Nice stuff, Ack! The Hibicki 17 particularly for me. I have 3 bottles of Yoichi 20-year which my wife got us from her last visit to Japan. It ranks in my top 5-6 (out of well over 25 quality whiskys...most of which we own and enjoy) which i just posted on another thread. Here it is again below just for fun.
My ranking. (Y) means i own them and know them well. Some notes though not good ones frankly. The rankings means that anything with a '0' is the top of the list and all those are ranked relatively equally, and the next category follows. Since there are 4 whiskys in the top category, the next category starts at 5. You get the basic idea.
0. Glenfiddich '77, smooooth, rich, stunningly smooth actually
0. Springbank 35-year; smoky, the ultimate of Springbank non-sweet imho
0. Springbank 21-year (Y) smoky, sweet, smoooth, the ultimate of Springbank sweet imho...this is the recent global release of only 1500 bottles. i got 2 and am keeping one. locally, they have already doubled in price to the original release price in Jan. Nuts, frankly.
0. Macallan 30-year, smoooooth, clean...one of the most memorable and favored clean, smooth non-smoky whiskys of all time imho
0. Yoichi 20-Year (Y)
5. Springbank 18 (Y), smoky, smooth, for what i paid a stunning achievement, and its doubled in price in the last 3 yrs since selling out.
5. St. Magdalene 26-year (Y), honey, pure honey
5. Ardberg Supernova '10 (Y), smoke!!!, but so tasty, so good you could drink the smoke for a looong time.
8. Ardberg '78, smoke, 'rougher'
8. Sazerac Rye 18-year Old (Y), smooth Bourbon, very smooth, very refined and a memorably caramely flavor
10. Glenrothes 1985 (Y) rich, syrup
10. Lagavulin 16 (Y) great value, smoke and one of my fav whiskys. period.
10. Macallan 18 year (Y), great value
10. Laphroig 18 Year (Y), smoke,
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13. Glenmorangie 18 (Y),
13. Invergordon Berry Bros 1971 (Y)
13. Laphroig 10 year (Y), smoke
16. Highland Park 18 (Y), med rich,
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17. Craggenmore 12-year (Y), light, smooth
18. Ardberg 1991, smoke
19. Glenlivit Nadurra 16 yrs, sweet
19. Lagavulin Distillers Edition (Y),
19. Yoichi 10-Year,
22. Lagavulin 12year (Y), light smoke
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23. Glenmorangie Cellar 13, sweet, smooth
24. Glenmorangie Signet, sweet smooth
25. Bowmore 18-year, Bruiccladdich 18