{"id":5256,"date":"2018-05-02T10:26:12","date_gmt":"2018-05-02T14:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/?p=5256"},"modified":"2018-05-02T10:27:23","modified_gmt":"2018-05-02T14:27:23","slug":"kavalan-solist-manzanilla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/02\/kavalan-solist-manzanilla\/","title":{"rendered":"Kavalan Solist Manzanilla Cask"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kavalan Manzanilla sherry single cask is one of the limited Solist releases, like the Amontillado and Moscatel single cask expressions. Unlike the more common Solist ex-Bourbon<\/a> and Sherry<\/a> single casks from this Taiwanese producer, these specialty limited-release versions come at a high retail cost (typically >$500 USD, if you can find them).<\/p>\n

Manzanilla is a type of fino sherry – a pale, dry sherry from the Andalusia region of Spain. “Manzanilla” apparently means chamomile in Spanish, and the flavour of this wine is said to be reminiscent of chamomile tea. Bottled at cask-strength, 57.8% ABV in this case.<\/p>\n

Typically, these Kavalan specialty casks get high scores from reviewers – but they are not typically widely reviewed, given their relative scarcity. Let\u2019s see how the various Kavalan expressions do in my Meta-Critic Whisky Database:<\/p>\n

Kavalan Concertmaster: 8.30 \u00b1 0.55 on 20 reviews ($$$$)
\nKavalan Distillery Reserve Peaty Cask: 8.76 \u00b1 0.36 on 4 reviews ($$$$$+)
\nKavalan Distillery Reserve Rum Cask: 8.84 \u00b1 0.24 on 3 reviews ($$$$$)
\nKavalan ex-Bourbon Oak: 8.93 \u00b1 0.25 on 5 reviews ($$$$)
\nKavalan King Car Conductor: 8.48 \u00b1 0.34 on 10 reviews ($$$$)
\nKavalan Sherry Oak: 8.62 \u00b1 0.34 on 6 reviews ($$$$$)
\nKavalan Podium: 8.73 \u00b1 0.33 on 9 reviews ($$$$)
\nKavalan Single Malt: 8.40 \u00b1 0.50 on 18 reviews ($$$$)
\nKavalan Solist Amontillado Cask: 9.13 \u00b1 0.21 on 5 reviews ($$$$$+)
\nKavalan Solist ex-Bourbon: 8.86 \u00b1 0.21 on 20 reviews ($$$$$)
\nKavalan Solist Fino Sherry Cask: 8.99 \u00b1 0.31 on 12 reviews ($$$$$+)
\nKavalan Solist Manzanilla Cask: 9.10 \u00b1 0.25 on 7 reviews ($$$$$+)<\/strong>
\nKavalan Solist Moscatel Cask: 9.18 \u00b1 0.19 on 4 reviews ($$$$$+)
\nKavalan Solist Port Cask: 8.80 \u00b1 0.38 on 7 reviews ($$$$$)
\nKavalan Solist PX Cask: 9.09 \u00b1 0.60 on 7 reviews ($$$$$+)
\nKavalan Solist Sherry Cask: 9.05 \u00b1 0.32 on 18 reviews ($$$$$)
\nKavalan Solist Vinho Barrique: 9.00 \u00b1 0.34 on 15 reviews ($$$$$)<\/p>\n

Being a big fan of the ex-Bourbon and Sherry Solists, I’ve been curious to experience the influence of these more rarefied specialty sherry casks. My sample came from theslicknick6 of Reddit.<\/p>\n

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

Nose<\/strong>: Brown sugar. Drier sherry notes, consistent with fino sherry. Grape juice. Lemon. Very earthy, with moist and dry notes. Over-roasted coffee beans. Fisherman’s friend throat lozenges. Dry cardboard. A pronounced sourness, which is a bit off putting. Surprising amount of organic off notes, definitely seems young. With water, the sweetness is raised – which helps compensate against the sourness.<\/p>\n

Palate<\/strong>: Very sweet arrival, with brown sugar and caramel. Also creamed sugar. Raisins, sultanas, cherries and dark red grapes. Cocoa powder. Nuts. Leather. Vanilla. Cinnamon. Very thick mouthfeel – syrupy – like other solists. As usual, very nice in the mouth. Can actually drink this neat, which is impressive for a sherry bomb. With water, even sweeter (as expected), and mouthfeel becomes more oily.<\/p>\n

Finish<\/strong>: Long, with slowly fading raisin and brown sugar notes. The winey aspects of the sherry build up with time, which are nice. Good mix of sweet and sour. Cocoa persists to the end.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It is only the disjointed nose that holds me back from giving this a top score. On the palate and finish, this comes across as a more refined version of the classic Solist Sherry<\/a> expression. A little water helps, but it honestly doesn’t need much. A very pleasant sipper.<\/p>\n

Personally, I would score this at the low end of the range of reviews out there, as I prefer most other Solist expressions I’ve tried. theslicknick6<\/a> gave this particular bottle the highest score I’ve seen from him yet. Strasse007<\/a> was also very positive of this bottling. For other bottles of Solist Manzanilla, Serge of Whisky Fun<\/a> and Jim Murray are similarly very positive, followed by Josh the Whiskey Jug<\/a> and Jonny of Whisky Advocate<\/a>. I’d definitely come in at the lower end of reviews here, but it is still a good pour to be sure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kavalan Manzanilla sherry single cask is one of the limited Solist releases, like the Amontillado and Moscatel single cask expressions. Unlike the more common Solist ex-Bourbon and Sherry single casks from this Taiwanese producer, these specialty limited-release versions come at a high retail cost (typically >$500 USD, if you can find them). Manzanilla is a type of fino sherry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[55,39,178,18,29,17,177],"class_list":["post-5256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whiskies","tag-cask-strength","tag-kavalan","tag-manzanilla","tag-nas","tag-sherry","tag-single-malt","tag-solist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5256","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=5256"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5294,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5256\/revisions\/5294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}