Style
- Body
- Richness
- Smoke
- Sweetness
Character
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Liquorice root
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Raisins
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Orange
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Dark Chocolate
Kavalan 2010 Sherry Cask #026A Reviews
Tasting Notes
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Tasting Notes by Billy Abbott (The Whisky Exchange)
Nose: Pure oloroso sherry oozes out of the glass – rich and fruity, with a dry and nutty background of almonds and singed oak. Sweeter notes develop, with dates and prunes piling up alongside spicy aniseed and bittersweet char. Old Cognac rancio peeks out from behind the fruit, adding a damp forest, savoury element balanced by the rich fruit.
Palate: Big, rich and heavy, with an initial burst of spice quickly swamped by concentrated citrus – orange zest, freshly squeezed juice and Jaffa Cake jelly. Things then move to the savoury, with bitter barrel char, liquorice pastilles and meaty umami eventually turning towards the sweet again: dark brown sugar and brûlée topping, sweet black liquorice, rum-soaked raisins and fruity dark chocolate.
Finish: The sweet spice lingers, with sugared raisins and cinnamon-dusted fruit cake fading to leave rich damp earth and baked apples.
Comment: An intensely flavoured dram, with more nuttiness than most sherry-matured drams and a careful balance of sweet and savoury.
5 Customer Reviews
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Really good! One of the very best ? have tryed.
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Unbelievable! Easily the best whisky I've ever tasted ! Wasn't really sure what I was doing straying away from "scotch" into Taiwanese whisky but what a great choice!
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Big and lovely, with deep dried fruit (date honey, plum, and raisin) sweet , savory and earthy.
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A good sherry monster. Good selection in the sense that it has some earthy Karuizawa notes but also keeps a certain roundness until the very end (a dry finale often being the Achilles heel of Kavalan expressions). The nose is certainly the best part.
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Looks like I'll be the first to review this. Overall, however, the official tasting notes are spot on! It's a dark, mahogany red color in the bottle. Basically the color of light port in the glass. It smells musty like old wood and musty like old grapes (like a good, sweet, old balsamic) with some immediate varnishy solvent notes that fade over a few minutes. Super nutty... walnuts, perhaps. This is a very complex nose that takes several minutes to dive into as the strong alcohol smell dissipates. The cask influence is very strong with an omnipresent sweet sherry nose. Undiluted it is strong, as expected. But, perhaps, not as strong as I would have expected. Drying. Very sweet and spicy. Grape jelly. Finish is spicy, sweet, oaky, and balanced tannins. Long and pleasant. Overall, really nice. An excellent, complex sherry bomb with lots of good flavors. Heavy sherry influence (have I reiterated that enough?). Nicely mature. Great strength. Would give 4.5/5 if that was an option, though I leaned just slightly lower (~85/100) due to the price point.
