Kavalan Solist Port | Whisky Lady

Kavalan from Taiwan has enjoyed immense popularity, particularly for its singular Solist line of cask-strength single cask single malts with different finishes. Some years ago, our Mumbai-based whisky clubs had a bit of a love affair with Kavalan. From a notable evening dedicated to trio of Kavalan Solist Brandy, Port and Sherry to a terrific zip through nearly their full collection in Singapore at Whisky Live in 2017!

The Bombay Malt and Cigar lads decided to crack open three in May 2024. Ideally, I would have brought my Kavalan Solist Bourbon to join the Sherry, Vinho Barrique and Port! However, alas this was yet another Mumbai tasting that I missed. Kindly, our host set aside some generous samples which I had the pleasure of sharing a year later with our Nürberg Whisky Explorers group – what fun!

Kavalan Solist Sherry

Nose – Oh my! Rich coffee liqueur, sherry, intense and dense
Palate – Flavour packed! Sweet, very dense, a real sherry bomb with tobacco, a nutty chocolate, bursting with sweet spices, wood was also prominent, and above all rich, chewy, strong coffee
Finish – A very long finish with black licorice
Water – Helps make it plumper, juicy fruits on the nose with dried figs and dates on the palate

This was a classic Kavalan Solist – highly compacted and complex. It is sweet without being overly so. Intense and interesting yet not overwhelming. A rich, beautiful dram bursting with character.

Kavalan Solist Vinho Barrique Cask No W160331032A 57.1% (201 bottles)

Nose – What a contrast from the sherry! There was a delightful, sweet mahogany wood on the nose, warming into a creamy, buttery chocolate chased by sweet jasmine
Palate – Fruity, juicy, smooth chocolate, really quite voluptuous! Oily, tobacco joins the fruit
Finish – Long and luscious

Curiously, we were not in the least interested in adding water – it was perfect just as is! Perhaps we should have started with this one – it is almost too polite after the robust sherry.

Kavalan Solist Port

Nose – Sharp and makes you work! Tobacco, molasses, sugary chocolate-covered coffee beans, then fresh wood… as it opened, it was joined by fruit
Palate – Strong, very dry, furry on the tongue, chocolate raisins
Finish – A long finish
Revisit – We came back to this expression after some time and found a rather delicious sweet caramelized onion, almost like bacon jam – yum!

In some ways, this was the “smoothest” of the trio. It became sweeter the more time it spent in the glass. From memory, the last Kavalan Solist Port I tried clearly had a fortified sweet wine element, whereas this was not so distinctly Port per se.

For me the highlight was sharing these intense, highly concentrated cask strength expressions with a new audience in Germany. None other than I had tried Kavalan before with this trio a terrific introduction for seasoned whisky aficionados.

A pity we didn’t have the exact cask numbers and alcohol strength for the Sherry and Port, however, they were likely purchased around 2021 – 2022. Whereas the Vinho Barrique was bought in June 2022 for Eur 125 in Germany, then traveled back to the UK and on to India.

Other Kavalans tasted over the years….

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Next up in our trio of Kavalan Solist cask explorations was a single malt matured in Port casks. While sherry casks is a standard, there are few examples of whiskies matured in port casks – however most are ‘finished’ rather than maturing the full time in an ex port cask. So, when tasting completely blind as we did for this whisky, we can be forgiven for not immediately recognizing it as a port cask rather than sherry.

And what was discovered in our two separate tastings?

Kavalan Solist Port Cask 0090728014A Bottle 188/205 58.6%

Nikkhil’s tasting notes with group:

Color: Dark Burgundy
Nose: Red fruits. Something immediately grassy about this one. Mildly citrus as in orange oil. A tad shy. After airing it a bit a lovely chocolate note appeared with more dark red fruits. A tiny hint of Sulphur but in a good way. Very interesting indeed.
Palate: Lovely creamy mouthfeel with beautiful notes of melons, currants, allspice. Some mellow ash, old furniture/bookshelves. Plums, raisins and star anise. Bitter tannic notes appear. Leather chairs and licorice. Very busy indeed and kept evolving. Super stuff.
With Water and a little rest that lovely chocolate note from the nose is brought to the forefront along with some toffee/coffee and roasted walnuts.
Finish: Long with spices, tobacco and slightly bitter tannins.

Photo: Keshav Prakash

Carissa’s tasting notes:

Nose – Mmmm… old wood, fruity – dark and dried, star anise, dry and dusty, prunes peaking behind… really growing, shifts into chocolate, complex, opens up more and more with rum raisins, seemed like a restrained sherry not the full on Christmas cake… just stunning, rich fruit
Palate – Super turbo star anise, polished old wood, full on spice, dry, deep flavours, as complex on the palate as the nose, sooo lovely, dried fruits, prunes, plums
Finish – Long, strong and beautiful

There is a concentrated quality to this dram. After setting it aside for a bit, revisited and found the nose had shifted into a bright citrus, palate retained the gorgeous spice and with a few drops of water opens up even more.

It gave the sense of being nearly Sherry… so when the reveal showed it wasn’t sherry at all but instead its cousin port, it all fell into place!

Photo: Keshav Prakash

The folks at Kavalan have this to say about their Port Cask:

Port is a Portuguese fortified wine that is robust and sweet with a fuller and richer body. It is therefore usually served as a dessert wine or digestif. Kavalan Solist Port Cask is fully matured in Portuguese Port barriques under the subtropical climate to create the multiple fruity flavours such as plum, blueberry, blackberry and strawberry just to name a few, with chocolate as the main background note.

Color – Deep ruby
Nose – The rich fruity and nutty flavours combined and enhanced by orange and citrus notes that can be enjoyed together with gentle and elegant wood spices of our American oakiness.
Palate – Satisfying fruitiness blended with quality chocolate aromas that melt delicately on your palate. A wonderful and long lasting after taste for your unique sampling pleasure.
Tasting – We suggest drinking Kavalan Solist Port Cask neat. It is also perfect with desserts.

Our Kavalan Cask Trio covered:

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