World Whisky reviews

The Solist Fino, as the name indicates, is finished in a Fino sherry butt. I am told there are many batch variations, so I am curious how mine will do. It is a sample I brought home for a whisky festival…

The King Car Kavalan distillery in Taiwan is still very young, founded in 1979. They got the help of expert Dr Jim Swan, which I have met at the festival in Ghent as a soft spoken, rather introvert man…

Kavalan has bottled quite a few single sherry casks, all at natural color (and mine is quite dark). This cask yielded 546 bottles at a whopping 57,8%. I will keep my water close at hand.OMG! Deep sherry…

This Kavalan Single Malt saw the light of day in 2008 and is the distillery’s best seller. It is composed from first fill bourbon and sherry casks, but also several refill casks and even a wine cask. It…

The final Kavalan that I will try is the Solist Vinho Barrique. It matured 4 years on American oak that was air dried for two years, before white and red wine was matured in it. The casks were then…

There have been numerous bottlings of the Solist on bourbon casks, all at cask strength. Mine has reference B080616095 and yielded 203 bottles at 57,8%. The nose is rife with vanilla, coconut and over…