Whiskey and wine in Japan

[rosewaterwrx]

Currently in Tokyo for a few days in the Shinjuku region.

Couple of questions if anyone has some knowledge.

I've done a little research an it was clear that wine isn't overly cheap or the best option. However I have brought over a Noel Gagnard Montrachet to have with a seafood meal at some stage. Can anyone recommend a good wine bar that has a decent range by the glass?

I have looked around and it seems that Zoetrope is the best bar to drink a range of Whiskey so I'll be hitting that tonight.

On the topic of Whiskey I haven't had much luck tracking down aged Japanese options. However I have managed to snag a number of 50ml Hibiki 17 years olds for roughly $12 aud. I would prefer to get a 700 ml 12 year old...or older if anyone knows of a good source?

In my travels I have found yamazakura 15 year old aged in Sherry wood for $32400 yen. However online searches give me very very different info on the actual value over in Oz. if anyone has a contact with experience any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers...writing this on a little iphone4 so apologies for any typo's / lazy grammar.
Dave

[n4sir]

On the topic of Whiskey I haven't had much luck tracking down aged Japanese options. However I have managed to snag a number of 50ml Hibiki 17 years olds for roughly $12 aud. I would prefer to get a 700 ml 12 year old...or older if anyone knows of a good source?

After being introduced to The Hakushu 12 Year Old Single Malt last year I became a huge fan - unfortunately supplies here seem to have dried up (I think they have dropped it to concentrate on churning out the Distiller's Reserve). If you can get it over there that would be a nice find, and from what I have read it would be considerably cheaper in Japan too.

Cheers,
Ian

[Pej]

Japanese whisky with an age statement is almost impossible to find anywhere right now, including Japan, and prices have gone up accordingly. They just can't keep up with the demand and have started releasing whisky with no age statement to fill the gap. It is actually really good value in Japan but I would never pay what they are asking in Australia. I was lucky to pick up a Yamazaki 18 and a Hibiki 17 a few years ago before the hype started. The Yamazaki 18 has hit $1000 and the Hibiki 17 about $250, if you can find it in Australia. Needless to say, the Yamazaki is way out of my price range now. I paid about $160 and $80 for them back then.

I was in Japan back in February and the Hakushu 12 was the only whisky with an age statement I could find. Think it was about 80,000 yen. They are about $200 over here now.

Will just have to find another emerging whisky producing country now I guess and stock up before it gets popular!

[rosewaterwrx]

Thanks for the information guys. I ended up grabbing the following:

1 x Hibiki 17 year old (Paid roughly $130)
1 x Nikka 21 year old (Paid roughly $130).....bought direct from a bartender at a bar. I politely asked If he would sell me more and he declined. I was more than happy though.
2 x Yamazaki limited release 2016 (Paid roughly $150 I think)
4 x Hibiki 17 year old (50 ml's) at roughly $12 each
1 x Hakashu 12 year old (50 ml) roughly $10

I really wish I had have bought a couple of full sized Hakashu as that was available for 9,000 yen and I did see a bottle of Yamazakura Sherry Wood 15 year old. However that was roughly $500 and I couldn't quickly find enough information to confirm whether it was worth buying purely to resell. It does appear to retail for about $1300 here though.....Oh well. I was beginning to run out of money anyway.

I'll have to check pricing but overall I am very happy. I will likely sell one or 2 bottles to help fund what became a much more expensive trip than planned but reckon it would be a shame to flog the lot.

[VINH NGUYEN]

Sell it all and get yourself some heartwoods, stuffs a million times better then every bottle you've purchased