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Kavalan NAS ‘Solist’ (58.3%, OB, C#S060814018, 536 Bts., 08/10/2010)

A Fino sherry cask matured single malt from Kavalan Distillery (King Car Distillery) in Taiwan. ‘Single Cask Strength’ and Non Chill- Filtered and bottled at Natural Strength. It’s a safe bet that this is fairly young whisky since a0 the distillery is not that old and b0 due to the climate the whisky matures at a much faster rate than in Scotland for instance. So actually once all this is taken into account it could have some ‘local’ age to it. None the less on the nose there is sour plums, over ripe fruit, shoe leather (which quickly vanishes) and then some magnificent fruit and sherry backed by green tobacco (some slight ‘green’ notes lurking in the back ground). With water there’s a little more of the sour plums and the over ripe fruit. And malt. The undiluted taste is sherried (but not heavily like from a PX cask) and some really nice malt and chili peppers; slightly eye watering so time for some water. With water things calm down some what and the chlies have taken a back seat to some excellent honeyed notes along with some proper cask influence; both are in balance and it really works. The finish is a jumble (in a good way) of the black pepper, chilies, sherry and malt and it all hangs together rather well with the malt carrying the day towards the ultimate goal line. Rather long too.

All quite good, very vibrant, interesting and some really good sherry/malt moments in there. Well worth seeking out. NEEDS WATER!

$?

Score 86 points