Over the next few months, should you find yourself strolling through Times Square – in its New York rather than its Causeway Bay incarnation – spare a glance at the 11 high-definition LED billboards adorning the Thomson Reuters Building. They are advertising Kavalan, a single malt whisk(e)y from Taiwan. You will not be the first to be a little taken aback by seeing such a relatively obscure brand in such a high-profile location.

Most of the goods promoted here, at the so-called Crossroads of the World, are the world’s super brands, household names, veritable bywords for prestige and wantability. After all, the annual rent on just one Times Square billboard is somewhere between US$1 and US$4 million – well beyond the promotional spend of all but the most profitable of product lines.
Kavalan is certainly not in that league. At least, not yet. The Lee’s though, the family behind the brand, certainly have the money, even if – to date – not much of it has accrued from whisky sales.

Kavalan is now widely available in Hong Kong, China, and in many of the key international whisky markets, including the US and Britain. While in Asia it already enjoys a significant level of prestige, its status in the West remains that of a niche product – a distinct novelty in countries where Scotch and American spirits retain their traditional dominance.
While the majority of the big whisky brands have long histories, Kavalan has been on the market for just eight years. The company behind it, however, is a Taiwanese success with a provenance of some 60 years.

Back in 1956, the Chu Chen Industrial Company was established in Kaohsiung, one of Taiwan’s more southerly counties. Its initial line of pesticides and household cleaning products did well for the business and, in 1979, it diversified into packaged food and drinks, repackaging itself as the King Car Group in the process.

King Car, in turn, prospered, with it the Mr Brown brand of pre-mixed coffee, milk and sugar – despite sounding entirely detestable – proving an unlikely hit in Germany of all places. To this day, it remains the group’s cash cow.
In the eminently foreseeable future, however, it may at last be supplanted by Kavalan. Tien Tsai Lee, the company’s founder, has two passions – vintage cars (hence the name of his company) and whisky. It is the latter that he is now pinning the company’s future on.

Taiwan is, in fact, one of the world’s biggest markets for the spirit, with consumers buying more single malts than blends, despite the rapid international growth of the latter category over recent years. Significantly, it is now the only market in the world where that is true.

Until fairly recently, however, privately owned companies in Taiwan were not allowed to operate as distillers. Essentially, this made it impossible for such a thing as Taiwanese whisky to actually exist.

That all changed in 2002 when Taiwan joined the World Trade Organisation. By necessity, the local government had to surrender its long-established monopoly on producing alcohol.

Long hankering after having his own distillery, Lee set about establishing his own facility in Yi-Lan County. His chosen site was not far from Taipei, where King Car already had a bottled water production centre.

The prime requirement for any distillery, of course, is a good water source. Naturally, the site of the King Car’s Yuan Shan bottling operation had been chosen because of its easy access to pure mountain spring water.

Lee then engaged a team of Scottish consultants to help build and equip a state-of-the-art facility. This included establishing cooperage to manage the ex-bourbon and wine casks required to mature and finish the spirits.

The traditional pot stills he chose to employ are – not at all coincidentally – very similar to the “curiously small” stills favoured by the Macallan distillery and known for their appearance on Bank of Scotland currency notes. These were specially made for him by Forsyth’s Northeast Scotland.

Construction began in early 2005 and was completed by the end of the same year. The first distillation was then successfully completed in March 2006, with the first Kavalan single malt whisky released in 2008. In order to be sold as whisky in Taiwan, a spirit must have been matured for at least two years, compared to three in Scotland.

Although the King Car name was retained for the distillery – and has been used for some bottlings for the Taiwan domestic market – Lee sensibly realised that it was an association that probably wouldn’t travel well. This is especially true given that drink driving is an increasingly sensitive issue in many of the markets he is targetting.

The name “Kavalan” was chosen as way of honouring the history of the area where the spirit is now distilled. It literally means the “People living on the plain” and refers to an indigenous Yi-Lan tribe.

Back in 2005, however, Taiwan had no indigenous whisky makers, which saw Lee bring in a little Scottish expertise. From the outset, then, the Taiwan team was advised by Dr Jim Swan, a roving whisky consultant. Prior to his work with Kavalan, Swan had worked with distilleries in a number of unlikely settings, including England, Wales and Israel. He had also, of course, served his time in Scotland.

Ultimately, it was Swan who trained Ian Chang, the man now responsible for making the whisky. Originally from Taiwan, he also came armed with a degree in Food Technology, Flavours and Aromas from a UK university.

Chang, who jokes that “in Taiwan it’s normal to be paid one salary for several jobs”, is now King Car/Kavalan’s Master Blender/Whisky Maker, Brand Ambassador, Director of Global Business and Head of R&D.

“Kavalan gets a million visitors a year, more than the total number visiting every Scottish distillery”

While that’s a lot of responsibilities, Chang seems to have no trouble managing. He is seen as one of the brightest rising stars in the world of whisky, having worked closely with Swan on the Kavalan project since joining the company in 2005.

In the 2015 World Whisky Awards, Chang was named as Whisky Distillery Manager and the Master Distiller of the Year. It was an apt reward. On his watch the Kavalan whiskies have picked up a truly extraordinary collection of awards and accolades.

These include the Kavalan Solist Amontillado Sherry being recognised as the World’s Best Single Malt Whisky Single Cask at the World Whiskies Awards in London in 2016. This followed another WWA win for Kavalan Solist Vinho Barrique as the 2015 Best Single Malt Whisky. Not bad going for such an upstart.

With Taiwan home to countless whisky fanatics, it is perhaps not surprising that the distillery now gets more than one million visitors a year. To put that into perspective, that is more than the entire annual total number of visitors to every distillery in Scotland,

Even with that amount of liquid, there remains the problem of what distillers term the Angels’ Share – the percentage of spirit that evaporates while being matured in the barrel. The hot climate means that the Angels in Yi-Lan are unusually thirsty. For this reason, Kavalan, as with many American whiskeys, can only spend a limited time in the barrel before too much of it simply disappears. Swan and Chang, however, are treating what most would see as a handicap as something of an opportunity and reducing the time in the barrel without damaging the flavour of the spirit.

This has partly been achieved by sophisticated in-house wood management, with the barrels treated so as to extract the maximum wood character in the minimum time. It is also partly to do with the fermentation, the stills and the distilling process, all of which are geared to getting maximum character into the newly made spirit prior to maturing.
There’s no doubt that Chang and his team are making fine single malt whiskies, particularly in the case of the Solist and Distillery Reserve ranges. Most notably, the tropical fruit character evident throughout the collection makes them genuinely distinctive. In the best possible sense, they are all clearly Made in Taiwan.

As the Times Square promotion clearly demonstrates, Kavalan is certainly willing to invest in brand building. It is also possible that, as time passes, Taiwanese whisky will become an internationally recognised category in the same way that Japanese whisky already is. In 2008, the government-owned Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor company themselves started distilling whisky under the Omar brand. It’s a lot cheaper than Kavalan, while TTL’s Nantou Distillery will presumably also be looking at the export markets.

As those billboards make clear, the Taiwanese are coming. Of that, Lee has no doubt, saying: “This is about telling people Kavalan Whisky is available in the US. We’re here and we’re in business.”

It’s fair to say that many of those employed in the British booze business woke up on the morning of June 24th with something far worse than a simple hangover. Very few of them had expected the United Kingdom to vote to leave the European Union and fewer still of them welcomed the eventual decision.

This was particularly true in Scotland, a country still reeling from the bitter divisions wrought by last year’s referendum on Scottish independence. Prior to that vote, almost everybody in the Scotch whisky industry believed that ending the country’s centuries old union with the rest of the UK would be a disaster for an industry that turned over £5 billion a year. Of course, very few of them were willing to say so in public.

Now, in the wake of Scotland’s overwhelming vote to remain in the EU, the prospect of going through the whole ghastly process has once again reared its head. Will a second independence referendum be held? If so, what would be the likely outcome? Of course, it’s way too early to predict the answer to either of those with any degree of certainty.

In the run-up to the Brexit vote, many in the Scotch industry were considerably more frank about their views than they had been the year before. One individual with particularly strong views on the matter was Ivan Menezes, Chief Executive of Diageo, the company behind Johnnie Walker, 20 other blended and single malt whisky brands and 29 distilleries
Addressing the issue, he said: “The EU’s clout when it comes to international trade helps to open up new markets. It also delivers agreements favourable to the UK, reduces tariffs and helps resolve trade disputes.”

David Frost, the Chief Executive of the Scotch Whisky Association, pretty much echoed Menezes, saying: “EU membership has many advantages for Scotch. The single market gives us a level playing field and open access across the EU.”
Both men are now having to accustom themselves to a changed world, and both are trying to put a bravish face on it, with Frost saying: “The process of leaving the EU will inevitably generate significant uncertainty.

“Of course, we are confident that Scotch whisky will remain the pre-eminent international spirit drink. There are, however, serious issues that now need resolving in areas of major importance to the industry, all of which require urgent attention. Most obviously, we need to determine the nature of the future trade arrangements with both the single market and the wider world.”

Diageo’s official statement, however, was a little more circumspect, saying: “We respect the views of the British people in the EU referendum. As one of the UK’s leading exporters, Diageo remains committed to the long term prosperity of the Scotch whisky industry. We will now work closely with the relevant industry bodies to seek clarity with regard to the transition process.”

In fact, a great deal more dust will have to settle before anything like clarity emerges. What is clear at the moment, though, is that the ramifications of this will be widely felt across the international booze trade. This will have consequences both outside, as well as within, the borders of Britain and the wider EU.

Given that it is a relatively small country, with a population of only around 65 million, Britain punches well above its weight in the wines and spirits world. By value, the UK is the second largest importer of wine in the world (after the United States) and by volume (after Germany). Trade in this sector has more than doubled over the last 10 years and, according to a 2016 report by the Wine and Spirit Trade Association [WSTA], the UK wine industry generates some £17.3 billion of economic activity.

In the case of spirits, Scotch is obviously the big player, although Britain also exports significant quantities of white spirits. It is also at the forefront of the craft distilling boom, making many of the boutique gins and vodkas found behind so many of the most fashionable bars in Hong Kong, China and throughout Asia. Perhaps less surprisingly, it is also a major supplier of many of the craft beers that are going down so well across the region.

In the run-up to the EU referendum, a lot of drastic predictions were made by both sides of the debate. Those particular voices seem to have gone relatively quiet since the largely unexpected outcome. Certainly, at this point in time, quiet diplomacy on both sides of the English Channel would better suit the booze business than any talk of punitive tariffs and restricted market access.

Once the Brexit negotiations begin in earnest, the international booze business will have a considerable stake in the exact form and wording of the subsequent divorce settlement. This will be especially true of the major players, such as the French-owned Pernod Ricard group. Among its many subsidiaries are Chivas Brothers and 10 distilleries in Scotland, making it the world’s second largest Scotch whisky producer Similarly, France’s Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy owns the Glenmorangie and Ardbeg distilleries. There is even a French stake in English wine production. Last year, Taittinger, the premium Champagne house,

“Quiet diplomacy would better suit the booze business than talk of tariffs and restricted market access ”

announced it had acquired land in the Southeast of England and was planning to make sparkling wine.
Britain is also the third largest market in the world for cognac – though well behind China and the US, in second and first places respectively. It is, however, well ahead of France in fifth place and Germany in fourth. In total, the British drink more than twice as much cognac as the French.

Going the other way, France is the world’s second largest importer of Scotch whisky by volume and, in recent years, it has been trading up from the moderately priced spirit to the premium stuff. Over the last decade the value of Scotch exports to France has risen by almost 68 percent.

How all of these varied interests will be affected will become clearer over time. In the short term, though, Asia will clearly benefit from the weakness of the pound, something that seems likely to persist until any new world order emerges.
Premium whiskies, gins and English sparkling wines should all become cheaper. A number of such wines are now recognized as being of equivalent quality to Champagne, although they have suffered by also being equivalent in price. Visiting the UK will also be cheaper. For whisky lovers, this is the ideal time to book that tour of the Scotch distilleries you’ve been promising yourself.

Overall, though, if barriers to trade do go up in Europe, the Scotch business, in particular, is likely to focus even more intently on the Asian markets.

The world’s third largest Scotch whisky market is currently Singapore, mostly because of its high level of re-exports to its neighbouring countries and to China. Taiwan, then, is in fourth place, with South Korea coming in at 10th.
While the current austerity measures are in force, the Chinese Mainland might prove a difficult market for premium Scotch. We could, though, see greater emphasis placed on the more modestly priced blends, with significantly more marketing spend put behind them.

In the event of a second referendum on Scottish independence – and assuming Scotland votes to go on its own way – the position would be quite different. It is, however, far from sure that a newly independent Scotland would automatically accede to EU membership. Nor is there any guarantee that there is the political will to put the choice to the country again, given the last referendum was so recent.

Still, putting a brave face on it all is very much the British way, with Mile Beale, Chief Executive of WSTA exemplifying that particular trait. Clearly looking to rally the troops in the wake of the shock result, he said: “While many of our members felt that the wine and spirit industry was stronger within the EU, we will work to assist the government in preserving our access to the single market, supporting British drinks exports and agreeing the best possible international free trade agreements.”

Good luck with that one mate.

If you can remember the 1960’s then, they say, you weren’t really there. If, however, you can remember the 1990s then you were probably one of the very few that didn’t overdo it on the New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

At the time, its sudden ubiquity came as a surprise to pretty much everyone. Up until then, the Sauvignon Blancs of the Loire Valley had been seen as unassailable classics, generally regarded as the very peak as to what could be achieved with the grape.

Then came Cloudy Bay, an interloper from the Marlborough region of New Zealand’s South Island. The winery, only established in 1985, had somehow managed to stumble across a style of Sauvignon Blanc that sort of resembled the Loire wines, while being fruitier and more acidic. It was less subtle, but it was certainly different and boasted strong immediate appeal.

For a while, production couldn’t quite keep up with demand. New Zealand growers, keen to emulate Cloudy Bay’s success, were soon planting Sauvignon Blanc in every cultivatable space they could find. Almost overnight, it became the country’s signature grape.

Writing of the Kiwi Sauvignon Blancs of the time, Oz Clarke, the renowned British wine commentator, grandly dubbed them: “arguably the best in the world.” For many, this was an extraordinarily casual dismissal of generations of finely-crafted French wines.

Eventually – and perhaps inevitably – the euphoria wore off. Today, hardly anybody would endorse Clarke’s view. Not even most of the Kiwis themselves.

The great Sauvignon Blancs of the Loire Valley have now been restored to the high regard that was traditionally theirs. And the grassy, herbaceous, gooseberry-flavored upstarts from New Zealand? Sadly, they are now routinely dismissed as dull. Generic even.

Even Cloudy Bay – acquired by LVMH in 2003 as a natural extension to it’s luxury brand portfolio – has lost much of its cachet. While production has increased in volume terms, many critics believe the quality of the wines has dropped proportionately. It’s more likely, though, that their very immediacy somehow masked an particular underlying lack of complexity.

The Sauvignon Blanc boom, however, did establish that the country was capable of producing wines that are well able to appeal to the wider world. With a number of other grape varieties now coming into their own in New Zealand, some even see the possibility of a “Second Coming.”

Today New Zealand’s red Pinot Noir wines – which are actually far more interesting than its Sauvignon Blancs ever were – are widely and justly acclaimed. Indeed, their quality has inevitably, prompted comparisons with the wines of Burgundy. The styles, though, are quite different and the comparisons are ultimately unhelpful. It does raise, though, the question as to why, if Burgundy’s signature red grape can fare so well in New Zealand, do we hear quite so little of Kiwi wines made from its signature white varietal?

Chardonnay has, of course, been planted in New Zealand for many years. Cloudy Bay, for instance, produces both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. It is the focus on Sauvignon Blanc as an export wine, however, that has somewhat overshadowed all other varietals.

That is changing – at least according to Michael Brajkovich, the head winemaker at West Auckland’s Kumeu River Wines, a family-owned operation dating back to 1944. Tellingly, back in 1989 he was the first New Zealander to qualify as a Master of Wine (MW). Today, there are 13 such masters.

Assessing the changing face of the New Zealand wine industry, he says: “As a company, Chardonnay has been very important to us for a long time and we’ve been pretty successful in that category. Along with Pinot Noir, it is really on the up and up. Wine makers and consumers are really getting into it. In Australia, too, it is also racing along in terms of quality. In terms of volume Sauvignon Blanc is still the most important grape in New Zealand but, in terms of quality, Chardonnay is way ahead.”

According to Brajkovich, it has taken some time to identify just the right terroir for Chardonnay in New Zealand, as well as to understand the special characteristics of individual parcels of it.

“Some 30 years ago we started out in the Chardonnay business and we wanted to make one really good wine. In order to do that you have to blend from a lot of different vineyards but, while doing so, you still need to keep those vineyards quite separate. Ultimately, you start to see some of the individual characters that come back, year in and year out.

“What you are seeing is terroir and it’s very exciting. It takes decades, though, to identify it, isolate it and start to appreciate it. Clearly, we haven’t been around anywhere near as long as Burgundy, so we don’t know these things until we try them out.”

Along with an understanding of the local terroir characteristics has come a more thoughtful and restrained approach to producing Chardonnay. Brajkovich sees a similar thing happening in Australia where – thanks to his MW status as well as his track record as a winemaker – he is much in demand as a wine show judge.

He says: “Actually, it’s been changing for some time. I’m chair of the judges at the Royal Adelaide Wine Show, and we’ve seen huge improvements in the quality of Chardonnay. While there’s still a constituency out there for those big, buttery alcoholic Chardonnays, they are actually harder to find these days.”

In Brajkovich’s view, the better quality Chardonnays in Australia and New Zealand are tending to come from the cooler climate areas, regions where subtler wines can be produced.

Highlighting this, he says: “The better quality wines are much more elegant in style, while the oak used is much more restrained. We’re also seeing other characteristics coming in. There’s a lot of talk about the “Mod Oz” or the New Zealand Chardonnays that are much more reductive.

“Our Chardonnays have always had a flinty character – Hunting Hill in particular. It is actually much more akin to what you would find in a white Burgundy. There are now a lot more similarities to that international cool climate style of Chardonnay than there have been in the past.

“We’re also seeing a general rise in the quality of other takes on Chardonnay – not necessarily the oak-driven barrel-fermented styles. We’re now seeing a lot more wines made in other containers – stainless steel or concrete – and in much bigger volumes. As long as they are made properly and aged for long enough, they can still develop quite a striking character.”

The wine master also believes that Australia and New Zealand are actually more in touch with the modern international preferences for Chardonnay than a number of other regions, notably California. He says: “In America, they seem to be too rooted in the past. They still produce a lot of those big buttery, more oaky and more alcoholic styles of Chardonnay. Over the past five to six years, Australia and New Zealand have both moved away from that format quite significantly.”

Despite this, he still believes it may take time for the wider world to catch on to New Zealand Chardonnay the way it has to Pinot Noir. Acknowledging this, he says: “Pinot Noir is right up there. I’m the chair of judges for the Air New Zealand Wine Awards and the most competitive category in terms of Gold Medals and overall quality is always Pinot Noir. It does well from a number of different regions. It’s encouraging, though, to see that Chardonnay is also starting to get up there.”

A fine example of the best that New Zealand now has to offer comes courtesy of Kumeu River wines, with its range now available in Hong Kong and China through Northeast Wines and Spirits Ltd. It is currently available in three tiers – an easy-drinking Village Range, analogous to Village Burgundy; a more expensive Premium Range of wines, all blended from different vineyards; and a Single Vineyard Range, with Northeast offering the Coddington, the Hunting Hill and the Mate’s Vineyard Chardonnays.

The Premium and Single Vineyard range wines are all of impressive quality. At a recent Hong Kong tasting Brajkovich’s Premium Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris went down well, though the Chardonnays clearly remain the estate’s strongest suit.