OMAR Single Malt Sherry Cask

Written by Ruey of The Ruey Review
Updated 12 Apr 2016


This evening’s whisky is a very interesting one. Apparently other than KAVALAN, there is another Taiwanese Whisky that has been winning international awards. It is the OMAR single malt whisky by the TTL Nantou Distillery. From the name of the distillery you know that this malt is distilled in Nantou. Situated in central Taiwan, it is the only landlocked county in the country. 

TTL stands for Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation. It is the successor of the Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Bureau; which was then preceded by the Monopoly Bureau founded in 1901 by the Japanese empire when Taiwan was a part of it. By now you might have already guessed that the TTL had its roots in bureaucracy and was the only organisation producing and distributing ciggies and booze in Taiwan. This had been so for 100 years until the government monopoly of tobacco and alcohol ended in 2002. The KAVALAN distillery was completed in 2005; it is all starting to make sense now doesn’t it? The fact that now Taiwan is becoming a known whisky producer also goes to show how capitalism, and privatisation can improve service and product quality eh?
Although the TTL was privatised as a corporation in 2002 when the government freed up the liquor industry, you can smell traces of Taiwanese bureaucracy EVERYWHERE. Not to be vain or anything, but the naming of the whisky, the packaging of it, looks of the distillery, the lack of marketing for it, the overall branding of this malt just screams second-class business management. In all these aspects OMAR just isn’t on par with what the King Car Corporation has done for KAVALAN. What does OMAR even mean? It certainly does not sound Taiwanese. It may mean something, but the fact that I cannot find reasons why it is named OMAR on TTL’s website or anywhere else makes the name meaningless. Its packaging looks pretend-American and lacks character. The image of the distillery is on the whisky’s packaging which looks fine until you see photos of the actual cask-shaped building. It looks like a cheap plastic structure you find at a 3rd tier amusement park. The product just has no story, or the TTL just doesn’t bother trying to present it to the public. You cannot find anything about the malt, not on its packaging, not on TTL’s official websites, just videos here and there and they are not even official videos from the TTL! Just clips and interviews by Taiwanese television shows and film studios. I think the fact that whiskies take so long to make, and the fact that they should express the characteristics of the land their distilleries are surrounded by, their stories should be told, because it is part of the whisky enjoyment experience.
Having said all these, it is an “Outstanding” 2015 IWSC Silver Quality award-winning whisky. Let’s hope the whisky itself can make up for the bad business being run by the TTL.

Glenmorangie Original (格蘭傑經典)

Written by Ruey of The Ruey Review
Updated 7 Apr 2016

聽到格蘭傑這個名字不管是專家還是像我這種外行威士忌愛好者都一定非常耳熟，因為它是一家喻戶曉的威士忌酒廠，是一個到處都可以看到的一款單一純麥。格蘭傑的蒸餾廠位於北高地的泰恩鎮，屬於高地產區的威士忌。 過去好幾十年格蘭傑負責製造的員工數都控制在16名作業員，這16人被稱為“泰恩16男”，而且他們一整年除了聖誕節及設備保養期間都沒有休息。但是2008後因為產量的擴充這16人數被增加到24人，這些作業員現在則被稱為“泰恩的男人”。 格蘭傑的酒廠也擁有全蘇格蘭最高的蒸餾器，大約八公尺高，而格蘭傑說這麼高的蒸餾器可以讓格蘭傑的酒體格外輕盈。熟成的過程只要是格蘭傑的酒都一定有睡過格蘭傑自製的美國白橡桶。格蘭傑在美國的米澤里州擁有自己的森林，他們會製作橡木桶然後租借給Jack Daniel’s及Heaven Hill酒廠讓他們熟成波本酒至少四年，然後再拿這些白橡木波本桶回蘇格蘭給自己的威士忌做熟成。格蘭傑經典十年的熟成都完全是在這些波本桶裡面熟成的。

Suntory Kakubin Black 43° vs Johnnie Walker Black Label

Written by Ruey of The Ruey Review
Updated 01 Mar 2016

In Japan, people who are not fans of beers or sours, but still enjoy a few drinks with their buddies, tend to go for highballs when at the Izakaya with their friends. A highball is a whisky cocktail. It is whisky mixed with carbonated water. However, there are many variations. For example, you can mix ginger ale with whiskey which is ginger-high, Oolong tea mixed with whisky to get oolong-high, brown sugar carbonated water mixed with whisky to get Koku-high, or black-high.

One of the most notable choice of whisky for mixing highballs is the Suntory Kakubin blended whisky. A Kakubin Highball is referred to as Kaku-High. Since I have a “Black 43°” version of the Suntory Kakubin, I thought I’d drink it straight and write a review on it.

Then I thought, such a review just wouldn’t be interesting enough. Why not pit the Suntory black kakubin against the world-dominating blended whisky, the Johnnie Walker Black Label?

The Johnnie Walker Black Label is an iconic blend which helped the brand to become the Darth Sidious of the whisky universe. It is one of the best-selling scotch in the world today. Many whisky-lovers believe that the Johnnie Walker Black Label is too premium to be a mixer base, and that it should be enjoyed neat. However, since the Suntory Kakubin Black 43° is two up from the standard Kakubin and one up from the White Kakubin bottles, maybe similar to how Black Label is one up from the Johnnie Walker Red Label, I thought it would still be fair to line the two black-labeled blended whiskies up against each other.

This is Suntory vs Johnnie Walker, East vs. West, the Emperor of Japan vs the Emperor of THE Empire. I’ll have them neat, not mixed, and see how they fair against each other.

Colour: 

Both of yellow whisky colour with the Johnnie Walker Black Label just a tad bit darker.

Nose:

Kakubin Black 43° - Alcohol, not much else. Very very very faint fruitiness in the back, raisin.

Johnnie Walker Black Label- Horrible scent. It is the THE whisky smell I hated before I became a whisky connoisseur. It is the smell of the poison I put in ginger ale to consume with my highschool friends in order to fit in. When I smell this I can almost get what I got from the Johnnie Walker Gold Reserve but then before I get there I get stopped by this coarse wall built by bricks of grossness; bringing back very unpleasant decade old high school memories. Some of these memories consist of me puking through my mouth as I struggle to get home after parties at my friends’. What is that grotesque element that I despise? Is it licorice?

Palate:

Kakubin Black 43° - Gentle, vanilla, and very fruity. It is a sweet piece. Definitely packs more taste to it than its scent. There is definitely malts that had been finished in sherry or port casks. It can in my opinion, actually pass as a bearable low price-range single malt. It can do fine by itself, just fine.

Johnnie Walker Black Label- Taste is much better than it smells. However, as the dried fruits are just getting out of their doors to say hello to me they get quickly slapped by the grossness that gives me the about-to-barf sensation near my diaphragm. There is some nice whisky smokiness in the finish but then again the bad taste is just way too distracting for me. I think again that the demon of distraction is the bastard child of licorices and maybe chenpi- dried tangerine peel- gosh I hate both these blasphemous things. Johnnie walker says this is a blend that consists of various elements of fruits, sweet smoke and gentle peatiness… well I say why don’t you just get a proper single malt to enjoy each of those flavours whole-heartedly? Such monster blend consisting of 40 different malts is just a very distracting bottle and I don’t get why it is so revered. Maybe contrary to what some scotch lover say, it really is meant for cocktails and the mixing with sodas, but I really don’t understand how people can enjoy whisky by mixing it with sodas… anyway, that is a different world I do not live in.

Verdict: Do I need to say more? I enjoy whiskies, not whisky cocktails or whisky mixes… so why am I even writing this piece? My verdict is, you can enjoy the Suntory Kakubin neat, but not the Johnnie Walker Black Label. At least that is what my body tells me, very strongly.

Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2009 （布萊迪艾雷島大麥2009）

Written by Ruey of The Ruey Review
Updated 23 Feb 2016

布萊迪艾雷島大麥2009是位於艾雷島中部海岸的布萊迪蒸溜所推出的一支非泥煤煙燻的單一純麥。這支酒的重點比較不在於它的蒸餾過程，透過這款單一純麥，布萊迪是要將某一年份的農作物原料以及當年的氣候以及地勢環境呈現於最後成品的享用體驗裡，從這個角度來看，它的的概念比較接近釀造葡萄酒的理念。布萊迪艾雷島大麥2009用的是2008年收割的大麥，來源是四個位於艾雷島中央的大麥農戶，大麥的品種為英國的“酒館老闆”以及“津橋”種。

這是在威士忌界裡面非常新的一個概念。通常威士忌蒸餾廠會著重於他們製程的一致性以及他們保留原味，也就是自己維持自己酒廠特別味道的一致性的功力。但是在葡萄酒的世界裡，年份、環境及葡萄的品種才能夠主宰一支葡萄酒的價值。而特定年份的酒的味道呈現出來之後以後就不會再有一樣的味道了，這才是標榜年份風土條件的酒的價值所在。布萊迪想要將這種觀念導入威士忌的世界裡，推出了這些年份酒... 至於是否真的能夠釀成一波威士忌革命，我們還是得拭目以待了。

KAVALAN Concertmaster Single Malt Whisky

Written by Ruey of The Ruey Review
Updated 16 Feb 2016

The first post of 2016 on the Ruey Review is on the King Car Distillery in Yilan, Taiwan. It is a thorough description of the very beautiful distillery but we never did provide comments on the actual whiskies it produces now did we? Well today’s whisky review is on the Kavalan Concertmaster, one of many King Car Distillery-produced whiskies.

The Concertmaster is the entry level Kavalan whisky- I mean it is the cheapest whisky Kavalan has to offer… but it is not cheap at all just so you know. It is matured in American Oak and finished in Ruby, Tawny, and Vintage port casks. The malts coming from these different finishes then get blended at the distillery into the Concertmaster.

There is no age statement on the Concertmaster as is the case for all Kavalan whiskies. The distillery only began operation in 2005, it would have been a bit odd to state 3 year-old malts (Kavalan whiskies began selling in 2008). However, just because Kavalan whiskies do not stay in maturation casks as long as most Scotch do, it does not mean that they are not ready for malt fanatics to enjoy. As mentioned in “KAVALAN Whisky Distillery”, Taiwan sits beneath the Tropic of Cancer. Having a much warmer, humid environment, Kavalan whiskies receive more vibrant interactions with the casks, helping the whisky mature much faster than those sitting in the casks in Scotland.

The Revenant

Reviewed by Danny the Demented

Updated Feb 05 2016

JTHE REVENANT Official Trailer 2 (2015)

Don’t you just love it when, at the movies, you get to relax, forget about the stress from the everyday life, and be in somebody else’s shoes for just a brief moment? These tiny breathers the moving pictures provide can be such pick-me-ups. People go to the movies to escape from reality so they can continue to bear reality. Stress-relief is vital on this journey we call life.

So......yeah this movie does none of that. It’s like, super gruesome. I am like, so serious. If you are short on stress in your stock, look no further, this movie supplies plenty.

Inspired by a true story (amazingly), The Revenant is the new film by acclaimed director Alejandro Iñárritu. It tells the story of a badly injured hunter/scout Glass (Leo DiCaprio), finding strength and courage under extreme circumstances, to his road of revenge on those who left him for dead, betrayed vows and honour, namely Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). This is a tale of both survival and revenge. So yeah...some heavy shit.

Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve (約翰走路金牌珍藏)

Written by Ruey of The Ruey Review
Updated 2 Feb 2016

由蘇格蘭生產的威士忌中，有九成是調和式威士忌；而其中全球銷量最好的莫過於大家熟悉的約翰走路（Johnnie Walker）了。今天要跟大家分享的威士忌就是屬於該系列，也可說是主宰威士忌世界的霸主級酒款之一： 「約翰走路金牌珍藏」（Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve）。

金標的約翰走路的調和比例其實是來自於公司創辦者約翰沃克（John “Johnnie” Walker）的孫子亞歷山大二世之筆記；這是亞歷山大二世為了紀念約翰走路創業百年而特地調和出來的味道。這個味道包含了15種不同的單一純麥，但在第一次世界大戰期間，某幾種酒源短缺，所以始終無法正式推出。所幸，後人於1997年依照亞歷山大二世所留下來的調和筆記、並以15年~18年以上的單一純麥下去調和，終於推出了「約翰走路金標」。不過，到了2013年，約翰走路改變策略，為這款酒去除了原酒年齡的門檻，而以原酒的製程及味道為主要篩選單一純麥的條件，重新推出了這款Non-Age Statement（不標榜酒齡、而是標榜酒味）的調和式威士忌：約翰走路金牌珍藏。

The New Non-Aged Yoichi (Launched Sept. 2015)

Written by Ruey of The Ruey Review
Updated 26 Jan 2016

The Yoichi single malt series by Nikka Whisky has been one of the most sought-after malts in Japan in 2015. While it had already been a well-revered Japanese whisky, the sudden spike in demand last year was mainly due to the broadcasting of Massan, a popular TV show about the Father of Japanese Whisky- Masataka Taketsuru and his wife Rita Cowan, from September of 2014 to March of 2015. Remember how we mentioned that Taketsuru also contributed albeit indirectly to the creation of Mars? This sudden surge in demand causes the the depletion of certain malt reserves within the distillery thus the discontinuation of the old Yoichi single malts the world had known until to 2015 autumn. Now the new Yoichi is a single malt under the same brand name with apparently different content than what was before September of 2015. This review is of this new version of non-aged Yoichi Single Malt.

The Yoichi distillery is the most northern whisky distillery in Japan. It is the first distillery Taketsuru founded upon his return from Scotland, also making it the first distillery of Nikka whisky. The vision he held is to create in Japan a whisky that is truly Scottish. To do that, he chose a location in Japan that most resembles the Scottish highland. Taketsuru found such a place in Yoichi, Hokkaido in northern Japan. The distillery is located at 1,500 sea level, in an area that is covered in snow during the winter and where the snow melts in the spring. Taketsuru also chose the location of his distillery to be close to a water source that is enjoyed by Ayu fish and salmon. More importantly, Yoichi allows the distillery access to coal and peat, essential to the smoky flavor Taketsuru wanted in his “True Scotch Whisky”.

Ardbeg Ten Years Old (阿貝十年)

Written by Ruey of The Ruey Review
Updated 19 Jan 2016

Since in the whisky section of this blog we want to share Eastern Whiskies with people in the West, and Western Whiskies with people of the Far East, this review of an Islay single malt will be written in Mandarin for the people of Taiwan to use as reference. This is also the first non-English post in this blog, here it goes...

Ardbeg Ten Years Old, 也就是「阿貝十年」，號稱是世界上最有泥煤味、最富煙燻味的一支威士忌。這支酒來自蘇格蘭的艾雷島產區，蒸餾廠位於島的東南海岸，而這座蒸餾廠的參觀評價也相當的高。此酒廠於西元1798年即開始產酒，曾於1981年一度面臨停廠的命運，後來得到金主支援得以重新開業。現在酒廠則隸屬格蘭傑集團，也因此間接被納入路易威登集團旗下。回到酒本身吧，因為Ardbeg的酒精濃度高達46%而且並沒有經過冷過濾的程序，所以蒸餾廠認為，這款酒可說是完全保留住單一純麥所應該有的最原始、最完整的味道與層次。

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Reviewed by Danny the Demented
Updated Jan 12 2015

Since the glory days dated way back between 1977~1983 with the much revered original trilogy (A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi) , the Star Wars franchise got hauled over the coals, fairly or unfairly, after the release of the notorious prequel trilogy between 1999~2005 (Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith). Now, 30+ years later, George Lucas’ space opera is re-introduced by J.J. Abrams of the Lost/Star Trek-reboot fame. Finally it is here, the 7th film in the Star Wars saga: The Force Awakens (2015).

To avoid spoiling anything for you, my royal reader of none, I will refrain from writing about the synopsis like I always do. But this review WILL contain spoilers, so proceed with caution. Basically tread forward like the Night-fox did when he stole the egg in Ocean’s 12. Remember the laser-field? Ahh forget it you youngsters, remember nothing.  

To review this movie turned out to be much more complex than I originally thought it’d be. We must separate Star Wars the cultural phenomenon and Star Wars the 7th movie to properly evaluate each’s significance. Unnecessary to do so you say? This is why I am the pretentious self-proclaimed movie critic and you are not.

Mars Iwai Tradition Blended Whisky

Written by Ruey of The Ruey Review
Updated 05 Jan 2016

Mars Iwai Tradition Blended Whisky 720ml 40% is a Japanese blended Whiskey. The blend comes from both malt and grain, and it is distilled at Japan’s highest distillery, located in a mountain range of Nagano, at 798 meters.The Mars distillery was originally founded in Kagoshima before it moved to Nagano.

This blend is named after Kiichiro Iwai. He is a mentor of Masataka Taketsuru. As a 14 year senior graduated from the same technical school, Iwai brought Taketsuru into the same brewery, then became his mentor in the company. Along with others in management, Iwai sent Taketsuru to Scotland to learn the art of whisky-making. As the first Japanese to learn the art, Taketsuru returned to Japan and presented a whisky-making report- the Taketsuru Notes- to Iwai. Taketsuru later went on to found Nikka Whisky, and then created Suntory Whisky. Years after that Iwai founded Mars Shinshu distillery with Taketsuru’s notes. As the mentor of The Father of Japanese Whisky, Iwai is referred to by some as The Silent Pioneer of Japanese Whisky.

KAVALAN Whisky Distillery

Written by Ruey of The Ruey Review
Updated 01 Jan 2016



How appropriate it is for us to begin a new section here for the Ruey Review on the first day of a brand new year. While Ruey is no expert in Spirits, and is alcohol intolerant, he is nevertheless fascinated by the history, the making, and the tastes of whiskies. We wish to share with you our joy in exploring this popular subject and will start this journey with a visit to the most well-known whisky distillery in Taiwan, which produces the famous Kavalan whisky. 

Kavalan, meaning “flatland”, is the old name for the great plain of Yilan county, northeastern Taiwan. This name not only belongs to the land, but also the aborigines who inhabited in the area, the Kavalan people. Today, the Kavalan name also belongs to the prestigious single malt whisky.

The King Car Distillery that produces Kavalan whisky was named at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition the 2015 distillery of the year.