Alright, number three from our Kavalan tasting organized by Craft Cellars and Truth Malters. We're told that the founder of Kavalan is into classical music hence the core line's layout. The Solist line gets their name from Solo classical performances, as they are all single barrel, cask strength whiskies.
Kavalan Solist Port Cask, 57% ABV, full Port maturation, $245 CAD.
Sniffing her:
Deep leather. Dried berries. Sweetened tobacco. Very clean, smooth, fragrant nose. Fruit syrup. A lot more fruity in the sample bottle. In the sample bottle it's smells like deep Oloroso sherry butterscotch.
Diving in:
Gorgeous. Full full flavored. Like leather marinated in port. The port influence is obvious here. Thick, syruppy. Perfect spice. Tobacco leather finish, with a nice heat. Tawny port, deep molasses influence from the port. There's a solid oakiness there too, that's almost nutty with the port influence. There's this oaky molasses on the late finish. The finish drags on and on... mouthwatering.
Review/Overall: This is brilliant. I'm a big fan of 20+ year olds Taylor Fladgate ports, and this is TF on cocaine. This is basically drinking Port at 57% ABV. This is so good, it's so well integrated, full flavored, syruppy and rich yet not overly sweet. The sweetness is tamed by the leather/tobacco/oaky notes. It doesn't get a ton better than this. 96 for me. Hands down I will be looking for a bottle of this to share with the boys. My favorite from the tasting. Edges out Octomore 11.3 by 1 point as my current favorite whisky.
Cheers!
Simon from S&P.
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