Whisky Off The Beaten Path

This single malt from Taiwan-based Kavalan is from the brand's Concertmaster series. It's aged initially in American oak and then subsequently finished in port casks — primarily ruby port barriques.

Indeed, as the name states, this is aged in ex-bourbon casks and, unlike their Soloist Ex-Bourbon bottling, this is reduced from cask strength to 46% abv.

Kavalan is in a unique position of having to define, not only for itself, but in a way, for Taiwan, what whisky from this location should taste like. They've settled on creating whiskies that they and their countrymen would drink which are whiskies that are more sweet and fruity. As a result, expect to see many of their whiskies either aged entirely, or at least finished, in wine casks.

The young distillery, Kavalan, released their first bottling in December 2008, but they have already made quite an impression winning awards and accolades. Distilled at the King Car Distillery in Taiwan, Kavalan is the name of the earliest tribe that inhabited Yilan, where King Car resides. The Classic bottling here is aged in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks but mostly of the refill variety.

Produced at Penderyn Distillery in the mountains of South Wales, Penderyn was among the first Welsh distilleries to open in over a century when it began production in 2000. The distillery uses a unique Faraday copper pot still that distills the spirit in a single pass to an unusually high strength. The whisky is aged in ex-bourbon barrels before being finished in Madeira wine casks, bottled non-chill filtered at 92 proof.

Amrut Distilleries has been distilling since 1948, but only began producing single malt whisky back in the 1980's (prior to that, it was brandy). When they had a surplus of whisky back in the mid 1990's they decided to let it age a bit longer than they previously had been. Well, that changed everything. Hello world, there's a new style of whisky on the market!

As the climate is quite warm and tropical where it is aged (Bangalore), the single malt whiskies are aged only 4-5 years. Amrut Fusion is made using both Indian and Scottish barley. Mashed, distilled, and aged separately, they are then married and aged for a further 3 months in Bourbon barrels.

This Indian whisky was originally matured in either ex-bourbon casks or virgin oak casks. The whiskies then went through an intermediate maturing process in Sherry butts at Amrut’s Bangalore distillery. Amrut then transferred the whisky back into ex-bourbon casks for another round of aging.

This single malt sources its barley from the Himalayas and ages the whisky at an altitude of over 3,000 feet above sea level in Bangalore. In this climate, the angels take way more than their share as up to 15% abv of the whisky is lost per year.

This bottling from Utah based High West is a combination of three different whiskeys. It combines straight bourbon (71% corn, 21% rye, 4% barley malt) and straight rye (95% rye, 5% malted barley) both distilled at Indiana's MGP distillery. Also included is blended malt Scotch whisky from an undisclosed (per the contract) source. The whiskeys range in age from 5-8 years. Note: This product has been updated to include High West's own rye distillate to the blend.