{"id":2428,"date":"2016-09-14T18:37:30","date_gmt":"2016-09-14T22:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/?p=2428"},"modified":"2017-09-05T22:34:02","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T02:34:02","slug":"kavalan-sherry-oak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/2016\/09\/14\/kavalan-sherry-oak\/","title":{"rendered":"Kavalan Sherry Oak"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve covered a few Kavalan single malts now, including one of their higher-end single cask offerings, the Solist Sherry Cask<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kavalan also offers both the Solist Bourbon Cask and Solist Sherry Cask in a vatted format, known as the Kavalan Ex-Bourbon Oak and Sherry Oak, respectively.\u00a0 Interestingly, these batch versions are available at both cask-strength (typically ~54-59%, like the single casks Solists) and at a reduced 46% ABV.<\/p>\n

Supposedly, these two “oak” brands are vatted from the exact same type of casks used for the Solist series. But it stands to reason that they probably cherry-pick the best casks for the single cask offerings, and vat the rest. Note that all the “oak” series variants are hard to come by outside of Asia.<\/p>\n

Here is how the various Kavalan bottlings compare in my Whisky Database.<\/p>\n

Kavalan Solist Sherry Cask: 9.14 \u00b1 0.35 on 14 reviews ($$$$$)
\nKavalan Solist Fino Sherry Cask: 9.08 \u00b1 0.27 on 9 reviews ($$$$$+)
\nKavalan Solist Vinho Barrique: 8.94 \u00b1 0.36 on 12 reviews ($$$$$)
\nKavalan Sherry Oak: 8.72 \u00b1 0.32 on 4 reviews ($$$$$)
\nKavalan Concertmaster: 8.32 \u00b1 0.59 on 16 reviews ($$$$)
\nKavalan Solist Bourbon: 8.87 \u00b1 0.25 on 16 reviews ($$$$$)
\nKavalan Single Malt: 8.42 \u00b1 0.54 on 15 reviews ($$$$)
\nKavalan King Car Conductor: 8.39 \u00b1 0.37 on 8 reviews ($$$$)<\/p>\n

The single cask offerings consistently outperform the vatted malts. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough reviews of the ex-Bourbon Oak to compare here. But to give you an idea for the sherried malts, here are how some of the GlenDronach single casks compare to vatted bottlings:<\/p>\n

GlenDronach vintage 20yo Single Cask: 9.05 \u00b1 0.44 on 11 reviews ($$$$$)
\nGlenDronach vintage 19yo Single Cask: 8.97 \u00b1 0.39 on 12 reviews ($$$$$)
\nGlenDronach 18yo Allardice: 8.70 \u00b1 0.40 on 15 reviews ($$$$$)
\nGlenDronach 21yo Parliament: 8.68 \u00b1 0.39 on 13 reviews ($$$$$)
\nGlenDronach Cask Strength (batch 4): 8.92 \u00b1 0.31 on 9 reviews ($$$$)
\nGlenDronach Cask Strength (batch 5): 8.88 \u00b1 0.11 on 5 reviews ($$$$)<\/p>\n

You can see a similar pattern, whereby the single cask offerings typically out-perform the vatted age expressions, or NAS cask-strength batches.<\/p>\n

For this review, I have a 50mL sample bottle of the 46% Kavalan Sherry Oak that I picked up during my travels. Bottling code is 2015.01.31 15:50. The bottle came in a cardboard box, and so was protected from light.<\/p>\n

In terms of appearance, the Sherry Oak is not as dark as my Solist Sherry Cask (as you might expect due the additional water). But it still has a rich reddish gold colour.<\/p>\n

Nose:\u00a0<\/strong>Typical sweet sherry bomb opening, with classic figs, raisins, prunes, and a few red fruits (including strawberry). Also shows more pronounced tropical fruit notes than I usually get from Kavalan (like kiwis and papayas). Cocoa powder and black licorice. The vegetal notes – present on many Kavalan whiskies – are pronounced here. There is a distinct solvent smell that detracts for me personally. A touch of alcohol singe as well (oddly, more than I detected on my cask-strength Sherry Solist).<\/p>\n

Palate<\/strong>: Oily, but not as thick as the almost resinous Solist. Definitely fruity, with the tropical notes being most prominent (which I like). A fair amount of vanilla now, as well as the classic pancake syrup noted in my previous review. The vegetal notes run more toward autumn leaves on the ground than the moist earth I detected on the Solist. Sweet cinnamon. A bit of bitterness comes in at the end.<\/p>\n

Finish:<\/strong> Medium length. The sweetness continues the longest, but there is a slight artificial tinge to it. Some cinnamon still. The bitterness from the end of the palate also continues as well (not uncommon on many sherry bombs).\u00a0 Decent, but disappointing compared to my Solist cask.<\/p>\n

\"Kavalan.Sherry.Oak\"This whisky tastes like I would expect – a slightly watered-down version of the Solist Sherry Cask<\/a> (and likely from an inferior selection of casks).\u00a0 That is not to say it is bad. Indeed, this strikes me as a fairly “typical” sherry bomb in many ways. If I had a sample at cask-strength, I would probably put it on par with the Glendronach Cask Strength Batch 4\/5<\/a> that I reviewed recently. If you have the option between the two, I recommend picking up the Sherry Oak at cask-strength (typically only available in Asia, though).<\/p>\n

While this is a good introduction to the Kavalan sherry character, you may want to jump right to the Solist if you can find it at a reasonable price.\u00a0 When you have sampled outstanding single cask expressions from Glendronach or Kavalan, the vatted whiskies don’t quite compare.<\/p>\n

Reviews of this whisky are hard to come by, but do check out Dominic at Whisky Advocate<\/a>, and Serge of Whisky Fun<\/a>. Serge in particular seems to have lucked out with a particularly excellent batch.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve covered a few Kavalan single malts now, including one of their higher-end single cask offerings, the Solist Sherry Cask. Kavalan also offers both the Solist Bourbon Cask and Solist Sherry Cask in a vatted format, known as the Kavalan Ex-Bourbon Oak and Sherry Oak, respectively.\u00a0 Interestingly, these batch versions are available at both cask-strength (typically ~54-59%, like the single<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[55,39,18,29,17,51],"class_list":["post-2428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whiskies","tag-cask-strength","tag-kavalan","tag-nas","tag-sherry","tag-single-malt","tag-taiwan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2428"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2486,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428\/revisions\/2486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}