noting how bland some seemed at first, yet how their gentle flavour nuances rewarded careful tasting. It was an aha moment that suddenly advanced our appreciation of our own whiskies too, while furnishing another demonstration of how new tasting experiences increase the joys of whisky. That stinky tofu, for example? Its aromas dominated the market air at least a block on either side of the stall, and not necessarily in a good way. “Think of it as Taiwanese blue cheese,” my host suggested as I reluctantly popped a bite into my mouth. Although strange, unusual, even odd, it turned out to be a gustatory wonder and another data point in my flavour bank. Kavalan - If whisky lovers know one thing about Taiwan, it is Kavalan distillery, which began as a special interest project of King Car founder Tien- Tsai Lee. When the root beer business he founded in 1979 proved unprofitable, Lee switched to coffee, launching the hugely successful Mr. Brown brand. And though the distillery began much later, it now welcomes more than one million visitors a year, with its whiskies drawing international acclaim. The self-guided tour, however, is a bit of a bust. At best, visitors peer through Plexiglas to see a still- life of distilling equipment, described not by a tour guide but on plaques. Things don’t liven up until the end when they exit into Kavalan’s restaurant, clearly intended to accommodate travelers from fleets of bus tours. Visits to the warehouses are rare and even more guarded. Nevertheless, there are other things to learn about whisky. Hikes to distillery water sources, for example, are common, particularly in Scotland. However, it is unheard of for a whisky geek to venture beneath the water source itself. Nevertheless, on the road to Kavalan, when Freeway 5 abandons the verdant mountain landscape to enter the Hsuehshan Tunnel under Xueshan (Snow Mountain), that is exactly what it does. Thirteen km later, the tunnel emerges onto the coastal plain where Lee began
planning Kavalan in 2004. In the semi-tropical climate of Taiwan, whisky matures quickly, and the water source for that first Kavalan whisky, released just four years later in 2008, was Xueshan, just as it is today. Kavalan makes its whisky from unpeated barley imported from Scotland and Finland, and ferments it using unique yeast strains that imbue the spirit with those same elusive Asian fruit flavours that Steven Lin found so appealing in Canadian Rockies. The distilled spirit matures in American oak barrels coopered at the distillery. And just for fun, whisky makers at Kavalan followed David Stewart’s 2001 lead at Balvenie by filling an early batch into barrels from Islay. Mmmm. Smoky! Taiwan, it turns out, is a whisky lover’s heaven. Not only does exquisite whisky abound, but rather than spending a fortune on one outrageously expensive bottle or joining a consortium to afford one, you can sample the rarest whiskies dram by dram in well-stocked bars. And if you visit, before you bid your final adieu, do drop by the airport duty-free shops. Their selection is truly astounding.
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the whisky explorer magazine
FALL 2023
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