Kavalan Solist Ex-Bourbon Cask (59.4%)

Straight from the tropical hillsides of Taiwan.

Kavalan just blows our collective Whisky-loving minds. That’s because the state-of-the-art distillery is located among lush green hills on the island of… Taiwan. And this relative newcomer to the pantheon of Single Malt deities is kicking serious Single Malt butt — winning awards and beating some of the most famous Whiskies in blind taste tests. Even Jim Murray himself has become a fan. Kavalan was founded in 2005 by Mr. Tien-Tsai Lee and is now owned by Taiwan’s King Car Group. They have developed a seriously impressive range of Single Malt offerings.

The Solist series holds bottles from their single cask range. This one was matured in hand-picked ex-Bourbon casks and bottled at cask strength. It was non-chill filtered, of course ― lest some of that goodness, unique to each cask, be lost. To peg it as an award-winning bottle would be a gross understatement. This beast has dominated the big competitions year after year. It's smooth, creamy, fresh, and super well balanced with some fantastic surprising notes in there. That coconut is simply a blast!