki Blender's Choice served on the rocks, or 1300 yen for a comparison set served straight.
A "Hibiki Special Tasting Bar" will also be there, guiding ten guests at a time through a 30 minute session diving deep into four of the component whiskies. 3000 yen if you can get a spot.
2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the launch of the Hibiki brand. It's since firmly positioned itself as the premium Japanese blended whisky, though in 2018 it did suffer a blow with Hibiki 17 being replaced with the NAS Hibiki Blender's Choice (see my review here).
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Whiskey Richard is the founder of nomunication.jp, and has been saying he has lived in Japan for ten years for the past four years. He enjoys drinking basically anything except straight-up Campari.