Kavalan Distillery

Unforgettable Day at Kavalan Distillery – World-Class Spirits & Genuine Taiwanese Warmth! What a memorable day at the beautiful Kavalan Distillery in Yilan! The grounds are lovely, the tour informative—especially tasting adjacent to the barrel room—and the "Make Your Own Bottle" master blender experience was a unique thrill, customizing our own whiskey. The real highlight was meeting the wonderful staff: Nari, Cindy, Nini, and Amy—the nicest ladies! Amidst their busy duties helping guests, they took time to chat about Taiwan, giving us a real, insightful look into local life while we snacked and sipped excellent Kavalan whiskeys. We dove deep into discussions on beer and spirits! We were pleasantly surprised to discover the cozy upstairs lounge, where we enjoyed Taiwanese German-style beers from Buckskin Brewing. We took some home from the gift shop along with whiskey and long stem distillers glasses (hard to find). The on-site cafe was a welcome spot too—loved trying the diverse offerings, especially the specialty holiday drinks from Mr. Brown's (we're only familiar with their small canned coffees back in Guam!). Thanks to their genuine hospitality, we spent five happy hours here, making great memories and even gaining four new friends. Travel from Taipei near Jinping Station was easy (~2 hours by train, a very nice coach bus, and taxi). Google Maps transit and our rechargable transit pass made it super easy to figure out. Highly recommend for whiskey fans or a relaxing cultural day—Kavalan is exceptional!

It was a rainy day when we visited, we were going down the coast and had planned to stop over to check out the distillery. We were greeted by a beautiful two-storey building with a fully stocked gift shop, tasting bar, Mr Brown café with many food and drink options and a great bar with Buckskin beer, whisky and cocktails. We ended up spending most of our afternoon there tasting different whiskys and choosing souvenirs! We had no time for the tour, but even just a visit for a bite and the opportunity to taste Kavalan's many top whiskys is more than worth it!

Very big place! Did not know Kavalan and Mister Brown is from Taiwan and from this place. Explained their history and processes. Interesting. We can actually buy samples to try out the whiskey. Furthermore, we can also buy cakes and coffees from their cafes. There is food, coffee and alcohol.. what else you can ask for! Will I go again? Yes, if I passed by.

Great experience overall. Tasting at the end for 800$ NTD; 20ml of 3 different whiskeys, gift shop available as well with limited edition. English friendly. Highly recommended. Taiwan whiskey has nothing to envy to the rest of the world. 🇹🇼🇹🇼🇹🇼

Super cool experience. You can learn about whiskey, try plenty of it and also have nice pastries and coffee. They sell some really special stuff here like coffee aged in whiskey barrels.

Excellent tourists attraction place, it is educational, pleasant environment and no fee to tour this wonderful Renowned Whiskey factory. This is one of must visit place in Yilan.

Beautiful place to learn about whiskey making and great tour given. Was given a tour around the factory. Got to learn that only purchasing tasting alcohol on first floor grants you discount when purchasing alcohol but not the second floor which was came across as a shocker to me.

Great experience if you like to see the best Taiwanese whiskey produce. We had an amazing experience. Highly recommended.

I had made reservations ahead of time for a tour, got confirmation that it was booked, booked a driver for our group to purposely drive us to the distillery. Drove two hours to get there and they closed it off. No notice, no email in advance to say we're temporarily closing. Drove there to have the gateman turn us away and said that no one showed up for work today. Completely unprofessional.

The home of Kavalan Whiskey and Mr. Brown Coffee is a castle north of Taipei in Yilan County. My sister and brother in laws took my wife and I here for a tour and snack. A very awesome place for coffee and whiskey lovers alike. Kavalan is a world class whiskey with a distinct Taiwanese flavor and Mr. Brown Coffee is the Starbucks of Asia. The service on the tour, at the gift shop, and restaurants are all fast and friendly giving us helpful advice and recommendations (tip for non Taiwanese passport holders - the duty free shop at TPE has most of the Kavalan whiskeys at a better price). The feel is very relaxed with a Christmas Tree made of lights, life size Mr. Brown statues for pictures, and orchids (from their on sire greenhouse) everywhere: Anyone who does not rate this as five stars is just a hater!

Whisky lovers.......this is a must. Prior to arriving in Taipei I set up a Kavalan tour through Viator. There is a train and bus that will take you to the Yulin area, but I like the flexibility of my own driver than knows the area. Arrived at Kavalan around 10:30 am and did the self tour. It's the perfect go at your own pace. There's signs to read, videos to watch and windows into the production areas to view the process. Then walked over to the Spirit Castle- everyone needs a spirit castle in their life. Here there is a large tasting area and gift shop downstairs and a private tasting area, bar, and restaurant upstairs. Here's where my driver Steven came to the rescue. He knew to go upstairs for the better tasting of the reserve and high end selections, and could translate what I was looking for. And there are a ton of choices- three different flights and almost 2 dozen single pours. If you're just tasting you can stay in the bar area. If you want to taste and eat you'll need to go to the restaurant area seating. After the tasting I grabbed a bite of lunch. It was ok. Choices were a few sandwiches, pizza, chicken nuggets. Nothing wowed me. I would have liked some food that compared to the quality of the whiskies. I suggest just doing a charcuterie board with your tasting. After lunch I headed downstairs to the other tasting room, the girl upstairs suggested I taste two of my choices there so I could receive a discount coupon on their purchase. The gift shop is another whole new experience. Wow. Beautiful boxes holding bottles of various amber colored whisky. Makes your heart melt. I suggest getting a basket and starting at one end with your notes from your tasting. I chose to purchase the ones I couldn't get back home. Make sure you check every aisle- at the last minute I discovered an area of 50 ml bottles. Perfect buys for the whisky you liked but didn't think you want a big bottle of. Plus a bit easier to fly home with. And for a dollar you can purchase a beautiful padded gift box for them to travel in. I'm so glad I took the chance to visit this facility. It was a blast and educational. Just a note- if you don't want to made the hour and a half trip, there is a tasting bar at the Taipei 101. Friendly staff but the experience at the distillery is well worth it. Plus visit the hot springs and the Mr Brown Castle in the area. I

Took a tour of the distillery and learned more about Kavalan and its processes. Interesting to find out that the malt is imported as are the pot stills that they use. We had a tour in English which lasted roughly 30 minutes before you go back to the main building with the tasting room. The 1st floor tasting room gives you some options to taste some of the popular options at a fairly low price (10ml for each pour so about 40ml total). The gift shop is attached and you get a discount on certain bottles if you did the tasting (you get a little coupon). Alternatively or additionally, you can work your way upstairs to the reserve tasting bar - they have distillery reserve selections for a bit more (but 20ml pours here). We found the distillery reserve selections to be more tasty than the standard whiskies - but I think you'd expect that. For about US$60, you can also do a blending event (RSVP b/c space is limited), that gives you the chance to blend 4 different whiskies to create a bespoke whisky that they will turn into a 300ml bottle for you (with your very own label). If you aren't into whisky - we learned a fun fact that Mr. Brown coffee is under the same umbrella of ownership so they have a cafe on the second floor with food and coffee. Yum.

Not sure why this place isn't 4+ stars! Besides the location being so far away from Taipei hahaha. I am not the biggest whiskey fan but I love Kavalan! The flavors are smooth and I know I'm drinking high quality whiskey! There is a factory you can walk through yourself at anytime. It's a nice experience to see how their factory operates (no guided tour due to sanitation issues which makes a lot of sense). There is a tasting room on the highest floor where you can buy flights and small ounces of the Kavalans you'd like to taste (but it is pricey per oz. ~$12 USD per drink). Mr. Brown's cafe is up there too. The gift shop is on the bottom floor at the front and they have such a variety you can buy as souvenirs (they have small servings sold here that is cheaper than the third floor). Also if you are a tourist, you can get your tax forms done here after purchasing. Highly recommend doing so!

My boyfriend is really into whiskey and since Kavalan whiskey is award-winning, we had to go check it out. We were visiting family in Yilan/Jiaoxi, and his relative wanted to take us here. Unfortunately, the tasting area was closed when we visited, but we were able to walk around the property for free. I'm not big on alcohol, but it was interesting to see the distillery and to learn about the process. If you're like me and not into alcohol, there's also a Mr. Brown Cafe located upstairs (with a rather extensive food and drink menu).

There's a tour in Chinese or English but you are totally welcomed to check it out by yourself. There's a bar area for beer, whiskey, and cocktails. There is an experimental "make your own" whiskey bar, tasting room (more options upstairs), cafe, tasting area (4 most popular options downstairs), and a gift shop that sells all their products including the other brands that they own.

Great whiskey tour. The guide was very knowledgeable and friendly. He answered all our questions and was very detailed. The whiskey blending experience was also very fun. Highly recommend visiting the distillery. Also the prices of the whiskey is significantly cheaper than at the airports and you can get tax exemption.

My boyfriend and I are into good whisky. A few years ago, I heard about Kavalan and, on our recent trip to Taiwan, we took an Uber from Taipei to Yilan with my mom (she said the taxi was too expensive and wanted to take the bus). Somehow, we convinced her to get in the Uber and got to Kavalan's distillery in about an hour. (Note: if you take a bus or the train, it will take at least double the travel time because of the bus transfer at Yilan Station. So I recommend taking a taxi to Kavalan from the bus or train station in Yilan. Also, because Kavalan is so big, the Uber driver dropped us off at the wrong spot AKA not the tasting area. And, after you finish your Kavalan adventure, you can simply ask the staff to call a local taxi for you because Uber does not reach Yilan County for pick ups yet.) We went on a Wednesday morning and it was great because we had the place almost to ourselves. The staff told us that Mondays and weekends are really busy, so we lucked out. We reserved a DIY blending and tasting experience ($1,500 NT) which gives you about 45 minutes to create your perfect combination of 3 different whiskeys for a personalized bottle. My boyfriend really enjoyed mixing it, I liked the design and packaging of the personalized bottle and case. After sipping some booze, we ordered some food at the Mr. Brown Cafe upstairs. The quality and price was pretty good. We ordered coffee, Italian chicken with rice and a Taiwanese-style peanut butter toast sandwich. We sat by the window and enjoyed it. After soaking up the whisky with food, we tried the self-guided distillery tour, the bottle shop, and looked around the grounds. My boyfriend bought a bottle of the award winning Solist whisky because it was on sale and it is so much more expensive or rare to find anywhere else. My mom said it was too expensive, but we made her happy by taking the train home instead of taking a taxi all the way back. Overall, if you are in Taiwan, you should visit Kavalan and do the blending and tasting experience if you are into that sort of thing. Otherwise, save your money on the experience and spend it on one of the higher end bottles of whisky.

Kavalan Distillery might not be worth a special trip even if you are a Whiskey lover. The set up seems to be nice. But everything felt like really chaotic and confusing. The "free" tasting though free, you really have to go through the whole process of lining up, trying to get a seat and listen to some speech (which was drowned out by all the noises) in order to have a sip of one of the whiskey. If you here to buy some whiskey, then just go visit the store. I like the little test tube versions of the whiskey. Great as keepsakes or souvenir for your whiskey loving friends.

If you're a whisky drinker, then you may want to make a visit over here if you are in the area and have time. From Taipei, we hopped on one of the shuttle buses that would get us to Yilan Transfer Station (which took around 45 minutes), and then we had to take one of the local buses (which did take the Easy Pass) to Kavalan Distillery. There are several buildings around here, and I'm guessing not too many people come here by local bus; I saw either large tour buses coming in through the entrance gates or cars. We actually got there fairly early in the day, and there was a Japanese business tour group there, watching one of the short films in the main entrance building's theatre. You can actually do a self-tour of the buildings, but keep in mind that some areas are restricted. Otherwise, if you would like a guided tour, it'd be best to make those reservations online. I think they normally do the guided tours for 20+ people, and they have different languages available. I did like that the information placards did have some English, so hubby and I was able to get around okay. Most were in Chinese, so there was a bit lost in translation. While it is whisky, I did see families with little kids running around. There really isn't much for kids to do other than walk around with their parents, but there are inked stamps at some of the buildings that you can press onto a small booklet as a cute souvenir. There were also smashed pennies available at the barrel room/lobby room, and you can take a selfie with Mr. Coffee and some of his friends. There is technically a "Mr. Coffee" cafe on the second floor where you can grab some pastries/desserts/cakes and coffee. Beware that for the Kavalan coffee menu item, it does have alcohol; it's pretty strong but it shouldn't get you drunk. Though, alcohol + coffee would just make you drunk quicker, sooo...just be mindful of what you're ingesting. There are tastings available at specific times during the day, and there are also an area (near the cafe, actually) where you can create your own custom tastings. Otherwise, the gift shop on the first floor has all of their whiskies available for purchase, as well as glassware, treats, and their frozen shrimp. Admission is free to view the buildings. I particularly loved the barrel room and smelling that old aged whisky barrel smell. Freakin' amazing fragrance. We may come back again, especially since two of the buildings we couldn't get into; they were locked during our visit.

My favorite brand of whisky. I finally got a chance to go to the distillery during my visit. The distillery is about a 40 minute drive from Taipei. The place is huge so bring your phone and capture everything on Snap Chat! They offer tastings pretty often. We got there at 2pm and the tasting just started so we sampled one of the many Single Malt they offered. The tasting room also has lots of other different types of whisky they make - however you can only smell them. Once the guide finishes up explaining everything about the distillery, the whisky and all, you are free to go to the shop and go crazy. I was like a kid in a candy store. For y'all crazy whisky people, you can also do a walking tour of the facility.

Did a private tour when we arrived at Kavalan - watched a short video, toured the distillery, got to try Mr. Black Coffee and the whiskey, and then got to buy some (or a lot) of bottles to bring back. Pro-tip: there are certain bottles that are only sold at the distillery, so get those!

Great value if you like whiskey. TL;DR - do the whiskey DIY blending to make your own and to feel like a scientist. Also, smell your whiskey at the gift shop before doing a tasting, but make sure to try Vinho as it's award winning and not sold anymore :) Disclaimer - it is far from Taipei and it's a little hard if you don't speak Mandarin/Taiwanese, but still doable. There are 2 buildings, the first one is one you can walk and do a self guided tour of there are no people. The signs are in Chinese and in English, so it's great to see. The second building has a Mr Brown cafe type of deal on the second floor with food which was meh as well as the Kavalan history speech as well tasting/mixing areas. This building also has a gift shop for all the whiskeys and coffees as well as other goodies. Basically you buy your mixing aka DIY and/or tasting on the first floor of the second building at the gift shop and bring it upstairs per the time they tell you. Make sure to smell your whiskeys in the gift shop to pick your 4 choices for the tasting later and note them on the sheet provided. Mixing was super fun and you get up to 6 tries to find your perfect blend. What you get with mixing: special bottle with box as well as personalized label and tag you decorate yourself. Because of the location, it's quite far to walk back to the city. If you ask the gift shop people, they will call a taxi for you and let you know when it will arrive as well as grab you.

It's a bit disorganized. The parent company's campus is huge and we actually went to the wrong building first. Had to get back in the car and drive to the other end of the campus for the distillery. Inside the Kavalan building, there is nobody to greet you so you sorta just wander around. Here's some logistics that may help: - There's a free tasting at scheduled times in the back left quadrant of the building and the tasting is in Mandarin. - To purchase a tasting flight, you can pay at the gift shop for your admissions. They'll tell you the times and you'll have to head upstairs for your tasting. The tasting room is located in the cafe area. - The cafe upstairs is expansive. Like way huge. The food is surprisingly not bad. - Take a self guided tour of the distillery to smell some grains and see some distillation columns. There are descriptions in English. Walk across the street to another building to start the tour. For how far away Kavalan is from Taipei, unless you're a die-hard whiskey fan, I don't think it is worth to trip to Yilan just for Kavalan.

A couple things need to be noted before anything else. 噶瑪蘭, or Kavalan, is very important in that it's both internationally renowned as well as an actual Taiwanese company. It's why my family was so eager to visit, even though nobody in my family DRINKS WHISKEY (and we had three kids in the group who couldn't legally drink). Hence, I'm establishing now that the three-star, A-Ok rating I'm giving isn't a reflection of Kavalan so much as it is a reflection that a group of ten tourists that aren't really interested in the whiskey itself had an okay experience. After Taiwan became part of the World Trade Organization (another thing Taiwanese people are quite proud of, as it had to be carefully done in order to get around the One-China Policy), King Car Conglomerate (a group that specialized in beverages) was determined to create a Taiwanese whiskey and founded Kavalan. As a Taiwan-based company, they chose a name that emphasized their Taiwanese identity as it actually reflects their location in Yilan County, where the Taiwanese 噶瑪蘭族 (Kavalan) indigenous people originally lived. Since then, they've developed a number of different kinds of whiskeys that have won multiple awards and international recognization and is acknowledged as a Taiwanese brand that is on par with (or even better than) its Western counterparts. As such, they're a source of great pride. And that's why, during our Taiwan visit, when the parents decided we should go on a tour through Yilan as a family, this is one of the stops the 10 of us in our rented van made. They have multiple buildings, and we were dropped off at was the King Car building rather than the distillery itself. We waited there for the tour to start and I got distracted by a gallery off to the side. Pictures weren't allowed, but this was actually my favorite spot. Apparently, this was King Car's art exhibition featuring local painters' renditions of Taiwan's landscapes and landmarks. They were beautiful and we were excited that we recognized some spots and inspired to visit other spots we'd never seen before. After that, we were guided to the auditorium in the back to watch a video introducing the distillery and their process. It was a nice place that could seat over 100 people (but we were the only ones there) where the backdrop of the stage is actually windows out into natural, tropical greenery. I thought that was definitely a nice touch. Afterward, we walked across their campus (which was quite pretty) to the one you see in most of the pictures with the casks of whiskey and their gift shop. We tried out their different products, listened to their tour guide's commentary, and went through their gift shop afterward. They have a separate tour through their actual distillery, but none of us were that interested, so we ended it there. Maybe it's because we came at a time of the year where nobody else is on vacation and we were the only people in the tour, but the whole place felt abandoned. The initial entrance into the building where they have the whiskey tasting was half blocked by a delivery truck (with no driver) that had pulled up, so we had to scoot around it to get in. There were stands and such that were closed and we literally didn't see anybody besides the lady at the King Car's front desk and our tour guide until we got to the gift shop. It felt like a ghost town and most visitors seemed to have skipped the tour to go right to buying products. Seeing as King Car is a group that has been dealing with beverages for a few decades, their direction to whiskey back then wasn't surprising. Their gift shop is basically a very large whiskey store where you can buy luxurious whiskey in nice packaging for yourself or as a gift. I've heard their bottles are given as formal presents for special locations or during business transactions, and I believe it. Their award-winning malts having certificates verifying their pedigree. We ended up buying A LOT of the award-winning malts, and they gave us a bunch of small bottles (think hotel mini-fridge) of whiskey for free. But if you're looking for a more immediate beverage after a warm day, they also sell their other products in the same store such as sodas, yogurt drinks, and coffee. Overall, a nice place to visit if you're in the area and enjoy whiskey, or even a good place to stop by and pick up some pricier souvenirs to show off, give to someone important, or give to that person in your life that's a whiskey enthusiast. I would recommend browsing the types of tours they have to select the experience you really want based on your interest. Otherwise, it's a pleasant spot to pass through.

Considering how far Kavalan is from Taipei and really any big city - I'm not sure the experience was worth it, BUT we are glad we did it once. The distillery is HUGE and there are no guided tours. We were staying in Taipei for vacation and rather than try to navigate multiple busses and who knows how long it would have taken, we hired a driver to take us to Kavalan for the day - cost for a small vehicle to fit 4 people and driver was around $200USD - he also drove us to a nice lunch location (which i had an RSVP for) and a night market before taking us back to Taipei - about a 10 hour day in full. The cost was likely similar to a taxi, but we booked in advance and it was guaranteed. Overall I think the distillery could be a little overwhelming. The tour area is in a different building than the store, tasting and coffee restaurant, but not far, a short 30 second to 1 minute walk. The self-guided tour is nothing to be too excited for. There's a small room with information on the walls and some minimal displays, then basically a walk down a couple of glass hallways to look at the barrel/aging storage, the tanks, etc... - Assuming you spend the majority of the time in the initial room reading everything, the self guided tour can be as long as you want or as short as a couple of minutes. Now to the big main building - my husband is a self-proclaimed scotch aficionado so we could not avoid coming to Kavalan. You walk in and immediately to the left is a large store where you can purchase anything and everything Kavalan (alcohol and also Kavalan branded glasses). Past this is an open area, where not sure the purpose, but people were taking selfies. Then you go upstairs for the coffee house and there are 2 different areas one for tasting and one for make your own Kavalan creation. Neither are free and neither are cheap. The tastings cost around $14USD for 4 small tastings, but they have 20+ offerings, SO, we did 2 tastings to be able to try more. We then went across the floor to a different room to do a make your own concoction. This cost $50USD per person for a 350ml bottle to take home. The experience isn't exactly involved with Kavalan, you basically DIY. So they bring you 3 small beakers full of 3 different Kavalan base liquors - and a small glass with measurements. You basically get to use up to all your 3 beakers to mix and figure out the flavor you want - no one helps you with this, you basically sit and do it yourself. Hubby enjoyed this as he was just playing around and then, when it comes time to bottle into the 350ml, they will take your proportions of each beaker of the mix you liked, provide you enough of each beaker and then it's your responsibility to pour into the bottle. There is nothing the Kavalan employee does - other than puts a sticker on it to seal it and lays it in a souvenir box. It was... uneventful to say the leat. Lastly, we ended up in need of purchasing some Kavalan, within the allowable limit to bring back to the US, and visited their store. The prices, which they verified on site, are no different from what you find in any store on the island. No discount. BUT we did find that the bottles at Kavalan all had varying alcohol content - so it could be the Soloist Vinho Barrique Cask, and each bottle on the shelf could vary slightly from an alcohol content, we thought this was cool. Especially since each bottle had a souvenir leather container and the different alcohol contents were stamped on these containers. We purchased 2 full bottles (they also have small tasting size bottles as well) and 2 branded glasses - neither of which we could find in the US (we made sure to check to buy Taiwan exclusives) including the World's Best in the World bottle. The only benefit of buying at Kavalan versus any liquor store in Taiwan, is that we did get freebies for buying "so much" - we ended up getting 1 large bottle of some liquor that was on clearance (we gave it to our driver as a gift) and 3 small tasting bottles - one was the same as a bottle we bought and 2 were different - so hubby was able to drink these while still saving his new big bottles. We are glad we visited, but no need to go back a second time.

my first experience with kavalan whisky was at a friend's place watching the rugby world cup finals 2015. our kind host, with exquisite taste, is an avid all blacks supporter and when they claimed the world cup trophy, our drinking palates were happy beneficiaries! and boy were they happy. just like the japanese have their yamazaki, the taiwanese have their kavalan! and just like the award winning yamazaki 18, the award winning kavalan solist is also out of stock as insatiable worldwide demand outstrips limited supply! so coincidentally, i was about to visit taiwan for a short holdiay and immediately added this free whisky tour to my itinerary. getting here is best by car or taxi. there is a bus option but it will entail much more walking but more importantly precious time wasted. we booked a taxi for NT4500, travelled in comfort, made a slight sightseeing detour and arrived just after 10am, the start time for our online booked tour. here is where we got a bit lost, not sure where to go. their staff were not very helpful but we finally got to the first stop which was at a dfiferent building from the distillery proper and a long walk away. thank goodness we had our taxi and were painlessly transported there. A warm welcoming poster, with the names of all those who have booked the tour, greeted us. but again the staff here was less than helpful and only spoke mandarin. we ended up skipping the first stop as it was only an introduction video presentation to kavalan whisky. back into our taxi and back to the distillery we went. this is stop 2. as soon as you enter, you will be perfumed with the strong, sweet, single malt fragrance the permeates the air! an experienced mandarin speaking guide(english information placards are available for the non-native speakers) will then provide a greater insight into the whisky making process and why kavalan is different from your traditional, old school distilleries. because of their climate, it does not make sense for them to mature their spirits like others do. mind you, they are only 7 years old but taste tests have proven that they can achieve a matured taste beyond its age. and thus their strategy is to compete purely on taste and not age. their vertical standing casks storage system, born out of earthquake prevention needs, also allows them to stack more casks, higher in a smaller area. stop 3 is whisky tasting, just one glass, served neat with tasting notes. i guess for those with time to kill, you can come back for more tasting at the regularly scheduled interval? stop 4 is whisky and paraphernalia shopping! and because we had a taxi waiting for us, we could buy much more than if we had taken a bus. from interesting test tubes packaging for a sampling of all their whisky, unique scottish crafted whisky glasses to whisky ice cube makers, something for everyone. yes, you will not leave empty handed. but if you do, can buy me some?:)

After my friend said that Kavalan won the world best whisky of 2015 and 2016, we had to make a stop. The drive is about 40-50 minutes away from Taipei. You go through one of the longest tunnels in the world. The distillery is very clean, organized and beautiful. My friend took me on a quick tour of the processing and we shopped the gift shop. On the other side of the gift shop is a whiskey tasting area. They run every 30 minutes, but we did not see anyone over there. In a time constraint, we didn't wait around to ask. Unfortunately they were sold out of their 2015 Solist. They had the mini bottle which you had to buy as a combo, but I did not want the other whiskeys. It is too popular so I ended up buying the 2016 Amontillado. An investment for the future! At check out, they gave us a small bottle of other whiskeys and a free Mr. Coffee!

I really wanted to like Kavalan distillery, but they just couldn't seem to make it a good whisky experience. They had a lot of the right pieces: great whisky, nice scenery, and a detailed tour taking you through the distillery, but fell horribly short on service and user experience. 1. We tried the sample tasting that was complementary. The acoustics in the room were quite poor and the announcer seemed to rush through her script. Even as a Mandarin speaker I felt lost on numerous occasions. 2. After the initial taste, we roamed the gift shop and opted to try the four tastings for (400 NT). As someone who appreciates Kavalan whisky, I was excited to try some of their reserve stuff. After finding the tasting room on the second floor, we waited for the posted tasting time (that was every 30min). At the half hour, no one was in sight, so we went downstairs to inquire about the tasting. We were told that the employee in charge of it was finishing up something downstairs and would be right back when we went up. A surly girl comes in, barely acknowledges us, and grabs our tasting sheet with a huff. She seemed to perk up a bit when it was time to explain the various whiskys we were about to try and then proceeded to go to the bar and get lost in her phone. She gave off the vibe of "don't ask me any further questions." 3. After a couple of hours of exploring the grounds, we were ready to leave. It had been a bit of a trek out here from Taipei, requiring us to take a bus for an hour to Yilan and then another taxi for the final leg. All this seemed worth it on the onset to explore and immerse ourselves in the amazingness of Taiwanese whisky. Since we needed a taxi to get us back to the bus transfer station, we asked the ladies at the front desk to call one for us. They happily obliged and then told us it'd be about 25 min. It wasn't great, but we really had no other option. 25 min came and went, no car in sight. As 5 o'clock approached, they started cleaning up, not one bit of attention was paid to us. We shuffled outside and waited on the steps. Finally, it became apparent the taxi wasn't coming. Unfortunately, the entire staff at the convention center all had rushed off and left us to fend for ourselves. Luckily, the guard at the front gate was able to call us a taxi. So after an hour we were finally off for our return to Taipei. All in all, great whisky, horrible customer service and little attention paid to their patrons. It's a bit of a journey to Yilan, so it's probably best to just enjoy it in the comforts of your own home.

While on holiday (for a wedding, actually) in Taiwan we went to visit this distillery. I don't have much to compare it to as I'd never been in a whisky distillery before but it was pretty cool. Our guide was helpful, and the written explanations in English pretty straightforward. The only puzzling part was the video at the beginning - it was more about the company's other activities than whisky so a bit disappointing. During the visit you learn a lot about how Kavalan came to be, how it's made, what they import and what they make themselves... It's very interesting as it's a very young brand (2006) and it has quite an unusual story! Plus the visit is actually free... At the end of the visit you can smell all the whiskies and taste some of them as well, which is great. You can make your own little box with small bottles of whisky, very handy if you want to try lots of them and still get through customs on the way back haha! Overall we were quite happy to be there. The drive from Taipei was not too long, and on the way back we stopped for a few visits. The area is quite nice :)

This is such a lovely place to go with your friends or family members. If you have younger children, they can still walk around the factory and enjoy the malt, non-alcoholic beverages available at the factory. Because the same company which owns the King Car Whisky Distillery owns the Mr. Coffee franchises, a bottled water factory, and an orchid garden, those facilities are also open to the public for viewing. In the distillery, you can also attend free whiskey tastings every 15-20 minutes or so, depending on the season and how many workers they have available.

Took a 30 minutes taxi ride from Jaozi Royal Hotel to here. It cost $450NT but it is worth for the trip.

Kavalan Distillery is famous for producing world renowned whisky.With many of their expressions gaining international acclaim, the profile being powerful and bold cask strength whiskies aged in sherry casks. The size of the operation was impressive with a number of stills in operation and large barrel storage facilities, we did a self guided tour. But you can also arrange guided tours and blend your own whiskies at a price of $1500 TWD (for the blending).We then went to sample some of the finished product, everyone is entitled to one tasting.There is also the opportunity to sample their core whisky bottled at 40% alcohol, a floral sweet whisky, similar to the Japanese expressions. For a fee of TWD300 roughly AUD25, you can sample the whisky that has gained Kavalan notoriety, you get to pick 4 whiskies including a number of expressions that will explode with flavour and send your tastebuds into overdrive. We sample the award winning Vinho Barrique, Manzanillo, PX and moscatel. The Manzanillo cask a standout in this tasting.Following this, we headed to the shop to purchase some of their fine product. The distillery is easily accessible from Yilan on the 12 bus and costs TWD20 just under AUD$1 for the bus ride.

Made a day trip from Taipei just to see it. The tour group was only me so it was nice and personal. You watch a film about the whole King Car group which was lame, I would have preferred a film about the actual history of the whiskey. The guide was great and well researched about their brand of whiskey. Would recommend the tour just for 1 free tasting at the end.- be aware the tour starts at the convention center-a bit of a walk from the distillery! The prices at the shop are actually more expensive then Carrefour so beware! 200-300NTD cheaper at your local hyper market! But they will do all the VAT refund paperwork so bring your passport. I tried to save money by taking the public transmit-no reason for taxi unless you are short on time! 40 NTD round trip only!

A quick tour before getting sloshed... If you like/love Whiskey... This tour & tasting is for you! Plus, you can get some Mr. Coffee too! Don't forget to buy some before you leave!

My boyfriend and I are huge fans of their whiskey, so when in Taiwan, we decided to day trip out to Kavalan. We did a self-guided tour which was a disappointment. You look at everything from the top floor behind glass and there isn't a whole lot to look at. The guided tours may be better. The free whiskey tasting is quick and there are no other language options. It's free, so I couldn't complain. The paid tasting upstairs was a lot nicer and laid back. I would recommend doing that after. If you go, I would recommend trying the guided tour instead of self-guided tour and doing the paid tasting too.

Was in Yilan for business trip and my buddy dragged me here for some Taiwan whiskey. Kavalan is a Taiwan distillery and made it internationally. Minus one star for cheap on whiskey in whiskey school lol

King Car is about an hour away from Taipei so it's easily doable for a day visit. The grounds are beautiful and one shouldn't be surprised by the awards they are winning. I only come here to buy the whiskey and never actually did the official tour. Make sure to ask what the specials are because they usually offer free coffee or sport drinks once you buy over a certain amount. One time I went a little overboard and had to ask them to ship about 80 bottles of sport drinks back to Taipei.

This was a little over an hour bus ride from central Taipei near Yilan. Dad the bro and hubster are really into whiskey so we decided to head there for a date trip. This was a lovely little distillery that's gained some recognition because kavalan got an award for best whiskey recently. It was nice to go taste the whiskey walk the grounds and check out how whiskey is made. They did a good job with showing how whiskey is made. We were able to buy a bunch of the different types of whiskey including some reserve bottles. We even had lunch the at their cafeteria and food was shockingly pretty decent! Gotta give it to the Taiwanese. Their passion reflects in the things they do! Keep it coming!!!

if you're into whiskey, this is pretty good. the distillery is located on beautiful grounds with lots of large native orchids, kinda like a winery back in the US. the free tour is a ok only because it's free - it's self guided and comes with a small tasting. my husband and i thought the tasting in one of the many tasting rooms in taipei was better. but, the distillery also offers a paid tasting of many of their other whiskeys, as well as an interesting DIY blending to make your own (also paid, takes about an hour). we didn't do the blend it yourself because our toddler would not possibly let us sit that long. the gift shop sells all the same whiskeys that the tasting rooms in taipei do - the larger offerings, as well as the many 50ml tasters. the 50ml tasters make good gifts for back home since in the US, we can generally only get the 1000ml single malt whiskey from ranch 99 for double the price. mr. brown's coffee is also on the same location; the gift shop sells both. price of course are the same as the tasting rooms in taipei. my husband got a membership, which also gives you a free 50ml gift on the month of your birthday - need a local address and phone number to sign up. note, as mentioned in other reviews the distillery is about 45 min from taipei and might be hard to navigate if you don't speak or read mandarin. we went bc we were spending an overnight trip in yilan county to visit family. another note - fyi the duty free at the airport sells kavalan whiskey, larger bottles (~1000ml) but not the smaller 50ml-200ml sizes and not as much variety. the prices are almost 30% less bc it's duty free.

I've been a fan of Kavalan for years and was excited to check it out with my family. The whiskey is amazing and deserving of all the accolades. Our experience at the distillery, on the other hand, was absolutely terrible. The staff was unhelpful and rude, particularly our private tasting lead, who was gruff and sullen. We also had a strange experience in the convention center. Though the staff there helped us call a taxi, after 15 minutes of us sitting there, they started packing up and then shut the lights on us while we were mere feet away from them. We're fine with them wanting to leave if it's closing time, but not letting people know you are closing and just shutting all the lights on them while you walk out the door is very strange and quite rude. The whole experience was soured by the sense that these people hated their work. This is not how you showcase world-class whiskey. What a wasted opportunity.

Nice atmosphere. This is the type of place you go when you want to take pictures of yourself in front of various things. Photos in front of stills, barrels, even a castle shaped building. The tasting wasn't much to speak of. They give you a tiny portion and only let you smell the rest, then send you straight in to the store. We bought a couple of the smaller bottles, I guess we'll try them when we get back to the hotel. There's a really large cafeteria up stairs, the best move is probably to buy smaller bottles taste as a group, then go buy the ones you like.