帰る A Return “Home” - Kavalan
What can I say about the Kavalan which hasn’t been said already? Maybe I’m not the best judge of this - 6 years in Taiwan kinda made this a go-to, cheap-ish looking brand I presumed was just around everywhere.
Enter the Solist line. A set of single cask, cask strength whiskies sweeping the global awards shows since 2015, prime among those the Vinho Barrique casks. While they also come in Sherry, Port, and Ex-Bourbon barrels (as well as smaller series like the specific sherry chasks: Amontillado, Pedro Ximenes, Manzanilla, Oloroso, Fino, Moscatel and probably a few I missed), the Kavalan Solist Vinho Barrique is normally the bottle of Kavalan you are likely to associate with the brand as of late.
I had to get a bottle, it was hard not to. 2020 is a particular year for Kavalan, and there are obviously a few additional investment benefits to this:
2020 is the 10-year anniversary of Kavalan selling whisky!
Distribution has started legally in the US. Massive market. opening up, and the brand growing overall.
The master distiller, Ian Chan, has left to pursue other ventures.
All in all, it’s a really interesting time for the brand. They swept the Tokyo Whisky & Spirits Competition 2020, with Oloroso at 3rd, Ex-Bourbon at 2nd, and “VB” taking the top spot, so the awards circuit is definitely there. Also interesting, they have lately bumped their in-store prices by about 10-15%!
What makes the distillery special then?
Just about everything.
They’re young. They figured out how to get an aged, complex flavour with very little aging actually applied to the bottle. Their master distiller has a background in restaurant food rather than whisky. They have a special, secret toasting & charring process for the barrels which makes it all possible. And they are playing around with just about every other type of liquor to add flavour to the barrel.
Investment Rationale
Picking the right bottle will probably make a fairly big difference. But the “original” Kavalan Solist (or any other) line is no more. Unless they become massively better over time which might be hard given how far they have already climbed, those bottles look likely to be good collectors items.
Another thing - at this price point people can fairly easily drink the bottles! Hence bottles probably aren’t, well… sitting around unopened on shelves. I think there will be a much better investment opportunity here than people might expect. I remember back in the day when I traveled between Taiwan and Singapore and / or Japan on a monthly basis, and would pick up these bottles at US$50-75 and just give them away as gifts and curiosities. Ah, startup days! Yes, the bottle I picked up now was after rather heavy duties had been applied. Still, paying US$200+ in this context hurts a bit.
