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Release Notes
This high-strength Amrut Fusion gets its name from the fact that it uses two barleys: Indian and Scottish - with the latter being peated for good measure. A really excellent mouthfeel and palate combining oak, smoke, dark fruit, mocha and high-cocoa dark chocolate. Delicious stuff. Batch One was a hugely successful award-winner, this is a new batch which we think is just as good or better. Whisky Bible 2010: Indian Whisky of the Year; Third Finest Whisky in the World; 97 Points
The Whisky Exchange
3rd Party Tasting Notes
Colour: gold.
Nose (neat): certainly less emphatic than the Double Cask, maybe I should have put this one before the latter despite the higher strength. A little grassier, leafier and grainier, more on tea and various infusions. I do not get much peat I must say.
Nose (with water): opens up and gets much fruitier. Pineapple jelly and blood oranges, vanilla.
Mouth (neat): plays its game much better than on the nose after the stunning Double Cask. Tinned apricots and pineapples with quite some pepper, ginger and nutmeg plus notes of lemon squash that play with the tip of your tongue.
Mouth (with water): easy fruity, creamy, almost liqueur-ish. Apricot liqueur.
Finish: long, on the same flavours. Very small peppery and leathery notes in the aftertaste.
Comments: simply very good, but needs water on the nose. I think the 'Two Continents' that I tried last year was a little more to my liking.
Rating: 82 points.
Nose (neat): certainly less emphatic than the Double Cask, maybe I should have put this one before the latter despite the higher strength. A little grassier, leafier and grainier, more on tea and various infusions. I do not get much peat I must say.
Nose (with water): opens up and gets much fruitier. Pineapple jelly and blood oranges, vanilla.
Mouth (neat): plays its game much better than on the nose after the stunning Double Cask. Tinned apricots and pineapples with quite some pepper, ginger and nutmeg plus notes of lemon squash that play with the tip of your tongue.
Mouth (with water): easy fruity, creamy, almost liqueur-ish. Apricot liqueur.
Finish: long, on the same flavours. Very small peppery and leathery notes in the aftertaste.
Comments: simply very good, but needs water on the nose. I think the 'Two Continents' that I tried last year was a little more to my liking.
Rating: 82 points.
Whisky Fun
Nose: (24) heavy, thickly oaked and complex; some curious barley-sugar notes here shrouded in soft smoke. Big, but seductively gentle too...
Taste: (24) that smoke on the nose turns into warming, full blown peat, but it far from gets its own way as a vague sherry trifle note (curious, seeing how there are no sherry butts involved) - the custard presumably is oaky vanilla - hammers home that barley-fruitiness to make for a bit of a free-for-all; but for extra food measure the flavours develop into a really intense chocolate fudge middle which absolutely resonates through the palate;
Finish: (24) a slight struggle here as the mouthfeel gets a bit puffy here with the dry peat and oak; enough molassed sweetness to see the malt through to a satisfying end, though. Above all the spices, rather than lying down and accepting their fate, rise up and usher this extraordinary whisky to its exit;
Balance: (25) one of the most complex and intriguing new whiskies of the year that needs about two days and half a bottle to get even close to fathoming. Not exactly a textbook whisky, with a few edges grinding together like tectonic plates. And there is even an odd note like the fruit and a kind of furry, oaky buzz, which I have never seen before. But that is the point of whiskies like this: to be different, to offer a unique slant. But, ultimately, to entertain and delight. And here it ticks all boxes accordingly. To the extent that this has to be one of the great whiskies found anywhere in the world this year. And the fact it is Indian? Irrelevant: from distillation to maturation this is genius whisky, from whichever continent...
Rating: 97/100
Taste: (24) that smoke on the nose turns into warming, full blown peat, but it far from gets its own way as a vague sherry trifle note (curious, seeing how there are no sherry butts involved) - the custard presumably is oaky vanilla - hammers home that barley-fruitiness to make for a bit of a free-for-all; but for extra food measure the flavours develop into a really intense chocolate fudge middle which absolutely resonates through the palate;
Finish: (24) a slight struggle here as the mouthfeel gets a bit puffy here with the dry peat and oak; enough molassed sweetness to see the malt through to a satisfying end, though. Above all the spices, rather than lying down and accepting their fate, rise up and usher this extraordinary whisky to its exit;
Balance: (25) one of the most complex and intriguing new whiskies of the year that needs about two days and half a bottle to get even close to fathoming. Not exactly a textbook whisky, with a few edges grinding together like tectonic plates. And there is even an odd note like the fruit and a kind of furry, oaky buzz, which I have never seen before. But that is the point of whiskies like this: to be different, to offer a unique slant. But, ultimately, to entertain and delight. And here it ticks all boxes accordingly. To the extent that this has to be one of the great whiskies found anywhere in the world this year. And the fact it is Indian? Irrelevant: from distillation to maturation this is genius whisky, from whichever continent...
Rating: 97/100
Jim Murray, Whisky Bible 2010
The Distillery: Amrut
| Established: 1948 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: 36 Sampangi Tank Road, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560027, India |
| → website |
The history of Amrut Distilleries is as old as the history of independent India itself. Indeed, just as India itself, after six decades of notable progress, is now noted as among the global economic leaders, so too has Amrut Distilleries grown both in stature and in size. Among the earliest to enter the then arcane field of liquor making, Amrut Distilleries Limited began in 1948 under the name and style of Amrut Laboratories, with an initial investment of barely a few lakhs. The founder was the late Shri J.N. Radhakrishna, J.N.R as he is fondly called to this day. Much of this fascinating story was made possible by the resolve of successive generations of the Jagdale family to embrace value and to discount form for substance. Under the leadership of the founder, Amrut Distilleries made rapid strides to entrench itself as a significant, for many the preferred, supplier of Indian Made Liquor (IML) in the Defence Market. In its state of origin, Karnataka, too, Amrut Distilleries grew to be one of the dominant suppliers, especially in the old Mysore area. After the untimely demise of J.N. Radhakrishna Rao Jagdale in 1976, the mantle devolved on his son, Shri Neelakanta Rao, the present Chairman and Managing Director. Building on the solid foundations laid by his later father, his stewardship has seen Amrut Distilleries blossom into a multi-national brand respected as much for the superlative quality of its products as his campaign for transparent practices by the IML industry.
The Amrut distillery is situated in Bangalore "the garden city" of India. The distillery sits in a tropical locale 3000 ft above sea level with its water source being the Himalayan Mountains.
According to Indian Mythology, when Gods and Rakshasas - the demons - churned the oceans using the mountain Meru as churner, a golden pot sprang out containing the Elixir of Life. That was called the "Amrut" The great founders of our distillery aptly named it Amrut Distilleries
from AmrutDistilleries.com, The Internets
The Owner: N.R. Jagdale Group
| Established: 1948 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: #41/1, 72nd Cross, Rajajinagar 6th Block, Bangalore, 560 010, India |
| → website |
This company owns and operates Amrut Distilleries in India.
from The Internets