Distillery

Kavalan whiskies

Kavalan is Taiwan’s best-known whisky distillery, in Yilan County, on the north-east coast of the island. It belongs to King Car, a Taiwanese food and drinks group. It opened in the mid-2000s and within a few years won international awards that surprised the whole industry. The subtropical climate greatly speeds up maturation, so its young whiskies have a very notable intensity.

Founded
2005
Owner
King Car
Origin
Taiwan
In the catalogue
7 whiskies

History, style and where to startSee it on the world mapKavalan official website

  • Kavalan distillery, photo 1 of 3
    Photo: lovesx-70 · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons (cropped and converted)
  • Kavalan distillery, photo 2 of 3
    Photo: mk_is_here · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons (cropped and converted)
  • Kavalan distillery, photo 3 of 3
    Photo: ironypoisoning · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons (cropped and converted)

7 whiskies

Guide to Kavalan

History

King Car decided to create a whisky distillery when Taiwan opened up alcoholic drinks production to private companies at the beginning of this century. The distillery was built in a few months, with equipment brought from Scotland and advice from wood and distillation experts. The first whisky came onto the market at the end of the 2000s, and shortly afterwards one of its malts won a blind tasting against Scotch and English whiskies, which made headlines around the world. Since then the range has grown with single cask editions and maturations in wine, sherry and bourbon casks.

House style

In Yilan heat and humidity make the wood work very quickly and a lot of whisky evaporates each year. The result is young but intense malts, with tropical fruit, mango, vanilla, honey, spice and plenty of oak. The wine or sherry cask versions are rich and sweet, with dried fruit. It uses no peat. It is a style that shows age isn’t everything: climate weighs as much as years.

Average flavour profile of its 7 whiskies in the catalogue

Sweet
3.6
Fresh fruit
3.2
Ripe and dried fruit
1.6
Floral and herbal
1.4
Cereal and malt
1.2
Vanilla and creamy
2.4
Oak
1.6
Spicy
1.6
Toasted
1.3
Smoky
0.0
Maritime
0.0
Body and intensity
2.3

Where to start

Kavalan Classic is the way in: fruity, tropical and smooth, a good way to discover Taiwanese whisky. Concertmaster finishes in port casks and adds red fruit and sweetness. Both are good options if you like fruity, rounded whiskies. Drink them neat, without ice, and slowly, because the fruit opens up in the glass. If you like them, compare them with Amrut, which also matures in a very warm climate.

This text was generated and translated by AI and may contain errors. Founding year, owner and official website come partly from Wikidata.

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