What Is Kavalan? Taiwan’s World-Class Whisky and the Story of Ian Chang

2026.10.05

In short: what is Kavalan? Founded in 2005 in Yilan, Taiwan, by King Car Group, Kavalan overturned the belief that whisky can’t be made in the subtropics and won World’s Best Single Malt in 2015. Ian Chang supported it for 15 years with Dr. Jim Swan before co-founding Komoro Distillery in Japan. Plus how a Hiroshima bartender fell for the blue Solist bottle. By Mika Tanimoto, owner of Bar Little Happiness.

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“I’m in!”

That was Ian Chang’s answer, they say, after hearing a passionate pitch through a screen from Mr. Shimaoka, who would become his co-founder.

The man who served for 15 years as master blender of Taiwan’s Kavalan Distillery, admired by whisky lovers all over the world.

He left Taiwan and began a new challenge in Komoro, Japan.

The origin of that story is in Taiwan.

Kavalan.

A Taiwanese distillery that overturned the whisky world’s common belief that “you can’t make whisky in the subtropics.”

In this column, I write down — from a fan’s point of view — how amazing the Kavalan distillery is, who Ian Chang is, and what Kavalan means to me.

Please read it on the understanding that it is based on my personal views.

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What is Kavalan Distillery? The miracle of Yilan, Taiwan

Kavalan Distillery, founded in 2005 in Yilan County, Taiwan, is Taiwan’s first full-scale whisky distillery.

It is run by King Car Group, a major Taiwanese food and beverage group.

A huge food and beverage company behind Mr. Brown, Taiwan’s iconic national canned coffee — like Georgia in Japan.

Its first new make spirit was produced in March 2006.

Even counting from the plan to build the distillery, it is by no means a long history.

And yet Kavalan soon climbed to the very top of the whisky world after its founding.

• 2012: Solist Fino Sherry Cask named “New World Whisky of the Year” in Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible
• 2015: Solist Vinho Barrique named “World’s Best Single Malt Whisky” at the World Whiskies Awards
• 2016: “Worldwide Whiskey Producer of the Year” at the International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC)
• 2026: “Distiller of the Year” at the World Whiskies Awards
• More than 950 gold medals in total since its founding

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“It can’t be done in the subtropics” — the distillery that overturned common sense

Why is Kavalan so amazing?

Before Kavalan, the world’s whisky industry had one big piece of common sense:

“Whisky is made in cold climates like Scotland’s.”

“Serious whisky can’t be made in a subtropical climate.”

In fact, when Kavalan was founded, founder Lee Tien-tsai was told by experts all over the world that it was “impossible.”

Yilan’s subtropical climate — average summer temperatures over 30°C and humidity of 100%, considered brutal for making whisky — Kavalan devised its own way to use it not as a weakness, but as a weapon.

Maturation proceeds at tremendous speed, but the contents of the cask are also lost at tremendous speed.

Kavalan’s rich, mellow flavour is born on that knife-edge balance.

Kavalan proved to the world:

“Whisky can be made beyond the barrier of climate.”

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This is what I believe:

Kavalan was one of the presences that proved, in this era, that whisky can be made in the subtropics.

And that fact became one big trigger for new distilleries multiplying all over the world.

India’s Amrut, Australia’s Starward, Taiwan’s Kavalan — distilleries in warm climates putting their terroir to the world not as a handicap but as individuality.

In that great current, I think Kavalan is certainly one of the distilleries that played an important role.

“There is whisky we can make precisely because of our own climate.”

We now live in an age when the term “New World Whisky” is used as a matter of course in the industry.

Scotland is not the only place to talk about whisky…

I personally believe Kavalan is one of the key players that rooted that awareness in the world.

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Ian Chang — the man who supported Kavalan

The man who supported Kavalan at the technical front line for 15 years from its founding is Ian Chang.

At the heart of Kavalan’s founding team were three people: founder Lee Tien-tsai; the late Dr. Jim Swan, the technical consultant who built the distillery from zero (called “the Einstein of the whisky industry”; he passed away in 2017); and Ian Chang, who joined as a young member.

In 2005, while the distillery was still under construction, Ian Chang joined this project with zero experience in making whisky.

A young man with a background in food engineering from the University of Reading in the UK applied to King Car Group’s job posting, passed a taste test and joined.

For the first year, he did nothing but read whisky books, he says.

The turning point was meeting Dr. Jim Swan in 2006.

Ian Chang himself looks back on it as “where my formal learning began,” and Dr. Jim Swan drilled everything about whisky-making into him.

Eventually the two travelled the world visiting cask suppliers, refining the blending that established Kavalan’s character.

As a result, Ian Chang became the first master distiller and master blender in the Chinese-speaking world, and has personally won more than 500 gold medals and trophies.

After Dr. Jim Swan passed away in 2017, he carried on his philosophy and grew Kavalan into a world-class brand.

And in 2020, Ian Chang chose a new place for his challenge.

He became master distiller & blender of Komoro Distillery, at 910 metres at the foot of Mt. Asama in Komoro, Nagano Prefecture, Japan.

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How I met Kavalan — that blue bottle

I met Kavalan in the early 2010s.

I think it was about five or six years after I started Little Happiness.

The first one I picked up was not Concertmaster, but a bottle from the Solist series.

Honestly, I only remember the colour of the label. It was a blue bottle.

The moment it hit my mouth, I was stunned! What a rich, mellow whisky!!

“Rich” isn’t enough of a word.

I think it was about 10,000 yen.

Compared with whisky prices at the time, it felt expensive for its age — but the density and the tropical, indescribable satisfaction.

It was a taste that didn’t exist in the world of whisky I knew until then.

From that day, my heart was stolen by Kavalan’s Solist series.

Rich and mellow…

I still think those words suit Kavalan’s Solist series best.

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What I’m learning from Kavalan

It’s been more than ten years since I met the Solist series.

Drinking Kavalan all this time, there is something I’ve always felt.

“There is someone’s strong will in this whisky.”

It’s not just “delicious.”

Someone’s strong wish — “to make a whisky in Taiwan that can compete with the world” — is certainly packed into the bottle.

That came across to me as “deliciousness.”

And one more thing I’m learning from Kavalan is its attitude as a business.

An attitude of boldly taking on new challenges.

Having another source of cash — coffee and beverages (King Car Group) — as a parent that can support whisky development over the long term.

An overwhelming speed of research and development, with refinement that never stops.

And above all… a clear focus on the value of experience!

Listen to people who have visited Kavalan Distillery, and you notice something interesting.

Most of them say, “I wasn’t really that into whisky before.”

They visited Kavalan Distillery as part of a trip to Taiwan.

Captivated by the world of the distillery they experienced there, they started drinking whisky because of it.

Kavalan doesn’t only target people who “go to Taiwan for Kavalan.” It firmly picks up people who think, “Since I’m in Taiwan anyway, let’s drop by,” and turns them into fans.

It had built that kind of beautiful structure.

I feel this is a truly useful model for Hiroshima, which so many tourists visit.

And I want Little Happiness to be like that, too.

“Since I’m in Hiroshima anyway…!”

People like that drop in, sit at the counter, and rediscover the world of whisky and rum.

I strongly want to keep being that kind of place.

What I’m learning from Kavalan isn’t only about whisky.

It’s “how to be a place that draws people in” itself.

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Kavalan at Little Happiness

The Kavalan you can currently enjoy at Bar Little Happiness centres on the Solist series.

Each cask gives a completely different direction of flavour.

I’d love you to experience it at the counter.

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A twist of fate — the land of Kavalan, and Ian Chang

In March 2026, I was somewhere special.

The festival at Komoro Distillery in Komoro, Nagano Prefecture.

At that festival, I attended a seminar by Komoro Distillery, where Ian Chang makes the whisky.

From the very back row, I listened to the session with Ian Chang, Ishihara-san of Kanosuke Distillery and Kurobane-san of Asaka Distillery.

The Komoro whisky prepared for the tasting was from a ruby port cask.

“What a beautiful red.”

First, I loved the beauty of the colour, and Ian’s aesthetic sense in choosing this spirit for the seminar.

It was reduced with water. And yet there was no “new-potty” character (the rough aroma of freshly distilled spirit) at all.

Such a clean, such a finished direction is already visible.

Even though it hadn’t been three years since distillation began…!

I thought: this person is a genius.

Of course I knew Ian Chang’s name, but I didn’t know him that deeply.

I was just amazed.

Until then I had only thought, “Kavalan is so good.”

And there was one more thing I felt strongly.

Despite being so famous worldwide, Ian Chang on stage showed respect to the distillers beside him and respect to the people listening.

He never once broke that attitude of respecting others.

I felt that whisky made by someone with such a wonderful attitude must turn out beautiful, with harmony at its heart.

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And then I thought:

“I have to trace the roots!”

Kavalan, the origin Ian polished for 15 years.

The source of the cleanness of Komoro’s spirit must be there.

I have to see it with my own eyes, taste it with my own tongue!!

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Booking a ticket for July

As soon as I got back from the festival in March, I booked a ticket to Taiwan for July.

I also booked a tour of Kavalan Distillery right away.

It was before oil prices shot up.

Looking back, I was lucky to get a reasonable flight.

Just as all the preparations were quietly going ahead —

One email

An email arrived from Ian Chang’s side.

“Would you like to hold a tasting event at Little Happiness?”

My first thought was — “Is this a prank?”

But the email was far too specific.

“No one would go to this much trouble for a prank.”

That’s when it finally turned into certainty. He was really coming!

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4 July (Sat), at Bar Little Happiness

The tasting event with Ian Chang was held at Bar Little Happiness on 4 July 2026. Read the report: Ian Chang Tasting, Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

If you want to know more about Ian Chang and Komoro Distillery, see these columns too: → Who is Ian Chang? / The “harmony” I witnessed at Komoro Distillery

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Kavalan is one of the distilleries that proved, in this era, that whisky can be made in the subtropics.

And I believe it is one of the big reasons new distilleries are multiplying all over the world.

Ian, who polished Kavalan for 15 years, is now taking on a new challenge in Komoro, Japan.

And in July, I will visit the land of Kavalan’s roots that Ian polished for 15 years.

And two days after that, I will welcome Ian Chang himself to the counter of Little Happiness.

Everything is connected like a dream, and it feels so mysterious.

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“Whisky and rum taste even better when you touch the hearts of the people who make them.”

Every encounter is meant to be. Welcome to the world of Rum&Whisky.

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