Business

Local distillery aims big in global whisky world

King Car’s distillery in Yuanshan, Yilan County is making its mark on the global whisky scene with an award-winning Kavalan single malt whisky. (Courtesy of King Car.)

• Publication Date：12/11/2009
• Source： Taiwan Today
• By  Meg Chang

Despite Taiwan's lack of tradition in producing whisky, a local distillery is making waves in the global whisky world with an award-winning liquor that pleases even the world’s most critical taste buds.

Established in 1979 as one of Taiwan’s major food and beverage makers, King Car Food Industrial Co. Ltd. surprised the local drinks industry in 2006 by setting up the country’s first whisky distillery in Yuanshan Village, an unpolluted green land in northeastern Taiwan famous for its pure water source, fresh air and beautiful scenery.

“Many people questioned King Car’s decision to enter the whisky world,” said Andy Chang, a section chief who has been an active participant in the endeavor from the very beginning. Compared with the local beer market, valued at between NT$30 billion (US$933 million) and NT$40 billion per year, Taiwan’s whisky lovers booze up between NT$6 billion to NT$8 billion worth of the liquor annually, with over 90 percent of this imported from Scotland. “Even if we capture a substantial share of the local market, it will still not be a significant source of income for us,” he told “Taiwan Today.”

But the company has bigger plans in mind. “King Car has always aspired to become a global beverage maker,” Chang said. In this regard, the firm began producing canned coffee 25 years ago, and its coffee products can now be seen in most overseas markets, including Africa. “This successful experience proves that we can produce consumer goods with universal appeal and market them to the world.”

The selection of whisky as the company’s new venture fits strategically with this ambitious goal. While kaoliang, a sorghum liquor favored by locals, enjoys a market twice the size of whisky on the island, it is very hard to promote the spirit to the rest of the world given its distinctive flavor, said Chang. The love for whisky, however, is not affected by cultural differences. The sector is very promising, he added. Mainland China, in particular, with its anticipated double-digit growth rates, is expected to become the next Promised Land for whisky makers.

King Car built its distillery with the global market in mind. “From the very beginning, our goal has been to build a distillery that will stand for hundreds of years for whisky lovers from around the world,” Chang said.

With copper stills handmade from Scotland and quality malt imported from the liquor’s homeland, King Car’s distillery began operations in 2006. Another set of stills was imported from Germany the next year, bringing the facility’s total capacity to 9 million bottles per year. With investments topping NT$1 billion, “we are probably the most technically advanced distillery in the world,” Chang said.

But hardware alone cannot get the work done. “The flavor and color of whisky come from the wood barrels where the spirit is placed for maturity,” explained company spokesman Richard Ma. Therefore, the selection of wood barrels, or the so-called “wood policy,” is critical to the success of any distillery, since the “personality” of whisky is determined by the distinctive features of wood casks, including their sizes and shapes, as well as the liquors previously placed in them. Luckily, King Car had help from a master blender for this crucial mission.

With his solid academic background in chemistry and biological science and years of experience advising whisky distillers around the world, Jim Swan, a legend in the international whisky world, took into consideration the geographic location and climate of Yuanshan, where King Car’s distillery is located, and formulated a unique wood policy for the firm. “Since we had no prior experience, we made up for this disadvantage with science and diligent work,” Chang said.

To learn what constitutes great whisky, King Car took samples from all leading brands and conducted extensive scientific analysis to come up with a set of indices to serve as benchmarks for their own liquors. Based on these variables and with the expert advice of Swan, King Car launched its Kavalan single malt whisky in December 2008, the first whisky ever produced in Taiwan.

All these efforts have paid off. In less than one year after hitting the market, King Car’s Kavalan whisky won the silver medal in the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in March 2009. Four months later, the liquor won the silver medal (best in class) at the International Wine and Spirit Competition in the United Kingdom, with the judges’ tasting notes describing the drink as having “a delicate, gentle nose … with a sweet sensation making for easy flow.”

The company’s Solist Single Cask Strength collection also received a score of 90 out of 100 in the Whisky Bible 2009, a renowned whisky guide by Jim Murray, who praised the liquor as one of the best he had ever sampled, Chang said.

“We have great confidence in our own products, but the global recognition still came as a nice surprise, given the relatively short period of time we have been in the business,” said Ma. “This proves that age, or the number of years whisky matures in wood barrels, is not necessarily a major consideration in appraising the liquor,” he said. But still, the most important task ahead is to win the hearts of whisky lovers by challenging their preconceived ideas about age.

Whisky matures at a slow pace in Scotland given the cold weather there, and age has thus always been an essential part of these products’ marketing campaigns. But the maturation process moves at a much faster speed in Taiwan’s warm and humid climate. “We have scientific evidence to prove that in less than three years, we have produced whiskies that fare well in comparison with global brands,” Chang said. “We just have to find an effective way to communicate this with consumers.”

Partly to disabuse others of the idea that whisky must mature slowly, in December 2008 the company opened its distillery to the public, where visitors can walk through the company’s manufacturing process through guided tours. The idea was such a hit that, as of the first half of the year, the distillery had attracted more than half a million tourists who crowded the place to learn about whisky and sample the company’s liquors.

“Many whisky importers actually took their employees to our distillery for training,” Ma said. Several aspiring firms interested in the business, Chang added, have also paid a visit to the site, including the country’s leading liquor maker Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp. “We welcome new participants in the race, as this will help expand the market.”

King Car is aggressively expanding its operations by investing in more oak barrels. “Our goal is to become one of the world’s top five whisky distilleries,” Chang said. “And we will prove to the rest of the world that Taiwan is actually an ideal location for making whisky.”

Write to Meg Chang at meg.chang@mail.gio.gov.tw