Kavalan Solist Fino Review



Country: Taiwan
Brand: Kavalan Solist Fino 
Type: Single Malt Whisky
Age: NAS (Probably around 3 Years)
ABV: 57 %
Date: 25/10/2013

Colour: Dark Amber/Reddish Brown. One of the darkest Whiskies I've tasted so far. 

Nose: Very mature for a Whisky of around 3 years. It's evident that Whiskies mature much quicker in the warm and humid climate of Taiwan. If this was not the case, the production of whisky would probably not be economically viable there as you loose an average 10% per year to the Angels as opposed to the 2% in Scotland. 

The good quality Oak and the Sherry are immediately present, making the Nose a bit Heavy and quite Sweet. In a blind tasting session I would have likely assumed that this Single Malt matured in an Ex-Oloroso Cask as Fino is dryer and less sweet. Bourbon, Rye Whiskey and Brandy came to mind as well. Still, not bad at all with Dried Fruits and Nuts, Toast with Salted Butter and Orange Marmalade, Mango Chutney, Caramel/Toffee, Treacle, Nougat, Rye Bread, Malt, Pepper, Honey and traces of Cinnamon, Menthol, Tobacco and Leather. There is some Alcohol present but you can work your way around it.

Palate: Very Sweet and Mature with Sherry, Cooked Dark Fruits, Treacle, Dark Chocolate, Malt, Oak, Toffee/Caramel, Vanilla, Red Wine, Brandy, Herbs, Pepper, Nutmeg, Dried Fruits, Nuts and Menthol.   

Finish: Quite Sweet and Dry at the same time with Sherry, Fruit Candies, Toffee, Oak, Malt and Spices. Bit of Alcohol right at the end.

I added a few drops  of Water and the Nose gets a bit more Fruit (Apples), Butter, Malt and Honey. Palate and Finish don't really benefit from added Water. But there's certainly room for you to play with a couple of drops and see where it leads! 

Rating: 85.5

Nose: 21.5  - Taste: 21.5  - Finish: 21  - Overall: 21.5


General Remarks: The King Car's Kavalan distillery is a new and technically sophisticated facility, located in the city of Yuanshan on the Northern part of the island of Taiwan. The Kavalan is named after an indigenous tribe that lived in the region where the distillery now stands. It was built in 2005/2006 and has a current production capacity of 6 million bottles per year. The Kavalan Whiskies are usually bottled after a relative short time in the casks. In the humid climate of Taiwan, the whiskies mature much faster. The Kavalan Solist Fino matured in     Fino Sherry Casks rather than in Ex-Oloroso Casks. It's expensive at around 220 US Dollars.

Drinking Experience Neat: Good

Conclusion: This is my second Kavalan and again I'm impressed. This one is not as good as the Conductor but nevertheless a high quality product. The Oak Management is very good. It's very Sweet and some people might even find it too sweet. The Solist Fino is an interesting mix of Scotch Whisky, Rye Whiskey and Brandy (Cognac or Armagnac). The Aroma and Flavours are very mature and only on the Nose and in the Finish the Alcohol shows us that it's a young whisky. But many people (including me) would probably judge this much older than it actually is. It is quite expensive. Still, personally I believe that Kavalan has a great future if it succeeds in maintaining this high quality. Gam-Bei! 

Jan van den Ende                                                         October 2013

6 comments:

SmokyBeast said...

It looks delicious, but I'm skeptical of anyone who puts a three-year whiskey in a box :). How expensive is "quite"? Is it available in the US? Are there any peated Taiwanese whiskies?

Jan van den Ende said...

No need to be sceptical SmokyBeast. In Taiwan maturation is 4 times as quick as in Scotland on account of the warm and humid climate. In taste, 3 years in Taiwan equals 10-15 in Scotland. Which suggests that many new distilleries will be opened in warmer climates. I have heard of one being constructed in Victoria, Australia. I do believe there is a peated Kavalan but I haven't come across i yet. Will try to get a sample!
Cheers and Have a Nice Weekend.
Jan

Anonymous said...

If 3 is the new 15 taste-wise for tropics-matured whisky, I ask: is a 10-15yo whisky worth $220? No f'in way to this consumer. There is a lot of great whisky on the market that scores well above your 85.5 points selling at half to one third of this price (even in my overpriced government owned monopoly market of Ontario, Canada).

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I should add that I`m not being critical of your assessment of the whisky but the producer thinking this whisky is actually worth $220.

While curious about Kavalan - based on all the rave reviews - I will keep my wallet locked until I find a bottle of their `10-15 year old-like` whisky in the $100 range.

Jan van den Ende said...

HI there, thanks for commenting. As you may have noticed my scoring is a bit more conservative than other reviewers. In fact many score this over 90 points. In any case it's a well made whisky. But I totally agree with you on the price. Even if I could, I would not spend say 250 US Dollars on a bottle of whisky. But lots of people around the world do and that's one of the rreasons that prices are what they are today.
Cheers!
Jan

Jan van den Ende said...

Hi again, first of all, always feel free to be critical of any review as it only reflects my personal opinion. I do try to present the flavour and aroma profile that might help people to decide if this or that particular whisky would be to their liking. But taste is always very personal in the end. But in this case you should avoid this Kavalan if you don't like very sweet and rather heavy whiskies. There are some Kavalans in the 80 US Dollar range (In Europe) like the very good Conductor (that I reviewed) , the Single Malt and the Concertmaster Port Finish. I am trying to get samples of those. Cheers!
Jan