Amrut Whisky – Peated Indian Single Malt Whisky

It is early evening on Tuesday 21st July 2009 the Whisky Boys have congregated round at Jim’s hoose, Jim has brought to the table a bottle of Amrut Whisky, and Dougie has brought round a bottle of 12 year old Glenkinchie. Well this looks as if this could be a very interesting night with two very different malts.  So with glasses and water at the ready lets dive straight in.

After a little chat, it was decided to open the bottle of Amrut first and keep the Edinburgh Malt for our second tasting of the the evening.

India’s largest distillery, Amrut is based in Bangalore. The state of Karnataka is where this distillery is located and was founded in 1948 by Radhakrishna Jagdale who initially produced liqueurs.

Amrut so far is the only Indian distillery with grand aspirations of conquering the European market. Their first single malt only became available at the tail end of 2004 and this one was only matured for only 3/4 years, and is now quite widely available in many European countries.

Amrut has five core Whiskies :-

Amrut Indian Single Malt Whisky 40% Alc/vol

Amrut Peated Indian Single Malt Whisky 46% Alc/vol. Aged in oak barrels

Amrut Fusion Single Malt Whisky

Amrut Indian Single Malt Whisky Cask Strength 61.9% Alc/vol.

Amrut Peated Indian Single Malt Whisky Cask Strength 62.78% Alc/vol

These Whiskies are Imported and Distributed by

Amrut Distilleries Ltd.
(N.R. Jagdale Group)
The Grainger Suite, Dobson House, Newcasle-Upon-Tyne, Tyne and Wear, NE3 3PF

telephone 0191 2336316

E-mail ashok@amrutdistilleries.com — info@amrutdistilleries.com

visit them at
www.amrutdistilleries.com or www.amrutwhisky.com

That’s the formalities over with lets have a tasting.

Our choice of Amrut is :-

Amrut Peated Indian Single Malt Whisky, Aged in Oak Barrels. 46% Alc/vol. (no age given)

Jim was given the task of taking the bottle out of it’s impressive round tin container, which also contained some information on the range of Whiskies that Amrut produce.

Now it went a little wrong at this point, when Jim attempted to extract the cork form the bottle, he was left holding the plastic top and the rest of the cork remained in the bottle, but with the help of a wine corkscrew we were all back in business.

So the tasting continues. (although Jim and Dougie were sure that this would not be to the liking of Nicola, as she is not too keen on any peated Whiskies)

The tasting

Colour…Pale Gold.

 

Dougie’s tasting

Nose…Peat and citrus together with dried fruit, but with the addition of water some vanilla shows through.

Taste…Vanilla and sweet spices with and oaky dryness.

Finish…Medium length leaving a peaty/pipe tobacco ending.

 

Jim’s tasting

Nose…Slightly medicinal, peat and woody oak with a sweet fruitiness after the addition of h2o.

Taste…Sweet spice and a tingle throughout the mouth – oak and malt coming in, a complex wee dram.

Finish…Medium finish, woody oak and still the a tingle is there, smoke/peat linger on.
 
Nicola’s tasting

Nose…Peat, not sure if I am going to like this one

Taste…As I thought too smokey and peaty for me, give me a nice Speyside.

Finish…Did not taste enough to comment on the finish, sorry guys.

 

Well this is our first journey into Asia for a tasting and Jim and Dougie did not think it was too bad. As Irish Whiskey has a distinct sweetness to it, which we find hard to pinpoint on our nose and taste buds. This Indian has an underlying nose and taste that is also had to pinpoint, but it is certainly not the same as is in the Irish.

Well how did we rate it, not too bad given the choice, the Whisky Boys would still choose Scotch and Irish over this Indian Malt.

At approx £30.00 for our bottle (purchased at the Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh this year) it is a bit pricey, to get further into this market and get into supermarkets and more high street stores, maybe the price should be adjusted downwards a bit.

We are glad to have bought and tasted this malt, it shows that there is competition out there in this market, but Amrut being a good dram, has still a bit to go to really compete with Scotch.

Please, if you get the chance buy a bottle, taste it and let us know your thoughts and tasting results, we shall be glad to display them on our site.