{"id":5210,"date":"2018-04-27T15:25:49","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T19:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/?p=5210"},"modified":"2018-04-27T15:25:49","modified_gmt":"2018-04-27T19:25:49","slug":"kavalan-rum-cask-distillery-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/27\/kavalan-rum-cask-distillery-exclusive\/","title":{"rendered":"Kavalan Rum Cask – Distillery Exclusive"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have reviewed a good number of expressions from Taiwanese whisky producer Kavalan. While not commonly available, most of these can be found in various specialty shops around the world.\u00a0 Today I am looking at one of the two Distillery Reserve bottlings, available only at the distillery – the Kavalan Rum Cask.<\/p>\n

These Distillery Reserves are generally bottled in batches of ~400-450, in small bottles of 300 mL. My sample came courtesy of redditor theslicknick6. This sample was from bottle 363 of 428, from cask M111104040A, and was bottled at 57.8% ABV.\u00a0 They apparently retail for ~$50 USD at the distillery.<\/p>\n

As I explained on my Solist Sherry single cask<\/a> review, you can trace the history of the bottling from the cask number. M apparently stands for Rum cask (go figure)<\/span>, the first 11 is distilling year (2011), the second 11 is November, the 04 is the 4th of the month, and the 040 is the 41st barrel of that day (so, the cask was filled early in the day on November 4th, 2011).\u00a0 On the Solist expressions, you also get a sticker with the specific bottling date and hour, allowing you get a\u00a0 precise age (I don’t know if these are present on the Distillery Reserve bottles).<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see how the various Kavalan expressions do in my Meta-Critic Whisky Database:<\/p>\n

Angel’s Envy Rye (Rum-finished): 8.67 \u00b1 0.52 on 10 reviews ($$$$)
\nBalvenie 14yo Carribean Cask: 8.53 \u00b1 0.33 on 20 reviews ($$$$)
\nKavalan Concertmaster: 8.30 \u00b1 0.55 on 20 reviews ($$$$)
\nKavalan Distillery Reserve Peaty Cask: 8.76 \u00b1 0.36 on 4 reviews ($$$$$+)
\nKavalan Distillery Reserve Rum Cask: 8.84 \u00b1 0.24 on 3 reviews ($$$$$)<\/strong>
\nKavalan ex-Bourbon Oak: 8.93 \u00b1 0.25 on 5 reviews ($$$$)
\nKavalan King Car Conductor: 8.43 \u00b1 0.35 on 9 reviews ($$$$)
\nKavalan Sherry Oak: 8.62 \u00b1 0.34 on 6 reviews ($$$$$)
\nKavalan Podium: 8.73 \u00b1 0.33 on 9 reviews ($$$$)
\nKavalan Single Malt: 8.40 \u00b1 0.50 on 18 reviews ($$$$)
\nKavalan Solist ex-Bourbon: 8.86 \u00b1 0.21 on 20 reviews ($$$$$)
\nKavalan Solist Fino Sherry Cask: 8.99 \u00b1 0.31 on 12 reviews ($$$$$+)
\nKavalan Solist Port Cask: 8.79 \u00b1 0.39 on 7 reviews ($$$$$)
\nKavalan Solist PX Cask: 9.07 \u00b1 0.65 on 6 reviews ($$$$$+)
\nKavalan Solist Sherry Cask: 9.07 \u00b1 0.33 on 18 reviews ($$$$$)
\nKavalan Solist Vinho Barrique: 8.99 \u00b1 0.33 on 15 reviews ($$$$$)
\nPike Creek 10yo Rum-finished: 8.53 \u00b1 0.23 on 9 reviews ($$)<\/p>\n

And now what I find in the glass:<\/p>\n

Nose<\/strong>: Subdued compared to other cask-strength Kavalan’s I’ve tried. Honey, followed by some light caramel and a touch of vanilla. Standard apple and pear (more stewed than fresh), and tropical papaya and mango. Pina colada (of course). Lemon curd. Graham crackers.\u00a0 Malted milk chocolate bars. No real off notes, except perhaps for a faint whiff of dry cardboard. And surprisingly, no nose hair singe for the high alcohol strength. Water brings up that cardboard note – it doesn’t seem to need it.<\/p>\n

Palate<\/strong>: Super sweet on the palate – overflowing honey and nectar, molasses. This tastes more like a rum than a whisky! Still getting the papaya coming through fairly strongly, with pineapple, mango and banana. Some light peppery notes build with time. Some mild wood oak spice (nutmeg). A bit of cardamon. Very easy to drink neat, despite the high ABV. Water enhances the molasses, and leaves the rest unaffected. Again, it’s not really required.<\/p>\n

Finish<\/strong>: Medium length. Not a lot of character here, the notes fade our fairly quickly (again, more like a rum). Light caramel and golden raisins. Not particularly spicy, beyond the mild wood spice. Leaves a sticky residue on the gums and tongue at cask strength – which dissipates quickly if water is added.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This is very easy to drink, but it strikes me as something of a novelty rum-whisky hybrid in many ways. The typical ethanol burn of the high ABV has been greatly attenuated – suggesting the strong sugar presence from the rum.\u00a0 It seems well put together, but not something I could see myself going for very often.<\/p>\n

Personally, I would score this lower than the Meta-Critic, and give it only a slightly above-average score (i.e., 8.6).\u00a0 theslicknick6<\/a> of Reddit has reviewed this specific bottling, and gives it a very high score (by his rating system). Jim Murray has reviewed several other bottlings, and given them all a well above age score. Would giving a shot if you are taking the distillery tour, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend seeking this one out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have reviewed a good number of expressions from Taiwanese whisky producer Kavalan. While not commonly available, most of these can be found in various specialty shops around the world.\u00a0 Today I am looking at one of the two Distillery Reserve bottlings, available only at the distillery – the Kavalan Rum Cask. These Distillery Reserves are generally bottled in batches<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[55,39,18,92,17,51],"class_list":["post-5210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whiskies","tag-cask-strength","tag-kavalan","tag-nas","tag-rum","tag-single-malt","tag-taiwan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5210","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=5210"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5261,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5210\/revisions\/5261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}