The Other Taiwan Whisky

Kavalan's been snagging all the awards, and grabbing all the headlines, but there's another whisky making company in Taiwan - the Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation (TLL). They make a cheaper, more nondescript whisky, the Nantou Omar. Two standard bottlings - the Sherry cask, and the bourbon cask. Recently, they had released cask strength versions of the same whisky, I believe. CO was in Taiwan and asked for cheap recommendations from the Taiwan travel retail. I thought this would be a good bargain, at less than SGD50. Pretty hard to find outside of Taiwan, cheap, and, while not as big hitting as the Kavalan, it's gathered its fair share of awards, winning silver in the International Spirits competition.

CO bought it, and here is the tasting:

Nantou Omar (Sherry type) (46% abv)

Nose - Fairly sharp attack of alcohol. Even after a few swirls around the glass, the attack of the alcohol doesn't weaken. Thankfully, it isn't just alcohol trying to invade your nostrils. There's the fairly obvious sherry influence on the nose - dried fruits like raisins and cranberries. A bit of vanilla. Fairly spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg too.

Palate - Mm. The alcohol tickles here. Hardly as fierce as the nose suggests. Raisins and cranberries like on the nose. Vanilla, and quite a bit of oak on this. The spices are really pretty well blended - nutmeg, cinnamon powder. Slight bit of bread crumbs. Drop of honey to sweeten the whole package. The distillate probably wasn't very complex, but I think the cask selection was good.

Finish - Not short, that is to say, above expectations. Very clean. Nutmeg and a touch of pepper; a bit of oak and dried fruits again.

Overall - For a sherry cask whisky, it'll not blow your palate off like the Kavalan Solist Sherry cask, or the Glendronach brothers. This whisky however, gets top marks in the bang-for-buck scale. An easy sipper that is still flavourful enough to spend some time chewing over.

Good buy!