Amrut Portonova

1. Amrut Portonova 62.1%


Steffen's review

I got no official recipe of this whisky at the time of writing this review, but I understand it's another sandwiched whisky similar to the Intermediate Sherry Matured

As the name suggest this involves port pipes

Nose : Wood, rhubarb and tropical fruits

Palate : Quite woody, licorise, tropical fruits, a kaleidoscope of tastes

Finish : Very long and very complex. I really enjoy it. It has the earmark of old whisky, which is a fantastic accomplishment when you know that Amrut whisky is around 5 years old give or take a few days

Rating 89

This is a very delicious and complex whisky, where the different flavours plays around and around and around. A masterpiece. The ABV is high but the whisky is very welcoming. This could appeal more to bourbon fans

Lars' review

Nose: Inviting exotic tones with a very sweet port influence. The casks really come out to shine with warm glowing vanilla. Vanilla sugar, vanilla ice cream and all the while accompanied by creamy, macadamia nuts.

Taste: Very sweet with port nuances and oak vanilla combined in a charming, young style. There is an elegance of perfumed pine wood to this stylish dram and I imagine myself sitting in the garden on a warm summer night listening to locusts in the tall grass and catching the scent of blossoming flowers in the night air. A thick and oily whisky made to enjoy.

Rating 86

Cleaning out my samples - part 5 of 5

1. Balblair 2001 46%

Balblair Stills

Since Balblair revitalised it's bottling style a couple of years ago, we have seen the distillery releasing a series of vintage bottlings. Of the youngest expressions we have seen 3 10yo's (or approximately 10yo). The 1997, the 2000 and now the 2001. This coincides with the distillery opening a new visitor centre.

This 2001 46% is upped in ABV from 43%, and is unchillfiltered. And I doubt there is added caramel, as it doesn't taste like that and the colour is delicious bright

In style this is faithful to the 97 and 00 vintages. It has got a bit more oomph and texture than the 00. The whisky is malty, nutty, vanilla and very fresh with a little sweetness on the finish. This would appeal to both geeky cask strength drinkers and those who have a more "normal" approach to whisky. It's not going to to revolutinise your whisky world but when whisky is represented like this it's a bit like drinking fresh beer opposed to canned/bottled beer , if anyone knows what I mean by that

Rating 84 


Recently I served some blind samples on a vacation to the US.

http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/4-blinds-for-california.html

Here are my views on two of them


2. Amrut 100. 57.1%

This is a special bottling by Amrut. 100 proof, 100cl's and it has been partly matured on 100l european virgin oak casks. The whisky was released with 100 bottled for five locations, of which one was Denmark-

I understand why this would easily come across people as being sherry matured as the european virgin oak casks have a huge influence on the palate of this whisky. 

The Amrut 100 is quite peaty. Medicinal, spiced wood and an unusual complexity for a whisky this peaty. Very often wood inluenced complexity comes with aging a whisky, but aging a whisky also diminishes the peat content. So here you got the cask influence and the high peatyness combined.

Some Amrut's can be overpowering at Cask Strength but its not the case here. This even ends up with a sweet delicious. This is in league with the intermediate sherry cask Amrut

Rating 88

3. Pe1 58.7%

A NAS Port Ellen, you don't see a lot of those around :-)

From the very fine series Elements of Islay from Whisky Exchange

Licorise. Peat. You don't really get the age of this whisky as it it very potent and intense. The finish is delicious long with a nice soft peatiness dominating. A bit of buttery kinda the scotch way notes underlying as well

Rating 85

PS I tried the Pe2 at the Jazz and Beer Festival a few weeks ago, and I liked that A LOT more

4 blinds for California

Recently I went on a holiday in south-western USA, mainly California, Utah and Las Vegas.

Apart from visiting family and friends of my parents, some fantastic National Parks in Utah (recommended), I also managed to get some time with whisky friends. I have always liked to serve blind samples to people. At this trip I had made 4 samples. Only hint was that they were from different distilleries, and all had peat and was from sherry casks. One wasn't from sherry casks thou, but it taste like that. More about that later

The crash-test-dummies were fellow PLOWED members and a couple of their friends.

Blind tasters were Mikey, Ganga, FX, Xray, Marty, Hyperfuji, Andy, Tim (Ardbegproject) and Jake  

One of the nights, while the others were going through the 4 blinds, FX poured me a blind. I really liked it. Unadultered sherry, extremely peated and with some age. I guessed it to be Laphroaig 20+yo, but it showed out to be the legendary Brorageddon, one of the earliest PLOWED bottlings. Nice treat. I knew I had this before, but couldn't recall it tasting like this. But then again, I probably wasn't in an analytical corner the first time around. Which I actually seldom is. Most of the time (95% or so) I drink whisky just to enjoy it without being overly analytical, rating it seriously or writing feeble tasting notes.

Now to the four secret drams. They were served in table discussion fashion, and I tried to note as many things down as possible. A total of three sessions in various locations in California.

First one up was Amrut 100, 57.1%. 

Peated Amrut, 100 british proof, 100cl, 100 bottles. Gives the name. Matured in ex-bourbon then transfered into 100liters virgin oak barrels. Thanks to Ashok and MACY for the sample, it has now travelled the world :-). This is the one whisky that has not been on a sherry cask, but could they tell ?

Comments : 

Very Peaty, Fruity, Sherried. High ABV (Mikey)

Peated Speyside, Refill Sherry, Irish ?, Peaches, Burnt Peat, Pinenotes, Stonefruits (Ganga)

Jura Prophecy, Japanese, Old Jura, Chocolate, Peat, but not heavy, Chocolate (Marty)

Sulphur, Iodine, Bitter Red Apple Peels, Sticky finish, not a lot of sherry (Hyperfuji)

Golden Delicious Apple, Chili Pepper, Lemon (Andy)

Oranges, Peppermint, Amrut? (Tim)

Anis, Toffee (Jake)

Whisky no. 2 was Caol Ila 1996 Gordon and macphail Cask Strength, 59.0%, cask 16070-16072, bottled 2007

Comments:

Butterscotch, vanilla, young cask strength, Bowmore (Mikey)

Syrup, Candycorn (Jake)

Butterscotch, Bitter Licorise (Ganga)

Coconut (Marty)

Butterscotch, Saw dust, citrus, fino sherry (Hyperfuji)

Nutmeg, Iodine, Charred Wood (Andy)

29.83 Kissing a Balrog's Bum(Laphroaig) 20yo 52.3% bottled by SMWS, Refill Butt

Before I purchased this was reported to me as being terrible sulphured. Personally I can't find any, and I am very sensitive to sulphur, well, I look at it as an off-note. Maybe more when it express itselfs as rotten eggs sulphur, opposed to rubber-latex on a mild level. I was looking forward to see to what extent the others would pick up sulphur here. The name gives a hint, but these guys didn't know the name

Black Tea, Nice, Sweet, Cherried (Hyperfuji)

Rubber Cement, Bitter Greens (Andy)

Impressed, Slight rubbery the way I like it (Marty)

Saltwater, Cocoa powder (Jake)

Raisins (Tim)

Soapiness, Hot, Young (Xray)

Apple, Sweet peat, Laphroaig like, freshly cut grass, medicinal peaty (Mikey)

The 4. whisky was PE1 by TWE, 58.7%

Kind of perfumy, 80's Bowmore (Mikey)

Grains Hay, Red Licorise (Tim)

Sulfur (Jake)

Creamy, Caramelly (Xray)

I really like this, Sweet, candied, cherry, graphite (Hyperfuji)

http://www.lawhiskeysociety.com/whiskey-profile/1635/Port-Ellen-Pe1-Elements-of-Islay (Andy)

I recommend LA whisky society http://www.lawhiskeysociety.com a great source of whisky reviews from a group of whisky entusiast that I regard high

So what were the favourites ?

Mikey and Xray : Amrut 100

Hyperfuji, Andy and Tim : Pe1

Jake, FX and Marty : Kissing a Balrog's Bum

Ganga : Caol Ila 1996

Next Blogpost : I will take on Amrut 100 and Pe1

Thanks to everybody to be being willing to participate and going public. I know of whisky "experts" who never would do things like this :-)

Amrut Two Continents Second Edition

1. Amrut Two Continents Second Edition 50%


Steffen's review

Nose : Belgian beer, vanilla and exotic fruits

Palate : malty and nutty, very chewy with a lot of texture, a lot of spicy vanilla

Finish : Medium-long with some wood spicyness hitting me late

Rating 85

Comment : This is quite different than the first Two Continents. There's a lot more of India than Europe in this. I would describe this as vanilla infused Amrut!

Further Comment. Retasting a couple of weeks after initial review, this is just of of those whiskies that improves from being open.

Lars' review

Nose: Cereal, hay, warm spirit. In the background almonds and different nuts try to play their part. Exotic fruits – cocktail berries and unripe litchis. After a while some clean toffee arrives.

Taste: Nuts, chili and pears with a touch of ginger in the finish. A good, uncomplicated, young and straightforward whisky.

Rating 80

Amrut Herald

Amrut Herald

Cask 2857, 60.8%
231 bottles

Matured 4 years in India then 18 months in Helgoland
Alcohol strength dropped from 64.8% to 60.8% while maturing in Helgoland

Amrut Still (Photo by Ras Mazunga)

Steffen's review :

This one is strong stuff. Needs water. And I almost never add water to my whiskies.

Nose: It's like Old Pulteney on steroids. Initially the nose has a slight vinegar edge, then a spicy woodyness appears.

Palate: Same pattern happens to the palate. The wood and spice makes this appear as the oldest tasting Amrut I have tried. Like a 30+ year old scotch, but the ABV gives it all away. Opposed to the Two Continents this has got a lot more "Amrut" in it. Tropical fruit, cocoa and a creamy nuttiness.

Finish : "Old whisky"-tannines, medium-long.

Comments: This is a bit like Stagg. Best consumed dropwise. A pour will last forever...the perfect long-drink. The ABV can be overwhelming. The whisky really benefits a lot from a little air or the bottle being open for a wee bit. Well this is a sample, but it improved from being opened a week! An enjoyable dram!

A good whisky, not for the fainthearted thou. One of the very few whisky I feels need a drop of water by default

Rating 83

Lars' review :

Nose: strong spirit, toffee, milk chocolate and dessert cookies. Friendly and inviting despite the 60.8% that tingles round my nose. Green nuts and sweets with touches of pineapple and pears in the background. After a while it gets a bit rum like.

Taste: sweet and warm. Rather complex. Milk, nuts and toffee chocolate. Warm milk for the adult child who can’t sleep  . Thick and oily. Nips the jaws. In the finish dry oak and more toffee appears.

With water the fruit comes out to play. A bowl of mixed fruits in the warm sun. This is one of the few whiskies where I could want to add drops of water. A fine dram.

Rating: 87     


(Note: review written without having seen Steffen’s or anyone else’s opinion on this whisky which is what I prefer to do)

*******

Steffen's final comment

This might be a weird way to make a review with two different rating systems. The way my odd rating system is defined..(look to the right edge), I would say our ratings match quite close. Please don't take ratings too serious, its just a number to express how much we like a whisky

There will be 4 casks bottled of the Amrut Herald for different markets. 

Dramming reviewed another cask here : 

http://www.dramming.com/2011/07/21/amrut-herald/

Gordon at Spirit of India reviewed the same cask as lars and me here

http://amrut-spiritofindia.net/2011/07/18/so-is-the-herald-a-triumph/ and he likes it a lot

Whiskypranks and blind tastings

The label of a whisky bottle has an influence on how I and other whiskyfans appreciate a whisky

No doubt about it. If people tells me otherwise I don't believe them :-)

One good example is how Ashok from Amrut presented/introduced his range to Denmark. He said that if he just served Amrut to others, they would automatically think it couldn't be very good as it comes from India

Instead he chose to battle 4 of his whiskies against 4 from Scotland. Blind. Quite an educating experience. It showed out I had Amrut as clear winner in 3 of the battles. The 4th was a draw.

The 4 sets were :

Amrut 46% versus Glenlivet 12
Amrut Fusion versus Highland Park 12
Amrut Cask Strength versus Glenfarclas 105 (my draw)
Amrut Peated 46% versus Bowmore Legend

Surprisingly my most clear winner was Fusion against a whisky that quite often is declared the best in the world. There you go. In the room of 33 tasters, Amrut won the all catagories except the one I had as a draw which was lost by 1 vote.  I thought the 105 and the cask strength Amrut was very alike and Ashok said he had trouble telling which one he thought was the Amrut of those two :-)

Well this was my most educating experience. The most impressive I have seen was done by the Ardbeg expert, fellow PLOWED member and Malt Maniac Tim Puett, the man behind www.ardbegproject.com !

We selected 4 Ardbeg 10's and wrote down the bottle codes (batch numbers!) Here is the set :


L1 045 - L5 290 - L7 143 - L7 325


We had all the codes written down and Tim nailed them all....impressive (I didn't guess anything..)


I often make some pranks with whiskies. One of the better ones was pouring a cheap blend into an empty bottle of a standard scottish single malt and then serve it. 


Once I went into my kitchen, melted some sugar and divided a bottle in two. Then I coloured one of the parts. After a testing session I send round these 2 blind samples and the reactions and guesses were very different. After the truth was revealed some of the guests tried to distuingish between the two blindfolded and they said they couldn't really tell the difference..


This told me that the colour of a whisky affects how it's received with a huge impact


Last year I was on a holiday on Crete. Local customs is that you get served a Raki after a dinner. This is like a cheap Grappa. One day we visited an olive oil farm http://www.paraschakis.gr/index_en.html

Old Raki Still

They had a Raki which I found a lot more pleasant than the usually stuff I was served before during the holiday. I bought a wee bottle. Last week I served some of this blind at a whisky tasting as first go. People thought it was whisky newmake!

Oh, I gotta show you the view from that olive oil farm :

Paps of Crete!

After the Raki  I served the Mekong Whisky. This is never received positive, but I noted that when I served this blind the negativeness was less!

I observed the same pattern when a very very good whisky is served blind. The positiveness is much higher when accompanied by a label.

Todays review

1. Mekong Whisky

The nose is sligthly chemical , a bit like a weak solvent, not really unplesant, but no way whisky like..well rumours said this is made on 95% molasses and 5% rice with added spices, so this is really not a whisky. I have a hard time reading the label so the details is up to you to read yourself. The taste is like a very mild bitter, highly diluted becherovka comes into mind. A weak woody finish with a not-very-nice sweet touch. Nothing exciting about this, but I wouldn't describe it as flawed either. Greatest thing about this is the short finish.

It will not get a very high rating thou

Rating 55

Danish Whisky Blog awards 2010

2011 is approaching fast, and quite a lot of people use this opportunity to look back on the year 2010.

I had an almost endless amount of good whisky and good whisky events taking place during this year. I have to say I enjoyed everything I participated in.

Highlight of the year was getting introduced into the PLOWED society at the annual Ardbeggeddon. Nothing beats dramming with friends, and the company and whisky at the Ardbeggeddon is pure top shelf.

I also enjoy a very lively community of local whisky connoisseurs, with several gatherings throughout the year of the highest quality and a lot of spectacular whisk(e)ys from all around the world.

Festival wise I really enjoyed Spirit of Speyside, Limburg and Glasgow Whisky Festival together with a couple of mini fairs organised by local wineshops and Juul's!

I've decided to set up a few awards, this is my way to honour some things I really enjoyed and maybe I was surprised a bit by them

Distillery of the Year


Amrut

Amrut has put itself on the map in 2010 with a series of superb and innovative bottlings. I think it has come to a surprise to quite a few that a distillery producing world class whisky should emerge more or less from the unknown and then from India of all places as well.
Due to extra-ordinarely high evaporation the distillery has to work with other aspects than age, when creating new bottlings. Here's a photo of my Amruts, most of these were created in 2010!

Amrut TWE 10 year online anniversary bottling
Amrut Double Cask (a vatting of the two oldest casks at Amrut..7yo old whisky)
Amrut 100 (a peated 100 proof 1 liter bottling)
Amrut Cask Strength (the miniatures)
Amrut Fusion (made from a mix of indian unpeated malt and scottish peated malt)
Amrut Two Continents (matured in India, and then in Europe)
Amrut Intermediate Sherry (matured on first fill ex-bourbon casks, then ex-oloroso casks for 1 year, and then back to ex-bourbon)
Amrut Kadhambam (consecutively maturation in ex-rum, ex-sherry and ex-brandy casks, with the rum and brandy being Amruts own!)
Amrut Peated Cask Strength



Independendt Bottler of the Year


High West


A new distillery, which is located in Utah (of all places) has put itself on the map by bottling a series of ryes and bourbons of high quality. Especially the ryes has caught the public eye and several editions are available, some of them quite old. The ryes are said to be distilled at LDI, Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana, which is not the most known distillery, but I think they are very skilled in making rye whiskey ! It will be exciting to see if High West itself can produce whiskeys and ryes of the same quality!

High West Rendezvous Rye, a vatting of a 6yo 95% Rye and a 16yo 80% Rye. Superb

Whisky Bottling of the Year


Double Single by Compass Box


This is a blend of 18yo Glen Elgin (76%) and 21yo Port Dundas (24%) the latter being a grain whisky from the now closed distillery in Glasgow, while Glen Elgin is malt whiskey from a distillery located just south of Elgin in Speyside. It's bottled at cask strength 53.3% and was bottled to celebrate Compas Box' 10th anniversary

Double Single

Now this is a wonderful cask that every ex-bourbon casked single malt whisky fan should seriously consider!

Description : Very bubblegum/candy like with a heavy spicy touch. Vanilla and Malt. It's very oily and intense in its expression. The finish is long and warming

  

Tasting of the year


Duncan Taylor, Dufftown - Spirit of Speyside by Mark Watt

In the Memorial Hall in Dufftown, Spirit of Speyside hosts a series of very good whisky tastings during the festival. This year I found the Duncan Taylor tasting particular good. Mark Watt Bingo and 5-6 great whiskies, including two of the years favourites: a 1972 Caperdonich and a 1973 Glen Moray. Adding to that 12yo and 40yo Black Bull, 22yo Glen Grant and a 25yo Caol Ila, what a great afternoon

and by the way, the price is a pint if anyone responsible happens to catch me somewhere :-)

My bang for the bucks whiskies

If you have been into whisky for a bit and think you are well acquainted with the front row at your local supermarket and ready to venture into new territories, things can be a bit of a jungle. The amount of bottlings out there these days is high. Wonderfully high. There's more to the world of whisky than top brands like Glenfiddich, Highland  Park, Glenlivet and Macallan.Nothing wrong with those I will say before going on.

Amongst bloggers and in forums it's always a reoccuring subject to name cheap whiskies, which is looked upon as great value for money. Who isn't interested in good deal ?

Here's MY list of a set of whiskies, which might not be the cheapest whiskies around, but I think you won't get better value for money than these. I don't think it's a coincidince that 9/10 of these are bottled at 46+ ABV, as my personal preference is for unchillfiltered, not watered down whiskies

Deanston 12yo, 46.3%
The new revatted, unchillfiltered version of Deanston, and what a comeback. Creamy, delicious single malt. Available for less than 30£

Deanston mini

Old Pulteney WK499
Available in selected airports World of Whiskies shops...Heathrow and Edinburgh from personal experience. I have seen this at 50£ for 2 1liter bottlings making this the best deal in whisky I have ever seen. It's a NAS Old Pulteney cask strength in a typical style of the distillery. Seaside vanilla and mint!

Balvenie 15yo Single Barrel 47.8%
Cask variation will of course be there, but these are typical delicious ex-bourbon vanilla whisky. Yum Yum. Not more than fortysomething quids usually

Tomatin 18yo 46%
Another solid comeback and a living proof that whisky at 46% just is better. One of my favourites at the whisky fringe 2009

Amrut Fusion 50%
First time I got this blind I guessed it as 20+ year old lightly peated speysider. Nuff said

Back label of Amrut, bottle almost gone

Glenburgie 10yo Gordon and MacPhail 40%
Sometimes seen at below 20£ on offer in UK, and below 300Dkr as standard price in Denmark, this is a delicious continous bottling from Gordon and MacPhails. It has got special touch that I often find in G and M sherry casked whiskies

Bladnoch Forum Bottlings
Apart from their own whisky, Raymond bottles a big selection of other distilleries. Bladnoch Forum bottlings is probably the greatest value for money whiskies around! Even includes Bladnoch whisky itself now and again.

Bladnoch Forum Bottling example : Cambus Grain 

Lagavulin 12yo Cask Strength
Bottled at cask strength and 12yo this is one of my favourite Islays. 44£ in Edinburgh airport

Tweeddale blend 46%/ Black Bull 12yo
A pair of excellent delicious blends and delightful newcomers to the whiskymarket. And it's great to see a blend that's not watered down to 40%. Less than 30£

Aberlour A'bunadh
Legendary small batch NAS cask strength fullsherried whiskies. Beware, there can be some batch variations

And here is one that you might have missed.

Arran Peacock
This was out 1½ year ago and sold out most places. Still available at Juul's in Copenhagen. Voted whisky of the year 2009 by whiskywhiskywhisky.com. One of my favourite whiskies

Three new Amruts

This month has seen a release of 3 new exciting Amruts

First one I got aware of was The Whisky Exchange's bottling. The Whisky Exchange is celebrating its 10 year online anniversary and has been bottling a few very good botlings.

Whisky Exchange's Amrut is called Amrut Special Reserve and is bottled at 63%

Just a week later Amrut itself released Intermediate Sherry Matured. It's Amrut whisky that has been transfered from ex-bourbon casks to ex-sherry casks and then back to ex-bourbon. Bottled at 50%

This one I tasted and it's a magnificient dram :

The nose is spicy, tropical fruits, very Amrut :-)

Palate is sherry-woody, coconut, iodine without the peat. The woodyness is intriguing as it evolves around a great complexity, to which is added the Amrut chewiness I also found very present in the Double Cask bottling, Fusion and the regular unpeated Amrut especially. Coconut is very dominant, probably one of the most coconut whiskies I ever had. 

Coconut isn't an uncommon unusual tasting notes, try read this thread about unusual tasting notes on the whisky magazine forum: http://www.whiskymag.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13056

Finish : very long and mouthwatering, very tropical finish. When I say tropical I mean a mix of all those sweet fruit that's usually grown far south of Denmark

The most weird tasting note I found in this taste similar to the stuff thats sometimes used to flavour medicine here, especially vitamine pills. I got no clue how else to describe it :-). Sweet, Iodine, fruity is the closest. It adds to the experience of this whisky being Indian and it differentiates it from Scottish malts

End of the day I will rate this very high, it's possible the best Amrut I had so far, if it isn't the Fusion.

Rating 89

Last bottling just out is the Amrut Kadhambam also bottled at 50%

Kadhambam means mixture in Tamil and is the result of Amrut being matured on three different cask types- Ex-oloroso, ex-Bangalore Blue Brandy casks and finally ex-rum casks, the latter two cask types has been used for Amruts own brandy and rum products

Now this tasted a lot different than I expected. It actually reminded me of a typical 12yo OB speysider somehow, which is usually a lot of ex-bourbon casks with a small mix of other cask types, typical ex-sherry.

 The difference is that this is still typical Amrut and it got the typical Amrut chewiness. This reminds me mostly of the Double Cask release, without the vanilla, and it seems a bit more tropical. For all the different cask types used this is still very distillery typical. I really think there's some kind of distillery signature to Amruts, which I get as a chewiness, plasticine (not sure if this is right word, but it's something I played with as a child and it had a nice smell). The chewiness is here again on the Kadhambam

Rating 85

I do like the fact that that all this very innovative cask management isn't used to disguise anything but used to enhance the whiskys original charatcer. While I often have problems with finishes, which I feel is usually used to enhance bad whisky, this is the total opposite. I really think Amrut has done a great job. Having a whisky that will alwas be bottled around 5 years old, take or give 1-2 years, it's things like this that has to be done, if you want to put out a range of whiskies and just can't do a 12yo, 15yo and 18yo and a cask strength-

I also liked the head to head dramming of the above two drams.  The ISM and the Kadhambam is a very good example of a woody whisky versus a non woody whisky, which basically shares a lot of common things. It's a couple of very educational drams and they go very well head to head as the similarities and differences is very interesting

Sometimes when you have two very different representants from a distillery the differences are there but the similarities lacks to the extend you never would have guessed them as being from same distillery. Not here. The differences are there, but so is the similarities.

Four Amruts

Four Amruts


Amrut is an indian distillery located in Bangalore, at 3000+ feet above sealevel. The hot temperature makes this whisky mature in it's own special fashion. Fast, different and with an angel's share that threatens to empty casks more than 6 years old!


I generally find the Amruts very full-bodied, and I always get the feeling that someone added a tiny amount of ash-dust to it, I also get a tiny hint of the smell of plasticines I used to play with as a kid. Sweet tropical fruits like pineaplles and peaches. Apart from the OB's I've tried a few Blackadder's which are also recommended!


Amrut Fusion 50%
A mix of Scottish (peated) and Indian Barley
This is the most "asian" of these Amruts, despite its scottish content. 
My comments : Tropical Fruits, Ash-dust, sweetness, woodbitterness, Ginger, slightly peated. Very complex
Rating 91


Amrut Double Barrel 46%
Amrut Double Cask. Cask filled : 27/2-2003 and 25/7-2002. Bottled 27/2-2010, cask #2874 and 2273- 46%, oldest expresion of Amrut released so far, Ex-bourbon casks
My comments : Vanilla, tropical sweet spices, slight sweet woodiness, delicious, 
Rating 86


Amrut Two Continents 46% 
Matured across two continents. I've seen photos of Arran Casks with a wee Amrut label!.
My comments : Plasticine, Sweet wood, full-bodied texture, 
Rating 82


Amrut Peated cask strength 62.8%
February 2009 bottling
The barley used for Amruts isnt on the same peat level as the southern Islay malts, more like a Bowmore with 15-20ppm. The effect of this peat is on par with the southern Islays thou. I think a reason for this is the young age of Amrut
My comments : fierce - but not as fierce as you would expect for this high ABV., peaty, sweet. The sweetness and peatyness competes!
Rating 85