In a blind taste test organized as part of Scotland’s Burn’s Night festivities a Taiwanese Whisky shocked everyone by coming out as the clear winner over its Scottish and English rivals.

The contest took place in a hostelry north of Edinburgh and when the results were announced author and whisky connoisseur Charles MacLean exclaimed, “Oh my God, is this an April Fools?”

“It’s tropical fruits. Tropical fruit jam,” said Charles MacLean, who headed the jury panel.

The scores tallied up with Taiwan’s Kavalan receiving 27.5 points out of a possible 40, with the next place (Langs, a three-year-old Scottish premium blend) scoring only 22 points. The other competitors were Scotland’s King Robert (20 points), England’s St George (15.5 points), and Scotland’s Bruchladdich X4+3 (only 4.5 points out of the possible 40).

Kavalan comes from Taiwan’s first distillery, which was built by a firm from Banffshire, and uses Scottish malt in its production.

Now there’s big hopes for this Taiwanese young malt after the surprise Scottish win.

Executives at beverage maker King Car Food Industrial Co., which began to distill whisky just five years ago, were thrilled when their fruity-tasting Kavalan won a blind taste test in Leith, Scotland last month against three Scottish whiskies and one from England.

The results delighted executives at King.

The company’s distilleries are sited on a 32-hectare palm-rimmed compound in Ilan, 32 kilometres southeast of Taipei.

As a food manufacturer, when King Car decided to make whisky, the company was met with scepticism.

To keep its fine quality, King Car saves only 10 percent of the distilled malt – the so-called heart cut, as compared to many makers who keep 15 percent of the heart and leave out the foreshots and feints, technician Andy Chang explains.

Ilan’s average temperature of 30 degrees Celsius is much warmer than the 15 degrees of the Scottish highlands, which is believed to be ideal for whisky production.

The whisky maker has to convince consumers that its young malt is just as good as older whiskies produced in colder climate.

To do this, it makes the case that hotter weather shortens the maturation process.

King Car also has a number of natural advantages that could help it in the marketplace.

One is its distillery’s proximity to a large underground water reservoir that gathers water from clean springs from the nearby mountain ranges.

And then there is the question of experience: how do you compete with a tradition dating back hundreds of years?

King Car’s answer was to hire a British whisky consultant and send officials to Scotland to learn the elaborate distilling process.

They also bought equipment from renowned coppersmith and fabricator Forsyths in Rothes, Scotland.

Still, manager Ma acknowledges that the Scottish whisky making tradition cannot be learned overnight.

Using imported wood and yeast adds to production costs.

A bottle of Kavalan now sells for 2,100 New Taiwan dollars (US$65).

Taiwan, with a population of 23 million, consumed some 7 billion New Taiwan dollars (US$220 million) of whisky in 2008, according to government figures.

Most came from Scotland, with a smaller percentage from Japan.

The chief consultant of the whisky school in Taipei, Steven Lin, says the important thing for making good whisky is not trying to compete with Scottish whisky.

He hopes that in the future more Taiwanese companies will produce good quality whisky with unique Taiwanese flavours.

King Car began marketing Kavalan in Taiwan last year, but officials declined to reveal sales volumes.

The company says it can turn out 9 million bottles a year but is now running at 60 percent of capacity.

It says it hopes that growing acceptance for Kavalan both at home and abroad will allow it to raise that to 100 percent within five years.