Kavalan Sherry Oak Review

Hi everyone,

Kavalan has a lot of fans of their very big style of whisky, taking as much from the casks as they possibly can.

Am I huge fan? Probably not. I am a big fan of balance in a whisky. When you’re messing with big flavours it doesn’t always do wonders for the balance, which tends to be why I am not a big fan of Bourbon.

Kavalan Sherry Cask 46%

Colour: Amber

Body: Full

Nose: Brandy. Not a Brandy-like note, this actually smells exactly like a Brandy. Armangac, artificial raisin, red grape, chocolate powder.

Taste: Dry, astringent, quite acidic and bitter, red grape, bitter charcoal, weird Brandy.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Weird, rubber, bitter.

Not a good whisky, although not a terrible Brandy! This is example of getting a bit too much from the casks, completely eradicating any whisky flavour.

57/100

Distillery: Kavalan

Average Score: 72

Distillery Ranking: 40th/ 60 places

Up/Down: 32>40 (Down 8)

Thanks for reading!

Taiwanese Review #7

Whisky Network Review #747

Network Average: 74.9

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

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