Thick and spicy taste with strong black pepper on top of a caramel syrup note at the start, followed by cloying raisin and plum notes as the pepper fades. Finish is short and disappears quickly.
The palate is rich and fruity, with blackberries and plums, but it also has a nutty element, as well as cloves. Finally the finish shifts to a drier note, highlighted by tobacco leaves and cocoa.
The body is intense, a bruising collection of Madeira notes, rum-soaked raisins, burnt orange peel, and cocoa bean. Slightly bittersweet on the finish in the way that old sherry can be, it’s a digestif style whisky with plenty of depth and originality.
After my first bottle, I bought another. After my second bottle (this one), I bought two more. If that is not a testament to this whisky, nothing is. A must try whisky in our opinion.
A lot of the big guns in this sphere - GlenDronach and Glenfarclas walk the fine line between powerful and dominating and they do it with excellence. This is a clear example of a dram being dominated by sherry.
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House Review
Nose:
Huge, rich, sherry on the nose. Syrupy, stewed fruits, honey, sulfur, pepper, Dole syrup. It's sherry kicked up to 11.
Taste:
Medium mouthfeel, rich sherry fruits. Sulfur is powerful here, lots of pepper, dry oak, tobacco and earthy cocoa. No underlying base spirit character at all - it's almost just a vehicle to get the most sherry possible to the consumers palate.
Finish:
Medium and super sweet - syrupy sherry is just dominating while the sulfur pounds your palate.
Overall:
This is unusual in that I think I've finally found a sherry bomb that's too sherry. A lot of the big guns in this sphere - GlenDronach and Glenfarclas walk the fine line between powerful and dominating and they do it with excellence. This is a clear example of a dram being dominated by sherry. It's going to need to be more complex next time in order to score better. I'm looking forward to trying the other Kavalan expressions I have lined up, though.
Score:
80
By t8ke
Our in house critic rates spirits on a scale of 0-10 (10 best) and is aggregated the same as external sources
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