1/Hakushu 12 is one of those bottles that doesn't taste much like what sits around it. The Japanese distillery's first release for the U.S., and it goes its own way. Here's where it lands.
2/Ask the drinkers of the bottles nearest Hakushu 12 what it's worth to them, each from what they pay for their own, and the answers run from $254 to $254. At $378 it sits above all of them. Priced for its fans.
3/Pour it and you get the fleshier side of Hakushu. It keeps the freshness of the 10 year old but opens with more pineapple and grapefruit, a little jasmine and osmanthus. The palate's fresh and lively, a hint of persimmon, a tickle of smoke.
4/On price: it usually sells around $378, and we've seen it from $348 to $380. That's about $15.92 a pour at home, with roughly 24 in the bottle.
5/So: if you already love Hakushu's style, $378 buys the bottle you want. If you're newer to it and curious about that pineapple-and-smoke character, it's a pour worth meeting. Either way, you know what you're getting.
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