Kavalan Concertmaster Port Cask Finish Single Malt

Hint of smoke - wet tobacco - oak and vanilla - berry forward

Rating: 16/23 I first tried this in a bar and loved it. Since then, I've been enamored with Kavalan Soloist Port and Kavalan Distillery Select (Batch 1), so I'm looking forward to finally trying this again. N: A tad muted - likely because of the low ABV - but there are lots of fruit notes in here. Cherry, apricot, orange peel. There's a bit of funkiness to it too that I usually associate with PX aging, but that I can understand coming with a port finish. There's a nectary sweetness and also a faint limestone minerality, though the limestone doesn't detract from the rest of the profile. Little bits of spice here and there (mainly cinnamon with some ginger). A bit of rich malt in with nectar sweetness that reminds me ever so slightly of buckwheat. P: Decadent fruity sweetness comes out, but it's not overbearing. There's a dry tannic side to it that I associate with bold port finishes like the Kavalan Soloist Port has, but this is mellower - and also a lot more watered down. In terms of fruit flavors, I get orange peel as the strongest - though not the first - flavor. There's some tangerine and cherry as well, though I'm not sure that I quite get apricot. Midway through the palate, I get that malty richness with a hint of buckwheat to it coming out. There's some ginger, clove, and cinnamon coming out of the tannin, and they add a bit of a mellow lively numbing prickly to this, which is a huge help because this is otherwise on the watery side. There's actually a fairly bold vanilla layer hiding in the back. I also get some limestone coming out of the tannins, which actually helps to strengthen the flavor they add without just making them too strong and one-note. It's like it adds a mellow supporting layer. The flavors here are generally quite good and the balance is very nice, but this really is just too low in proof. F: Tannic, spicy, numbing cara cara orange peel, with a bit of limestone and mild malty sweetness. Faint memories of cherry. - Conclusion - I understand how I previously gave this a 19, but I sadly can't go nearly that high now. As much as I like many of the flavors here, the low proof really muddles them and makes the whole thing kind of a watery experience. It's a shame because I think that this would be much better at 43% ABV and would really shine at 45-46%. Monkey Shoulder (14/23) is not quite as muddled as this is (which says a lot), but it really lets its ethanol show through more. Between the two, I have to give the win to this for having such nicer flavors, but it wasn't immediately obvious to me that I would conclude that. I think that this is probably at least a 15, but not much higher than that. And I could come back and give it a high 14. Knappogue Castle 12 (15/23) is closer in quality to this. I can imagine going either way, but I'd probably lean toward this. There's a really nice core flavor to the Knappogue Castle, with nectar backed by sort of a tasty nuttiness. I've gone back and forth a couple of times and I think that I still prefer this, but barely. Kavalan Distillery Select (Batch 1) (16/23) may not have quite as much nuance as this does, but it's bolder with nice tannins and a rich nutty underbelly. The two are competitive, but, unfortunately, the Distillery Select seems a little bit better to me. The question is now whether this is a 15 or a 16. Tragically, it is not at all the 19 I originally gave it. Even more tragically, I think that a few more percent ABV might have made it that. Fortunately, I am ultimately concluding that there's enough complexity here and enough nice flavors to earn a 16. Still, this is a fairly disappointing dram.

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