Amrut 2011 Single Cask 5-Year Port Pipe Peated
59% ABV - India
Nose: Opening with rich, jammed fruits, and a peated character. The red fruits lead with touches of peppermint, cherrywood, and chocolate in behind.
Taste: The fruit explosion is real with currants, plums, smoked cedar, and spices. Notes of chocolate-covered cherry and almonds. No big alcohol burn at its bottling strength.
Finish: Ending with moderate smoke, cooked fruits, and some oak to dry the palate. Fading wine-soaked wood, peppercorn, and an earthiness. A long lasting experience.
If you search for the meaning of the word "amrut", among the results you will see it described as a Sanskrit word which literally means "immortality" or that it can be translated as "nectar of life" or "drink of the gods". All right, then, if we keep that in mind, we are off to a good start with this whisky!
Amrut uses 6-row barley grown in India, except for its peated expressions (like this one) that are sourced from Baird’s Malting in Scotland. The distillation and maturation in such a hot climate like Bengaluru, India sees up to 10% evaporation per year (Scotland being just 2-3%). Whiskies like Amrut can be a fraction of the age of Scotch and taste just as rich and flavourful.
Now, regarding this Amrut Single Cask, I’ve had pours from this bottle a few times, just breaking past 75% remaining now, but before I wrote this review it had been weeks since I last tasted it. My first impression is the same: It is a fruit explosion. Delicious! Rich, jammed fruits. Excellent smoke flavour on top. Maybe get a backup.
This particular bottle is a special one for me. As my whisky passion (obsession?) increased, the number of times that I would buy a bottle for a special occasion decreased. Countless times I have bought a bottle saying, "I’ll open this on a special occasion!", and then I never actually end up opening it… This bottle was purchased the day my wife and I moved into our new home, in a city that neither of us grew up in. We sat on the porch in the late summer light enjoying this… and forgetting about the nightmare of boxes and dirty surfaces inside.
I love taking this Amrut out now and letting its aromas take me back.
Details: Port Pipe #2712. Peated Barley. Date of Filling: January 2011, Date of Bottling: February 2016. One of 660 Bottles. Exclusively Bottled for Canada.
Tasted 19 November 2020. (Posted 25 November 2020.)
