Another 1 million yen whisky

 

What do you get when you combine a "living national treasure" and 35-year-old whisky? A bill for 1,000,000 yen (about $12,000).

Nicholas Coldicott (Twitter) alerted us to an article in the Asahi Shimbun about another of Suntory`s high-end flights of fancy: 35-year-old Hibiki blended whisky sold in Kakiemon pottery made by the 14th Sakaida Kakiemon (the previously mentioned national treasure; this Wikipedia article has information about the start of that line).

The bottle depicts azaleas on a textured, milky white finish and contains whisky ranging in age from 35-46 years (46 per cent alcohol). There are only 150 bottles and they are going for 1,000,000 apiece, but the article says Suntory expect to be sold out within the week.

Suntory have a tradition of putting their best whisky in the best of bottles. There are big displays of similar past bottlings at the Yamazaki distillery (here is a press release for a 2002 release, also priced at 1,000,000 yen.)

For more information on the Kakiemon bottling, see the Suntory press release. The Asahi article says the whisky has fruity, honeyed and vanilla characteristics.