Amrut Cask Strength
Indian Single Malt Official Bottling | 61.8% ABV
Score: 6/10
Good stuff.
TL;DR
Lots of Indian malt characters; but needs water to access them
Whisky Tastes Better With Friends
In a mere few years since I took a deep dive into whisky, I’ve met quite a few people whom I’m now lucky to be able to call friends. Most of those have been through enjoying the liquid at festivals, in bars or at my local whisky club. But, for a few, the circumstances were different. I met them at work.
Enter Damian. Damian joined a famous French whisky retailer-cum-distributor as a sales rep back in 2021 (I think), and he was assigned to my district. He had big shoes to fill, as the previous rep for this sector had become quite a local figure among all spirit retailers and we knew she was dependable and very professional. So expectations were high when the replacement was announced, yet Damian managed to exceed them.
We quickly bonded because we’re both passionate about whisky, but also wine and rum, and everything that tastes good, let’s face it. Quite tough to stay thin when you’re of such disposition and live in France. Damian always fared better in this aspect.
It started as a cordial work relation; he‘d let me have a few bottles of allocated stuff for the shop and, in return, I would save a few bottles for him. Then we began occasionally hanging out outside of work. One day, he invited me and another of his pals to have a little blind tasting at his place. To this day, this is the story I tell Mrs Fife when she says I have too many bottles.
Picture this: he lives in a two-bedroom apartment of decent size in Paris. Well, a ‘decent size’ in Paris translates to very small everywhere else. He lives with his girlfriend and sells whisky on behalf of his French whisky employer. That implies that he sometimes can keep the opened bottles after having given a few samples to his clients. He had bottles everywhere. The hallway? Yeah there were bottles there. The dressing room? Bottles. Kitchen? Bottles. The bathroom? Yup, more bottles. He had virtually the entire company catalog at his helm, ready to be sampled. A true treasure trove.
Damian is a good friend to have, as he also invited me to two weekends organised by La Maison. We spent a day at Christian Drouin in Normandie, discovering the cider and Calvados production, and tasting some of the oldest Calvados in existence - straight from the cask. Then a few months later we spent two full days at Maison Ferrand in Cognac, home to the Cognac of the same name and also the Citadelle gin and Planteray (then Plantation) rum brands. Quite a magical stay as well, sleeping metres away from the distillery.
I told Damian to bring a few samples for after dinner, and he understood the assignment. About 15-20 sample bottles of the good stuff were shared - not just between the two of us! - over the course of a few hours, around an early summer campfire. That was of course after having tried rums straight from the cask accompanied by Alexandre Gabriel himself, the Maison Ferrand big boss. A very interesting and captivating man, on top of being really nice.
Earlier this year, Damian came to the shop to get me to taste a few new things and we then had lunch nearby. I told him about my potential plans and dreams to move to Scotland, and in turn, he told me he was preparing to move to Singapore. He wanted a change of air, and his employer agreed to transfer his contract to the Singapore office.
A few weeks before the move, we settled on a date for lunch, as I had kept a bottle for him at the shop. He told me he was going to bring me a case of open bottles from his collection, as he didn’t exactly have the energy to transfer his entire collection to South-East Asia.
Now, if you don’t know, a case is six bottles. So I thanked him for the gesture, and expected he was going to bring… six bottles. He brought a case alright. A big one though, and he rammed enough bottles in it to make it practically too dangerous to move around. I wish I had taken a picture. There were bottles upside down, resting on other ones that were themselves resting on others. Naturally, I couldn’t take them all, so I in turn gave a few to some pals and left some at work. Even by doing that, I ended up with nine new bottles in the collection. All opened, yes, but most of them are still pretty damn full.
Early this August, my pal made the move East, and while I wish the best for him, I’m gonna be happy when he comes back to have a dram with me again.
This is one of the bottles that Damian gave me.
Review
Amrut Cask Strength, Indian Single Malt Whisky, Batch Nº125 / August 2022, ex-bourbon casks, 61.8% ABV
£n/a - gifted, widely available
I’ve always liked Amrut and their commitment to putting out naturally presented whisky. Also their price strategy, which is quite good for their core range around here: get it to the lips of drinkers, and let word of mouth do the rest. Everything I’ve tried from them has been good, sometimes very good, and I even remember a peated, ex-sauternes cask strength single malt that was nothing short of stellar a few years ago at Whisky Live. There’s only been one review yet of Amrut here on Dramface, their Fusion release, written in early 2023 by Broddy, and earning a very respectable 7/10, which I fully agree with.
Let’s also give some credit to Amrut for providing us with a clear batch number. As said before numerous times on these pages, it doesn’t cost much and it is a step forward towards transparency and catering to the geekiest among us. That’s especially useful here as, to my knowledge, every single release of Amrut Cask Strength has always been the exact same ABV: 61.8%.
That’s where I start having problems with the denomination ‘cask strength’. I know there is this story about Glenfarclas 105 that it arrives precisely at 60% ABV by careful blending and no dilution, and the cask strength designation of this Amrut would entice us to think it is a similar process here, but I call foul. There’s no way this, or Glenfarclas 105 for that matter, are not diluted to arrive at that target ABV. Whiskies are blended to a flavour profile, not a specific ABV. Surely?
There is absolutely nothing wrong with reduction by the way, as long as the whisky is tasty. I do own quite a few whiskies that have been reduced, from classic, core range 46%ers, to the occasional indie that’s been slightly reduced or the traditional 57.1%, 100º Imperial proof bottlings. Furthermore, I think - and correct me if I’m wrong - that the Indian government has a law in place preventing anyone from bottling any spirit at an ABV above 62.8%, or something like that, so I wouldn’t hold it against Amrut.
For me, ‘cask strength’ doesn’t necessarily mean better. But when I see this term on a label, I fully expect no dilution whatsoever to have taken place after the cask has been disgorged. This is possibly not the case here, and that’s where a problem would lie for me.
The fact that Amrut and Glenfarclas perhaps slightly dilute their high strength whiskies to target a specific alcohol level is fine, but if so, they need to find another term than cask strength: ‘batch strength’ would be fine, so too ‘high strength/proof’, ‘firewater edition’, ‘Indian-government-compliant-proof’, I don’t care. But not cask strength. There’s SWA guidance for that but, more than anything, that statement should be sacrosanct.
Phew. Enough ranting, let’s try the whisky.
Score: 6/10
Good stuff.
TL;DR
Lots of Indian malt characters; but needs water to access them
Nose
Dense, sticky, with caramel, banana purée and all sorts of tropical fruits and flowers. This needs some water though, as undiluted it’s a bit like nosing airplane fuel.
With a few drops of water: it amps up the floral side, with dry rose petals mainly. Tobacco leaves, more caramel, orange flower water flavoured sponge cake.
With a ‘Ralfy’ - a teaspoon of water: turning into a pastry shop, with financier, roasted almonds and a cinnamon roll.
Palate
Big, bold and powerful. Quite hot on the finish, but you do get a bit of flavour development first, even undiluted. Some lovely sweetness, that stays in check, and the finish is carried by some wood tannins.
With a few drops of water: immediately softer and more approachable. Lots of fresh fruits come forward, like pear and quince.
Ralfy-d up: Even fruitier, more tropical, with mango, melon and banana. The tannins are still there on the finish but more subdued.
The Dregs
I feel like Indian whisky makers managed to create a coherent national style, and this is a great example of a ‘classic’ Indian whisky: sweet, tropical, fruity, with a woody backbone.
It is a bit hard to dilute and needs some fiddling to be enjoyed at its fullest potential, but that’s part of the fun of having a high strength bottling, at least to me. As long as the whisky’s good, we’ll forgive them for writing ‘cask strength’ on the label, for now.
As for Damian, well my friend, your clients and your employer in Singapore are lucky to have you. I hope you come back in a few years with a lot of stories to tell. And more whisky to share.
Today’s musical accompaniment is a bit special. Let’s listen to Isobel, by Björk, in memoriam Isobel. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you need to read Wally’s Strathisla review.
Score: 6/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. AF
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