Amrut Peated Indian Single Malt, Aged in Oak Barrels, 46% abv. B. No. 69 Jun 2017.

According to Amrut, "Amrut" means "elixir of life" in Sanskrit. Like Kavalan, a Taiwanese distillery, reviews by famous people have been positive and popularity has soared, although it seems the demand for Indian whisky seems to have subsided, or production hasn't been keeping up. It's weird because I'm in Asia, but I haven't seen it anywhere at bars, DFS, or retailers. This peated version is a little interesring because Amrut supposedly imports peated Islay malt for this.

Nose: grapes, vanilla, a hint of iron metal.

Palate: peaty, some wood, spicy, back palate of vanilla.

Finish: a little dry, a peaty aftertaste that gets stronger after each sip, but not overwhelming.

A very simple dram, pretty one dimensional. It's got peat, just enough to give a flavorful experience. However, other than that, the other aspects and flavors don't come to fore. Funny thing is I think this is one of the few young whiskies out there, if any, where I could tell there was a vanilla component hidden in the peat. Unfortunately it doesn't work well in my book; it's what a standard peated dram should taste like and I'm looking to be impressed. I guess it's a good baseline to compare against. Had this at Slainte mhath bar in Busan, South Korea.

Grade: C

Whiskyanalysis.com, 8.67 ± 0.29 on 13 reviews
Whiskyfun.com, Serge Valentin, sgp:535, 83 points
Whisky advocate, Jonny McCormick, 90 points
Lawhiskeysociety, average, B- on 4 reviews

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

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