While most whisky brands around the world release a single cask, few brands make it their core range as this approach makes both costs and loss higher. Single malt whisky is a blend of many different casks by any single distillery, thus flavours can be balanced easily. Single casks are released as is, allowing for more fluctuation in flavour.
Taiwan’s Kavalan and Sullivans Cove from Tasmania release single cask bottlings as their core range, and have both won numerous awards globally during the short time they have been around. In terms of price, availability, new releases and flavour, let’s see who will win this week’s Whisky Debate.
Kavalan
Kavalan has only been around since 2008, but has won countless awards and attracted so much international praise that it easily stands up to producers who have been around for centuries. The distillery specialises in single cask releases and their core and most popular range, the Solist Series, explores a large variety of cask types. From Madeira to the finest Amontilado sherry casks, the Solist series is powerful, explorative, and well suited for whisky fanatics.
Kavalan spearheaded the STR series, short for shave toast rechar. Here the distillery handles ex-wine casks in a way that makes them prime for coming into contact with the whisky. By lightly shaving the interior, toasting it, and then recharring the wood, the pores of the oak are once again ready for maturation. This process, and the intense Taiwanese climate which sees whisky mature more rapidly than in the West, has made Kavalan stand out and rise in the global whisky industry.
The Kavalan Solist Vinho Barrique was named the world's best single malt whisky at the World Whiskies Awards (WWA) in 2015, an award that shot the distillery to fame. The single cask editions continue to win awards every year at various spirits competitions.
Sullivans Cove
Located in Tasmania, Sullivans Cove is Australia's most famous whisky distillery. Like Kavalan, the distillery specialises in single casks instead of the usual single malts and blended core ranges utilised by most producers. Sullivans Cove has been awarded the title for the world's best single cask single malt on numerous occasions and, with new releases selling out almost instantly, the team doesn’t have aggressive plans to expand globally. The Australian market tends to buy up all the stock.
The cask types at Sullivans Cove are fewer, as the team primarily focus on French and American oak casks. They do experiment, but not as much as Kavalan. In 2019, 2018 and 2014, Sullivans Cove was named the world’s best single cask single malt and world’s best single malt at the World Whiskies Awards. They are the only Australian distillery to win this title and the only distillery globally to win the world’s best single cask single malt award twice.
Verdict
While Sullivans Cove produces some amazing whiskies, the numerous awards have driven the price of each release far too high, making it unapproachable for many enthusiasts. Kavalan Solist bottlings are not cheap, but the large variety of new releases and different wood types paired with the availability of the expressions across the globe make them the winner in this instalment of the Whisky Debates.
The single cask releases are more frequent as the Kavalan distillery is huge and casks are abundant. For fans looking to explore powerful, high-ABV (alcohol by volume) expressions and never be left without something new to taste, Kavalan is the clear choice.
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