Nantou Omar - Sherry Cask - Quarter Bottle

Nantou distillery was constructed in 1978 in the county of the same name in Taiwan, making brandy, rum and various fruit wines and liqueurs. The distillery is part of the state-owned Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor corporation (TTL), a group comprising two breweries and seven distilleries which had exclusive control over Taiwan’s tobacco and alcohol markets until the country joined the World Trade Organisation in 2002.

Nantou is currently equipped with two pairs of small pot stills and began producing whisky in 2009, releasing their first single malt whiskies in 2013. Nantou’s single malt is bottled without colouring or chill filtration and is sold as Yushan or Omar (from the Gaelic word òmar, meaning amber). As well as traditional bourbon and sherry casks, Nantou’s whisky is often matured or finished in casks that previously held some of the distillery's various fruit wines and liqueurs.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.