Kavalan Solist Oloroso Sherry Whisky Review!

It's been years since I last tasted a Kavalan of any description. The last couple of Solist bottlings that I tried didn't quite float my boat, but they're considerably older these days, so this more recent bottling could change that.    

Solist is the name given to Kavalan's cask strength single cask bottlings - and no, it's not "Soloist", which would make more sense in English and is a common mistake among reviews & retail listings. There are a huge number of cask variants in the Solist series, including bourbon, wine, sherry and port casks, plus many more in their higher-level ranges with their wooden boxes. And there have been hundreds of casks released since their initial launch, which in Australia was circa 2014-2015 if my memory serves me. I last reviewed one of these back in late 2015, around the time that the Solist Vinho Barrique (wine cask) was given the "world's best single malt" award at the World Whiskies Awards. Remember though, just like the Sullivan's Cove French Oak bottling that won the same award in 2014, these are single cask bottlings and each cask varies in almost every way. It's hard to deny the "halo effect" that these awards have though, even when the single cask bottling is not available for sale, or when the release that wins the award is already sold out. Regardless, largely thanks to a touch of ignorance from the public to the world's press shouting it from the rooftops, one of these awards can even change the landscape of a nation's whisky industry. That single cask of Sullivan's Cove did for Tasmanian whisky in 2014, and like the 2013 Yamazaki Sherry Cask did for Japanese whisky in 2015 thanks to the infamous man in the hat, and yes, note that the award was given two years after the bottle was released. As for Taiwan's Kavalan, there was a little hype surrounding the winning wine cask variant at the time, but it doesn't seem to have given Taiwanese whisky the massive boost that it has for some other winners over the years. In this case, the "halo effect" was shorter lived, and there was only a spike in popularity and demand, rather than a massive and continually growing cult following or widespread popularity outside of the hardcore whisky enthusiasts. But that's basically ancient history now, and Kavalan has since gained a small cult following on its own by producing quality whisky, which is more important anyway! 

Kavalan Distillery is owned by Taiwanese food & beverage conglomerate King Car Group, and the name Kavalan means "flat land people" in an ancient local dialect, which was the original name for the region now known as Yilan County. The distillery is around an hour's drive south of Taiwan's capital city, Taipei. The distillery was founded in 2005, and like many newer distilleries it was helped along by the late Dr. Jim Swan, who has consulted on & helped establish many "new world" distilleries such as India's Amrut, Wales' Penderyn, England's Cotswolds, and Israel's Milk & Honey, and also smaller Scotch whisky distilleries such as Kilchoman, Lindores Abbey, Annandale, Kingsbarns and Clydeside. Dr. Swan was a master at taking advantage of local conditions and setting up a distillery to produce high quality spirit at younger ages, something that those distilleries do very well. Dr. Swan and his team helped get many of the "new world" whisky distilleries noticed through the quality of their product, and he really helped the entire whisky industry rediscover that older does not necessarily mean better, and that age is just a number. He & his team were instrumental in helping these distilleries select and source equipment, ingredients and casks, plus tailoring fermentation and distillation regimens, and also wood management including pioneering the "STR" (shaved, toasted and re-charred ex-wine barrels) cask treatments that are now commonplace in the whisky industry. As it happens, that award-winning Vinho Barrique bottling of Kavalan Solist that we talked about above is matured in STR wine casks. 

In Kavalan's case, those local conditions are obviously playing a massive part in the final character of their whisky. Sub-tropical heat & humidity affects just about every part of the production process, but particularly maturation. Taiwan is a massive whisky market in terms of both volume and dollar value, and they certainly like their cask influence - the darker and sweeter the better, it seems. Most of the "traditional" sherry cask Scotch whisky distilleries, e.g. Glendronach and Macallan, now release Taiwanese exclusive whiskies, and they're almost always first-fill sherry casks. Kavalan Solist Oloroso Sherry Cask that we're looking at today, as you can tell from the photo below, is no exception. Kavalan whiskies do not carry age statements, but in the case of the Solist series of single casks the date of distillation is easy to work out from the cask number - they're not easy to read on these white labels, though! In this particular bottlings' case the cask number is S100129021B, and the first six digits give us the year, month and date of distillation - 29/01/2010 for this cask, and the bottling date is printed on the label - 31/12/2020 in this case. So this whisky is just under 10-years old. But as you can tell - and no E150a is added to the Solist series - the cask has definitely been busy over those nine years in the sub-tropical Taiwanese climate. Cask strength in this case is 58.6% ABV, and these Solist bottlings are not chill filtered. Pricing in Australia ranges from $200 AUD for an ex-bourbon cask to $300 for an ex-sherry cask like this one, while the fancier versions in their wooden boxes start at over $500. Sherry town, here we come!

Kavalan Solist Oloroso Sherry Cask, NAS, 58.6%. Taiwan. 

Cask number S100129021B, distilled 29/01/2010, fully matured in a single Oloroso sherry cask, bottled 31/12/2020 (9-years old). Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Very dark red. 

Nose: Sweet, woody & a little nippy / spiky. Milk chocolate, orange liqueur, wood spices & brown sugar. Black cherry & raisin, nutty oak. Oily varnish, touch of acetone, coffee grounds & date syrup. 

Texture: Medium weight. Spicy & lightly astringent (tannic) start, then syrupy sweet. Slight heat but well hidden. 

Taste: Dried fruit - raisin, plum, orange, and date syrup again. Black cherry jam, touch of vanilla cream, freshly sawn wood. Touches of varnish and acetone again. Plum pudding (Christmas pudding) and more hazelnut. 

Finish: Long length. Cola syrup and brown sugar caramel, fresh wood, dark chocolate and big pinches of drying wood spices (cinnamon, sandalwood). Lightly earthy then - mushrooms & coffee grounds. Raisins, dates & black cherry jam again. Plum pudding / Christmas pudding with some dark rum. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Supercharged sherry bomb, as expected. But there's still a good amount of character, particularly for nine years of age, in a fresh sherry cask, in a hot climate. I would guess that this was a 500-litre sherry butt for that reason, although I could be wrong, since it hasn't been completely overwhelmed by the wood - very close to it, though! Obviously this whisky doesn't have the luxury of slower maturation over decades in a sherry cask, or it would be a tannic wood monster - if it hadn't completely evaporated before it had the chance. This certainly quite a clean sherry cask too, with only a slight earthiness on the finish which is more than welcome at that point, and there's less actual wood influence here & little tannin compared to many other hot climate whiskies - thanks to larger format casks, no doubt. 

Obviously you're going to need to love sweet, and you're going to need to love sherry. But if you do, this Kavalan Solist will be right up your alley. I should add, I tend to find the ex-bourbon cask Solist to be the sweetest of them all, to the point where I haven't enjoyed the couple of examples that I've tried, reminding me more of a bourbon liqueur than an ex-bourbon cask malt whisky. So the spice & dried fruit notes in this Oloroso version are helping there. 

Cheers!