Looking past the veil of hype behind the now famous Japanese brand, the Yamazaki 18 is, at this price point, an okay whiskey. It has a nice, mature smokey oak initial taste with pleasant fruity notes and faint floral notes. It finishes with little bitterness and less spiciness than the Hibiki 17. It has a very smooth, buttery texture (but not as silky as the Johnnie Walker Blue Label). At the premium these are going for, it's hard to justify drinking these regularly. For the money, I would say I'd rather get the aforementioned Blue Label or even something in between the price points like Macallan 18. However, I think these are a great addition to the collection as these are now the unicorns of Japanese whiskey and damn near impossible to find. I picked 2 up because of this. One to drink and one to appreciate.
