My Notes…….

A lovely golden colour in the glass , first thing that hits the nose is the Amrut Liquorice , then a floralness interweaves with chocolate , shortbread biscuit and caramel toffee . There’s also a fruitiness (pineapples mainly amongst other exotic fruits) and a hint of fresh malt . It’s a lovely relaxed nose , one to savour for a while…….
On the palate again you get the Liquorice and the fruit , mixing with a lovely maltiness , it is quite dry and chewy as well . It does flow across the palate very well , it’s also  quite sweet , creamy fudge , chocolate and pineapple juice . The finish is medium to long with the liquorice being dominant followed by the fruit .
Another stunning Amrut , this one seems to almost be an Amrut fruit cocktail , really enjoyable and different to other expressions from this distillery .

Press Release…..

(Click on pages to see full size version)

You can catch it at WhiskyCast.com

The Day started with Breakfast in the Five Swans with Livvy who’d travelled down from Cupar , always best to get a good fried breakfast on the stomach before an afternoon trying malts ! We headed across to the Civic Centre for the 12 o’clock opening , Eddies now got the opening off to a tee , liked the way we were through the registration before the official doors opened . After collecting the glass if was off to say hello to Ashok before heading off to the South West of Scotland and seeing our friends at Bladnoch and Whiskybroker.co.uk . It’s always good to catch up with Raymond Florence , Martin and Jane .

Raymond in full Swing

Martin on his Table

I must say a fair bit of the afternoon was spent in this area , not only talking to the Armstrongs but trying their products , At Bladnochs i tried the 10yo Bourbon , the 11yo Sherry and the 20yo – the latter was proving very popular ! On Martins i tried a fair few of his offerings including the Macallan Spirit , the 29yo Tormore and the Springbank , as usual all up to a very high standard .

A little while was spent over with Ashok at the Amrut Stall including giving Ashok a break at one point while Mr Banford wasn’t around with his Camera…….

The Main Man !

With his biggest fan !

Once again the Amrut selection (Amrut 46% , Amrut Cask Strength , Amrut Fusion and Amrut intermediate Sherry) provided very popular with the locals .

Something new introduced this festival was the ‘Under the table Dram tokens’ , you got one white and one black with each ticket and another two if you were a Whisky Lounge member . I used my white one on the Berrys Own 1989 Bunnahabhain (another good Bunna which seemed a little bit weak -sorry Rob !) , the Black tokens were used on The Berrys Own 1974 Glen Grant (probably the best dram of the day !) , The Kilchoman Sherry Cask (it was nice having a chat with Anthonys other Son James about our love of Islay) and the Talisker 25yo at the diageo table . I’ll now try and remember what else i had during the afternoon…… a bit hard , always forget to take notes…….

At Amruts table i had the Intermediate Sherry as it was from a later batch than what i have , At The Whisky Exchange table i tried the Bn4 (Peated Bunna – very nice ) , they also had one of my approved bottles on offer ! At the SMWS table i had the Clynelish which John happily pointed out wasn’t Sulphured ! Over at Diageo i tried the New Storm which i must say i wasn’t impressed with , the 25yo was much better ! Sure there were a few more but……..

It was a fantastic afternoon , good malt with good friends (old and some new ones!) , Livvy and Bobby were on fine form and the exhibitors were as always very friendly and knowledgable . Congratulations to Eddie and Amanda for once again giving us a great afternoon ! Till next year……..

Amrut Distillery Visit

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 5,100 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 9 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

We got 1,300 more visitors in 2012 , Many Thanks to everyone who Visited and have a Happy and Prosperous 2013 !

This is Bottle No. 17 of 282 , it is a very dark marmalade going on light mahogany in colour . It is actually quite peaty on first nosing , quite a strong toffeeness mixing in with the Amrut liquorice , there is a hint of the Millionaires shortbread but not much .  It is very strong on the palate , one of the strongest Amruts i’ve had (though not the strongest proof wise) , again very peaty , strong liquorice and quite farmyardy and more of a peatiness in an Scottish sort of way . The finish is very long and of a peaty liquorice . Water takes the bite off the strength and mellows down the nose and palate .

A very unusual Peated Amrut , as i said a bit more akin to a peated Scotch but still with the Amrut traits , well worth a punt if you can find it  , i had to get this one from a Dutch shop Whiskybase.com .

This is the debut Single malt cask release from John Distilleries who are based in Goa , bottled at 57% . It is almost a honey going on Ruby colour (the Photos a bit deceiving , it’s slightly lighter ) , on the nose it’s very light (almost lowlanderish) , fresh fruits (green apples , pears ) , tinned fruit cocktail , fresh cut hay , lemon , Digestive biscuit and a lot of vanilla . A very vibrant nose . The palate start off very hot and peppery , quite sweet , chocolate , barley sugar , again biscuit , vanilla with a strong overtone of malted barley . The finish is medium and again sweet .

A thoroughly enjoyable dram , if you were comparing this to Amrut in a Scottish way , Paul John would be lowland / highland to Amruts Islay ! ( i know silly but someone would probably ask….)