Kavalan Triple Sherry Cask

Kavalan Triple Sherry Cask is a Taiwanese single malt that has been matured in three exquisite sherry casks—Oloroso, Pedro Ximénez, and Moscatel. On the nose, the whisky has aromas of dried fruits, ripe berries, creamy chocolate, cinnamon, clove, toffee and citrus. The palate is smooth and multi-layered with flavours of candied fruit, rich caramel, sweet malt, milk chocolate, almonds, cinnamon and honey. The finish is long and slightly bitter with hints of sherry, dark chocolate and red berries. Whisky and sherry have a shared history that goes back centuries. The United Kingdom was sherry’s most important export market. Spain would ship thousands of sherry butts to the UK each year, where they would be bottled or blended in English warehouses. This left the UK with a continuous supply of empty casks, and it wasn’t long until Scotch distillers started ageing their whisky in them. By the 19th century, a mutually beneficial trade had been established between the English bottling lines and the Scottish distilleries. This all changed in the 1980s, when a new Spanish law dictated that all wines needed to be bottled domestically. Transport casks were no longer available, and the price of sherry casks skyrocketed. Distillers began to replace sherry maturation with cheaper bourbon barrels, and although sherry is still a popular choice for whisky maturation, it is not nearly as prevalent as it once was.