SPECIAL EDITION: Thank you Karma - Imbibing in Bali and Taipei
- David
- Jun 30
- 5 min read
Although I had thought I’d wrapped up this special blog series, I just couldn’t help myself. Obsessed with delivering for my fans, my OCD kicked in and I scoured Indonesia for 7 weeks dragging Ilene from hut to hut and exploring every beach bar on the 6,000 populated islands. All in order to find Indonesian produced alcohols. I’m proud to report… success!
In a remote corner of Indonesia, known only by a select few is Sanur, Bali. Here I discovered (much like Indiana Jones) a winery called Hatten Wines. After significant sleuthing, my research partner discovered an ancient (founded in 1994) Balinese religious site called a “tasting room”.
Here we were able to taste Balineses grown and produced wines and learned of the unique characteristics of Bali wine. Due to the extremely rich and fertile volcanic soil and the abundance of water they are able to have two harvests per year from the same vineyard.
Two harvests per year creates interesting characteristics in the wine and likely drives the wine makers crazy. The dry season has more sun and therefore the grapes have higher sugar levels resulting in sweeter wines. On the other hand, the rainy season grapes have lower sugar levels resulting in dryer more mild wines. I was blown away tasting the same “vintage” Syrah from the same vines as the dry and sweet wines had two entirely different taste profiles and the sweet Syrah was unlike any Syrah I’ve ever tasted.
We really enjoyed the Sweet Alexandria which was a white blend of a late harvest Muscat and Chenin Blanc and had an amazing tropical floral bouquet, but much more well balanced than the name indicates. It would be great on a hot summer day or with any Asian food.
We also liked the Pino de Bali, a sweet fortified white wine (similar to a white port) aged French oak for 5+ years. It has a floral nose and a smooth honey finish. We liked it so much we broke our “no buying to take home” rule and grabbed a couple bottles to share with some select fans this summer in Truckee!
Bali is also the source of Arak Bali which is a traditional Balinese alcohol distilled from fermented palm sap, coconut flower sap, or glutinous rice. Though Indonesia is a Muslim country, Bali is different as 87% of the island population is Hindu. Arak is a significant part of Balinese culture used in ceremonies and social gatherings and has been made in Bali since the 13th century.
Fortunately, we did not have to find Arak in an archaeological site since it was made legal in Bali in 2020 and designated as “culturally significant” aspect of the Balinese heritage in 2021. So while we did find it given as offerings to the gods in temples it was also easily found on cocktail menus in every hut or beach bar throughout Bali. What does arak taste like?
Coming in around 40% alcohol it has a good kick and tastes very similar to Vietnamese rice wine but perhaps a little smoother. Because it is strong and clear it’s often substituted for vodka or light rum in cocktails rather than served straight. That said, if you check out the pictures of Bali temple statues in Ilene’s post, many have smiles and I’m pretty sure it’s because of the Arak!
Taiwan
On our first night in Taipei we sat down at a restaurant and I notice a wall full of whiskeys… always a nice start to a meal. Then as we walked back to the hotel, we passed a whiskey shop filled with a bunch of high-end international whiskeys. As something like this is always eye-catching I stopped to ask if they had any locally produced Taiwanese whiskey. Turns out KaVaLan, a brand I’ve seen at home on shelves but never knew anything about, is a Taiwanese whiskey! And even better, there’s a tasting room down the street from our hotel. After being in Bali for so long, Karma is really looking after me!
As I walked into the KaVaLan showroom I was a bit overwhelmed and the pictures might explain why. They had every possible variation of single malt whisky I could imagine. From dry to sweet, smokey or not, aged in sherry barrels, port barrels, oak barrels, tropical notes, caramel notes, 12yr, and 15yr. The list goes on and on. So of course, I immediately looked into changing our flight home as I was going to need more time here, for sure! But, Ilene was set on getting back to her “tribe” (more on that later) and nixed that plan.
I settled for trying the KaVaLan Classic @ 40% alcohol and the KaVaLan Solist Vinho Barrique @ 57.8% alcohol. The Classic is what you would imagine from something called classic and holds up well against most entry level whiskies I’ve tried. It is a little floral on the nose, smooth finish, the box says “mango and citrus finish” but it didn’t come through for me. The Solist Vinho on the other hand had a strong chocolate and caramel nose and even though it had a higher % alcohol content, it might’ve drank a bit smoother than the classic. That said, these definitely did not have the smooth, subtlety of Japanese whiskies rather more the robust fullness of American whiskies.
The next night, arriving back in our hotel after a long, hot day of touring, we sat down at the club level lounge for a night cap. I happened to ask if they had any locally produced wines. Karma was looking after me again as it just so happened they did and I am introduced to Kaoliang. The internet says Kaoliang is a Taiwanese traditional, clear, strong spirit distilled from fermented sorghum often described as Baijiu-like. I’ve never had Baijiu, but I’m game to try Kaoliang… for science of course.
I’m poured a glass of Kinmen Kaoliang 58 on the rocks. Let me just say, this is not a “wine” as the 58 in its name stands for 58% alcohol and this bad-boy comes with a nickname, the “Platinum Dragon”, according to the internet. It’s also described as “clear as spring water, fragrant as orchids, and tasteful as sweet dew”.
My review. It’s definitely clear but the fragrance is not orchids as the term rubbing alcohol comes to mind. Worried this might cause blindness, I waded in with a small sip and was pleasantly surprised with a robust citrus and floral front and slight sweetness on the palette. It turned out to be quite good and I would equate it to a high alcohol content, sweet Korean Soju.
With that my dear fans, I will sign-off for the near future as we prepare to board a flight home to California. But don’t worry, since AI is now running the show the models and ratings have all been updated (see below). Also, I’ve received many requests to open source the model as a ChapGPT plugin and that is a possibility, but with the AI running the show critical decisions like this are out of my hands now.
Signing off (in order of the countries we visited)… Cheers! Serefe! Gesondheid! Skål! Živjeli! Salud! Saúde! Bessaha! Fi Sahtak! Rhumalhu dhey! Yum seng! Một, hai, ba, dô! Tham Keo! Choul mouy! Gān bēi! Kanpai! Geonbae! Bersulang! Gan-peh!
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