Sipping Liquid Gold

Whisky makers are releasing ever-pricier limited editions. What does a $35,000 bottle taste like? I boldly went to find out.

- BRIAN O'KEEFE

AS WE CONTEMPLATE THE light-amber liquid in our longstemmed tasting glasses, Shinji Fukuyo uses a surprising word to describe the delicate flavors in his latest creation: antique. Fukuyo is the chief blender for House of Suntory, the esteemed Japanese whisky producer perhaps best known to nonaficionados as the brand that brought Bill Murray to Tokyo as its pitchman in the 2003 movie Lost in Translation. Here in an elegant hotel dining room in midtown Manhattan, it is very much Suntory time again. And my lucky fellow tasters and I are about to sample a rare new bottle-with a price tag that's hard to fathom.