Kavalan 2011 Rum Cask 7 Year Old Exclusive to The Whisky Exchange

Billy Abbott, The Whisky Exchange

• Nose

  Pineapple jam on buttered white bread. Mixed tropical-fruit juice builds, with a hint of sharp mango and sweet papaya balanced by decidedly-untropical pear. Boiled sweet notes develop, barley sugar and pineapple cubes backed up by a bit of butterscotch. There’s something a bit meaty and woody hiding at the back – old polished-oak tables.

• Palate

  The fruit from the nose returns as tropical jam with sweet pears a hint of cream. More sweet shop notes develop: gummy bears, lemon wine gums, candy bracelets and white chocolate mice. Sweet shortcrust pastry notes appear and lead to oaky spice hiding right at the back: a mixture of cinnamon sticks, damp bark and freshly grated nutmeg joined by freshly cut floorboards.

• Finish

  Spicy and oaky at first, fading to reveal intense fruit – apples and pears with a touch of mango. That slowly gives way to vanilla and cinnamon spice.

• Comment

  Kavalan make fruity whisky and the cask has helped amplify that while adding a layer of creamy butteriness and balanced spiced. A spicy tropical pie of a dram – add a couple of drops of water to really reveal the fruit.