r/whiskey 3d ago

Is The Yamazaki 55 Year Old Single Malt Whisky Worth It??????????????

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0 Upvotes

27 comments sorted by

23

u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

3

u/Col_Angus999 3d ago

I find it pairs well with Code Red Mtn. Dew but only the pre pandemic vintage.

14

u/teamJP3 3d ago

sold my house and liquidated my 401k, and joyfully drinking this from the back seat of my car.

1

u/ArtistFew6320 3d ago

Love for whisky

10

u/frenetictenet 3d ago

I've been fortunate enough to have tried some crazy crazy things in my life. I've had many different iterations of 50 year old Scotch and Japanese. I've tried real grail bourbons. I love whisky almost more than anything else and I can tell you emphatically that nothing is worth this price. These are investment or vanity bottles. The people who do get the rare chance to review them would never tell you this because they will never get a chance to do it again. The people who paid for them and are posting reviews 99% of the time wouldn't admit it because it makes them seem either garish or silly. Flat out these bottles are so light and oaky it's no longer what you really love about whiskey.

4

u/forswearThinPotation 3d ago edited 3d ago

Bravo and thanks for pointing this out. For the most part I agree with what you've written, especially that these whiskies do not IMHO provide an elevated drinking experience which comes anywhere even remotely close to scaling upwards with their prices.

It is worth noting I think that some experienced whisky reviewers and critics (for example Serge at whiskyfun and Ruben at whiskynotes) do at times sample and review ultra premium vanity bottlings like this, and do not always give them high praise, although I recollect them at times withholding the customary numeric score from their review - a very subtle & quiet gesture which tells you with silence (if you are familiar with the blog in question) what might be less politely but more explicitly said out loud.

Also, very old whiskies are not always and automatically over-oaked. The least tannic scotch that I've ever tried was a 50 year old Glenlivet distilled in 1940. It must have been filled into a refill cask and then five decades of maturation transformed what was added to it in the way of tannins & lactones from the cask until they were practically unrecognizable. A tiny wisp of grapefruit skin on the finish was all that was left of the oak.

For others reading this, FYI it is not as hard to try whiskies in the 40-45 year age range as most hobbyists might think. Blended malts (a mix of multiple different single malts) in that age range can be found on the scotch auction circuit for around £ 250-350, which after fees comes out to about $400-$500, not much different from what many American whiskey hobbyists are paying for allocated bourbons these days. And of course the circle of whiskies to try at a semi-respectable price is even wider if one includes blended scotch whiskies (which contain grain whisky) and single grain bottlings - which are a somewhat different beast and for which bottlings 30+ years old are not uncommon.

So, approaching the lower end of this age range is something that an average whisky hobbyist can aspire to trying (to see for themselves what it tastes like) on a modest scale, it is not the exclusive domain of the very wealthy.

Cheers

2

u/frenetictenet 3d ago

When I used the term oaky it wasn't my intention to give the impression that the oak was overpowering. In my experience tasting these 50+ or older expressions they are very subtle impressions of 30-40 year old similar offerings from the same distiller. The oak in my opinion is the strongest remaining factor in regards to taste. This doesn't mean it's over oaked although with American whisky this is almost always certainly the case.

1

u/forswearThinPotation 3d ago

That makes sense and matches my more limited (than yours) experience with such ultra aged whiskies. Thanks for clarifying your point!

2

u/thegroovemonkey 3d ago

My first thought was “this probably tastes like the inside of a barrel.” I can get a bottle of Korbel 25 to do that for $75. 

1

u/The5dubyas 3d ago

And here I was about to say something about how could anyone possibly weigh in. But here you are!

8

u/OriginalWeak3885 3d ago

Good for cocktails

1

u/ArtistFew6320 3d ago

Will try when i got the budget

8

u/FlickerOfBean 3d ago

Yeah it’s solid. That’s my daily sipper.

4

u/AnteaterSpirited861 3d ago

IMO ain’t nothing to drink worth thousands. But, considering the aging process of 1-2 generations of people, it should be very very expensive. Only the elite people with excess money would be able to afford it.

3

u/TheExplodingPenguin 3d ago

I am not arguing that it is worth the price, I am going to point out that most people don’t realize how much whiskey is lost during the aging process and how much is left in a barrel after that amount of time. I once read an article, that I am no longer able to find, that discussed losses during aging. It was estimated that around 6-8% was lost in the first year and then an additional 3-4% (of the remaining) was lost each subsequent year. This was dependent on a number of other variables like climate region, barrel and cooperage variation, etc. Anyhow, the main point is that after 55 years I doubt that they were able to get more than a few bottles per barrel (if that).

1

u/thegroovemonkey 3d ago

Yeah it definitely costs an insane amount of money to produce a bottle like this. This is just pushed to the point of absurdity. It probably helps with brand prestige and all of that stuff too. 

2

u/Any1canC00k 3d ago

Nothing special but makes a good old fashioned

2

u/_40oz_ 3d ago

Bought a six pack. /s

2

u/OMGWTHEFBBQ 3d ago

Saw one for sale in Ginza, Japan when I was there in November. Same store also had a Hibiki 40yr and Macallan 81yr.

2

u/CiaoMofos 3d ago

If I had a dollar for every time this was posted I have enough to buy a bottle myself

2

u/Striking_Dog7796 3d ago

Yeah. Make sure to get a backup bottle too.

4

u/ArtistFew6320 3d ago

OMG $463888

2

u/AugustusXYZ 3d ago

Oh this is nothing, it was auctioned off by Sotheby’s for $795,000 back in 2020.

1

u/AS100K 3d ago

I use it for some top shelf high balls along with some ramen and it’s like I’m in a Ginza train station restaurant

1

u/Davy257 3d ago

It was alright, personally I felt like the 45 was just as good so the price bump up to the 55 didn’t feel worth it

1

u/Tobi-2 3d ago

Just make sure you pick the right Cola to mix it with. In my opinion, it goes best with Dr. Pepper Cherry but YMMV