KAVALAN The Begining

KAVALAN

 

So finally after a number of month’s anticipation, The Kavalan tasting was held at +TheCannyMan Wanchai, here in Hong Kong, with the limited number of tasting events out here in Hong Kong it’s a real treat when one comes around, so here is a wee mini-series on the Dram, distillery, Drams tasted, reviews, snaps, banter and other crap.

 

Thanks to Charlie +Gm TheCannyMan  in the Canny Man for the arrangements, as always the perfect host, and to Fine vintage here in Hong Kong, a fantastic turn out, pity that Hong Kong’s most knowledgeable Whisky Jock was missing on the night but they had sent him off to a we Glenfarclas tasting. For obvious reasons LOL. The Canny Man will be reviewed in a future Blog issue on Whisky Bars in Hong Kong.

 

So here is a little background on the Distillery, taken from around the web.

 

 

King Car group, with more than 2000 employees, was established in 1956 and runs business in several fields: beverages, food, biotechnology, aquaculture, among others. It is particularly famous for its RTD coffee, Mr. Brown which is also available in Europe.

 

The owner was hoping to build a distillery for many years however due to the law only state owned companies were allowed to produce alcohol, however the Kavalan group would not give up, aiming to establish the solid foundation of the distillery. Finally there were given the permission and the first bottle of Kavalan was released in December 2008 and now it is the best-selling expression. The recipe of classic Kavalan is complex and contains different types of casks- fresh bourbon, fresh sherry and refill casks.

 

The Distillery is situated on the Yi-Lan Plain, in the north-east of the island. Taiwan. The city of Yi-Lan spreads between the Pacific Ocean and the mountains; the distillery is in a crook of the hills.

 

The temperature in Taiwan ranges from 37°- 40°C in summer to 6° - 8°C in winter (15°C warmer than Speyside).

 

Advised by +James Swan (Dr. Jim Swan), who says they take a very narrow cut of the spirit run (10%), leading to an ISR strength which is considerably higher than that at Scottish malt distilleries. Why? Well, given the average temperatures (37-40C in summer; 6-8C in winter) the maturation process is ‘forced’, compared with Scotland (Speyside’s average temperatures are 15C lower), while evaporation, the Angels’ Share, is at 15% a year (in Scotland it’s 2% or less).

 

 

Now here I could go into the technical bull about the maturation but I will not, during the tasting it was given that 3% was angels share and a further 12% to the Devil, so a yearly evaporation of around 15%, which is huge, thus the reason for the whisky being highly priced I assume and was informed. The law in Taiwan states that after 2 years they can call it whisky, during the night it was mentioned that after 2 years the spirit is good to go………..

 

 

 

Ok at this point gasps in the crowed the jocks were mortified, 2 years one cried, another……… impossible. So from this point on it was discussed over and over and over, on every table and to add insult to injury +Ian Chang threw in a wee bit of info “you know it took the Taiwanese 6 years to create a Malt, where the Scottish were trying to perfect for hundreds of years……….. God I’m a jock and even I found it to be funny, some people not LOL. So once I picked myself off the floor he explained that the main reason is said to be that due to the temperature in the ware house being so high the maturation is very fast.

 

So there it is……… each part of the process is completely computerized in terms of time and temperatures, which Ian Chang says makes a big difference.

 

So the questions flowed and I must say chatting with Ian Chang he is a very nice, down to earth guy, who knows what he is talking about, he is passionate about what he does and proud, he is responsible for R&D, Master Blender, Brand Ambassador and global business development manager, WOW so many hats to wear, his knowledge of cask selection is amazing and very interesting for a layman like myself.

 

During the evening we went through the expressions as well as the cask types then discussed the raw materials, which is said to  come from near and far, water is from the mountains behind the site, via bore-holes, unpeated malt barley mainly from the U.K., the dried yeast, added to their own strain of distiller’s yeast (adding complexity).

 

Currently they have 2 stills producing 1.5M liters a year with another 3 on the way from Scotland (they have a 2 year advance order says Ian).

 

 

So with more stills on the way KAVALAN will be pumping out Whisky like no tomorrow and according to what Ian told me they are going to have a lot of barrel finishes as well peated versions. So let’s see what happens next for KAVALAN.

 

 

Watch this space…………………………..

 

 

Just a little footnote, we got onto the peaty subject, currently they use ex ISLAY casks and fill with new made spirit, I’m just waiting to try it out………….