Tag Archives: Amrut

Apr22

Amruts Greedy Little Angels….

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Amrut today announced the release of their oldest Single malt whisky, the 8yo is available in a very limited worldwide release of only 144 bottles . I’ve had the privilege to try this Amrut and it is one of the best and unusual releases from the distillery so far……

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)

Greedy Angels PR 1
Amrut-greedy-angels-press-2

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Mar26

Amrut Featured on WhiskyCast

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For all Amrut Fans you can catch up with Mark Gillespies trip to Amrut Distillery and a chat with Rick Jagdale on his Excellent Whiskycast site  . As always Marks Whiskycast is highly entertaining !

You can catch it at WhiskyCast.com

Mar19

Amruts Bottling Line

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A couple of interesting Videos have been posted on You Tube by Purple Valley – Amruts importer in the USA – of Amruts Bottling line , i must admit i was a bit surprised by how labour intesive it is ! The macinery is very similar to what i’ve seen in several of the smaller Scottish Distilleries with their own line .

Mar10

The 5th Newcastle Whisky Lounge Whisky Fest

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Now into it’s 5th year (where has the time gone !) , i remember many moons ago when Eddie first mooted a festival in the Toon and i was a bit sceptical (would any exhibitors come , would people come ?) but over the moon that someone was going to do it . We may not get the numbers of exhibitors ‘other’ festivals get but we do get quality ! And i wasn’t the only person to notice this .

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 .

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Raymond in full Swing

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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…….

ashok1
The Main Man !
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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……..

Dec8

Blackadder Peated Amrut

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Independently bottled Amruts are a bit thin on the ground so it’s a bit of a special occassion when one does come along (and there aren’t likely to be many more) . This one again is from the good people at Blackadder , this time it’s a Peated Amrut bottled at 62.7% in June 2012 from Cask Ref BA14/2012 .

Blackadder Peated Amrut 2012

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 .

Sep21

The Whisky Lounges World Whisky Review 2012

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On Friday 14th September a group of knowledgeable whisky drinking Geordies gathered in the Medieval Hall  of the Blackfriars Restaurant for another Whisky Lounge tasting , this one was something very different , whisky from around the World ! No Scotch , No Irish , No American ! Tonights tasting was hosted by Joe , Eddie was sitting in the audience (next to me ) Merrily posting away on Twitter and Facebook during the proceedings……..

To begin our journey we headed down to South Africa , For a Bains Mountain Whisky from the James Sedgewick Distillery  , this is a grain Whisky , on the nose i found it very sweet with vanilla and Toffee . The palate was the same as the nose  with a very long sweet finish . A very good start to the tasting , up there with some of the best Scottish Grains i’ve had .

Next up we headed across the Southern hemisphere to Tasmania  for a Sulivans Cove Double Cask (aged in both American and French Oak)  , The initial nose was Solvent ! Then it progressed to a sweet thats name doesn’t spring to mindbut with a very synthetic fruit smell , spices and finally Chocolate Creme but a creme you get in cheap biscuits . It had a very weird palate , too synthetic for my liking and the finish was short and chemical . As you gather this wasn’t to my liking , my worst dram of the night .

For the Third dram we headed to Taiwan , to The King Car Whisky Distillery for a Kavalan Port Cask . The nose was very fruity , dark fruits to be more precise , and Port – not over powering unlike some previous Port finishes i’ve had – a very good balanced nose that has a touch of toffee after a while . The palate again has the Dark Fruits , toffee and a touch of spices , the finish is Long , Dry and fruity . Quite an exceptional dram , this is the 2nd Kavalan i’ve had (the 1st was the Classic) and both have been fantastic for such a low age  , only disappointment is that Kavalan isn’t available in the UK at the moment .

The 4th Dram was from Sweden , Mackmyra , The Moment Skog . It was very bourbony on the nose , sweet , spices and Chocolate . The palate was Sweet winey and Fishermans Friend with a long , sweet fruity Finish . I must admit i wasn’t looking forward to this one as i haven’t enjoyed previous Mackmyras i’ve tried but this was superb , it reminded me of Glen Scotia on the palate .

For the Penultimate dram we headed to the Land of the Rising Sun , Japan , Suntorys Hakushu and the Bourbon Barrel release . Boy was this a good one ! Really smooth and complex on the nose , Sweet Vanilla , soft creamy fudge , absolutely beautiful , i could have smelled it all night ! The palate carried on from the nose adding chocolate and Digestive biscuits , the finish was long , sweet , touch spicy and chocolate digestives . I don’t think i’ve had a bad Hakushu and this one was stunning !

Last up we headed to India for a personal favourite of mine , Amrut Fusion ! What can you say ? Bags of liquorice on the nose along with chocolate digestives , spices and millionaires shortbread . There’s a slight peatiness on the palate along with liquorice , spices and chocolate . The finish is long , spicy , the Amrut liquorice and smoky . This was Batch 17 from January 2012 and was as good as ever !

A truly astonishing tasting made all the more outstanding by the fact that none of these whiskies had an age statement on the bottle and all were young  . There’s a big wide world out there beyond Scotch , Irish and American and it tastes pretty damn good ! At the end we had the traditional vote  of best of the night and Amrut came out on top , i was neutral and voted for the Kavalan but the Hakushu was a close second . 

Jun25

Amrut shakes up cocktail scene

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AMRUT Fusion was the toast of the cocktail lounge when the world’s best whiskies were put to the test in New York City in June. The Ultimate Cocktail Challenge pits whiskies against each other in identically-made cocktails and Amrut Fusion was the judges’ ultimate recommendation for the Rob Roy. Fusion was awarded the Chairman’s Trophy for its performance in this classic whisky and vermouth cocktail…….

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Amrut Cocktails 1

Amrut Cocktails 2

Amrut Cocktails 3