Amrut – India’s own world class single malt whisky

Amrut is located on the outskirts of Bangalore, but started life in the city centre.

A dusty highway 20 kilometres from the centre of downtown Bangalore is an unlikely source for one of the world’s finest spirits.  Yet, India’s Amrut distillery has taken the world of whisky by storm, achieving near ‘cult’ distillery status thanks to stratospheric scores in Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible and receiving the Young World Whisky Distillery Award 2010 from the Malt Maniacs.
 
Amrut is located on the outskirts of Bangalore, but started life in the city centre. Amrut first came to the attention of Western eyes with the 2004 launch of Amrut Single Malt Whisky, bottled at 40% ABV in Glasgow.  Amrut now boasts a core range of 5 whiskies; peated and unpeated at 46% ABV and cask strength, plus Fusion, which marries spirit distilled from Indian and Scottish malted barley.

The Amrut core range, with the new Intermediate Sherry Cask bottling on the far right.

 Amrut has certainly come a long way in seven years, but there’s a lot more to the story of Amrut than one may think.  Founded shortly after independence in 1948, Amrut started life as a pharmaceutical business which bought in alcohol.  From there, it was a logical step to start distilling alcohol, and the company proceeded to expand into the distillation, maturation and blending of bottled spirits.

Throughout India, across eight production facilities, Amrut now produces approximately 36 million litres (at 42.8% ABV, the standard bottling strength in India) of various ‘economy’ spirits including brandy, gin, vodka, rum and whisky, exclusively for the domestic market.  Contrary to Western perception, the Indian market for bottled spirits is huge, weighing in at around 320 million cases per annum (this excludes imports, and indigenous spirits, i.e. the local arrack).

Cases of rum, brandy and whisky, ready to be shipped throughout India.

Much of this volume is taken up by inexpensive flavoured spirits, produced by adding flavouring (and colouring) to neutral spirit, some of which is bought in.  Amrut does also produce brandy from grape must, and has a pot still dedicated to this purpose.  There’s not much that this market savvy and innovative distillery doesn’t produce.

To place things in context, the fine single malt whisky that carries the Amrut brand throughout a growing number of international markets represents a mere 1% of Amrut’s total turnover.  No less than 20 different products are bottled for sale in the Indian domestic market.  The single malt whisky wasn’t launched in the Indian market until February 2010, and is currently only available in Bangalore. Special dispensation had to be gained to release it in India at 46% ABV, rather than the standard 42.8% ABV.  With production levels of Amrut’s single malt whisky being relatively small, it will be quite some time before it is available for sale across the sub-continent.

Nosing the final blend for the latest batch of Amrut Single Malt Whisky, 46% ABV.

 Amrut prides itself on its commitment to quality.  All of the whiskies in its single malt whisky portfolio are matured for a minimum of 3 years and are bottled at 46% ABV or above, without chill-filtration or the addition of caramel colouring.

These fellas do the hard work. The still in the middle is now used solely for the distillation of grape brandy.

Distilling and maturing fine malt whisky in southern India presents challenges that a Scottish or Irish distillery manager couldn’t imagine.  Although considered to be moderate by Indian standards (partly helped by its 3000ft altitude), daily temperatures in Bangalore run at 30 degrees Celsius for much of the year.  Then there’s the monsoon.  While the annual rate of loss (i.e. the ‘angel’s share’) in Scotland runs at 1%-2%, at Amrut, it’s 12%!   Although there is the commercial benefit of being able to bottle and sell the whisky fully mature at 3-4 years of age, evaporation places a major check on volumes.  The accelerated rate of maturation makes cask management even more important than would ordinarily be the case.

Inside one of Amrut’s warehouses. Maturation favours first fill and refill ex-Bourbon casks, though Sherry casks have been used, as well as other wine casks and virgin American oak.

What of the whisky?  According to Mr Surrinder Kumar, Vice President – Production, the Amrut house style is clean and fruity, overlaid by nutty vanilla oak.  Nose the new make spirit for the peated expression and one finds apples, pears and apricots, together with phenolic (but not medicinal in the Islay style) notes of peat smoke.  It is new make spirit with real character.

Re-charring barrels using Amrut’s proprietary system. Amrut’s Bangalore distillery maintains a cooperage with 2 full time staff.

A barrel sample drawn from a virgin oak cask at roughly 2 1/2 years of age reveals an enticing aroma of liquored raisins, dark cherries, dried peel, mocha, creamy vanilla and roasted hazelnuts; a theoretical mix of Balvenie and Macallan and at least the equal of each.  Taken neat, it is full bodied (a distillery trait), remarkably well balanced (notwithstanding its 60%+ ABV) and the new oak is superbly integrated.  It is another world class whisky in the making.

Mr Surrinder Kumar, Vice-President - Production noses a barrel sample from a virgin oak cask.

Without a doubt, Amrut’s single malt whiskies are of impeccable quality, the match of any great Speysider.  Yet, this unassuming family-owned company does not have aggressive expansion plans.  Delivering on quality and satisfying existing customers remain the key objectives.  Much the better for those of us who have discovered these superb whiskies.

We would like to thank Mr Surrinder Kumar, Vice President - Production (middle) and Mr Vikas Arora, Business Development Manager, India (right) for giving up their time in showing us around Amrut’s Bangalore operation.

Amrut range of whiskies at Milroy’s.

First published in January 2011 on ex Manager Phil Shorten’s holiday blog
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