Spirit of Taiwan, where Spirit Means Distillate 蒸餾酒

choi

Chris Horton, Spirit of Taiwan; In the misty hills south of Taipei, a distillery is turning out award-winning malts — and catching the whisky world by surprise. FT Magazine (published by Financial Times on Saturdays), Nov 12, 2016.
https://www.ft.com/content/7cdd7be4-a6cf-11e6-8898-79a99e2a4de6

Note:
(a)
(i) "Yu Ting Lee 李玉鼎, CEO of Kavalan's parent company, the King Car Group 金車關係事業 [1979- ]. * * * in 2004, when Lee decided to pursue the dream of his father — King Car founder Tien-Tsai Lee 李添財 — to set up Taiwan's first whisky distillery [Kavalan Distillery 噶瑪蘭酒廠; named after a tribe]. * * * King Car, which Lee’s father founded in 1956"
(ii) "Kavalan blend master Ian Chang 張郁嵐"

(b) "At less than half the size of Scotland, mostly subtropical Taiwan has only a handful of suitable areas for whisky production."
(i) Scotland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland
(Area: Land 77,933 km2)
(ii) Taiwan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan
(Area: Total 36,193 km2)

In the world map, Scotland looks so big. So until today i did not know Taiwan is almost half as big.

(c) "Last year, at the blind-taste World Whiskies Awards (WWAs) [2007- ; based in Norwich (100 miles (160 km) north east from London), Norfolk] Kavalan's Solist Vinho Barrique [經典獨奏VINHO葡萄酒桶威士忌原酒] was named Best Single Malt Whisky. And this year, the WWAs selected Kavalan’s Solist Amontillado Sherry Single Cask Strength [經典獨奏Amontillado雪莉桶] as the Best Single Cask Single Malt Whisky."
(i) Kavalan uses "soloist" to denote "single-malt" -- ie, unblended.
(ii) Portuguese-English dictionary:
* vinho (n; etymology)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vinho
(iii) barrique (n; etymology)
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/barrique
(iv) Amontillado
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amontillado
(a variety of sherry [qv] wine; is named after the Montilla [qv] region of Spain)

(d) "Kavalan draws its water from a local spring [at western Yulan County 宜蘭縣員山鄉] that emanates from the meeting point of Taiwan's verdant Hsuehshan and Chungyang mountains — the country’s two largest ranges."
(i) Hsuehshan mountains  雪山山脈
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/雪山山脈
(map)
(ii) Chungyang mountains  中央山脈
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中央山脈(map)

(e) Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (TTL) 臺灣菸酒公司 "has also taken on single malt whisky at its distillery in Nantou, central Taiwan, which produces 'expressions' (varieties) under the brand name Omar [no Chinese name]."

(f) "MOD 摩得餐坊, the city's [Taipei's] oldest whisky-focused bar * * *