Mathilda and Papa Eat Kit Kats, Episode IX

The ninth in a series of relevant tasting notes!

Amrut 6 year old 2014, cask 3819 for Norfolk Wines

This is the sibling to Monday's peated single bourbon cask (#2126) for Norfolk Wine & Spirits. The spirit, from unpeated malted Indian barley this time, spent its life in an Oloroso sherry butt. It may also have been the next door neighbor of Whisky Neat's exclusive cask (#3820). I hope its quality tilts more towards 2126.

Distillery: Amrut
Region: Bangalore, India
Age: 6 years (November 2014 - August 2021)
Maturation: Oloroso butt
Cask #: 3819
Outturn: 396 bottles
Exclusive to: Norfolk Wine & Spirits
Alcohol by Volume: 60%
Chillfiltered? No
Color added? No
(from a bottle split)

NEAT

The nose starts off briny and nutty, with hints of tar and leather. The only sugary thing on the horizon is the mild cherry lolly note it develops after 20 minutes. Curiously, it also has the same rye bread note as #2126. The palate impressively avoids sweetness, focusing on roasted almonds and walnuts, rye bread, mint leaf and salt. After nearly 30 minutes it does pick up a hint of the nose's cherry candy, as well as a touch of bitterness. Though this is unpeated whisky, I do find a gentle smoke note in the finish, alongside pecans, figs, ginger and mint.

DILUTED to ~46%abv, or nearly 2 tsp of water per 30mL whisky

Farminess and a hint of seaweed joins dried cherries and toasted almonds in the nose. The palate shows dried cherries, dates, walnuts, earth and bitter coffee. The finish matches the palate, but with a whiff of mint leaf in the background.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

With some curious phenolic notes, and without #3820's punishing heat, cask 3819 succeeds more than I expected it to. The oak doesn't overwhelm until dilution, so six years was probably the cask's max. This compressed aging time hinders further development of what could have been a fabulous cask, had it matured in a calmer environment for over a decade. Still, this is a very solid pour when neat, and may appeal to drinkers who prefer drier sherried whiskies.

Availability - Possibly still available at the retailer
Pricing - $123.99
Rating - 85 (neat only)

Amrut 6 year old 2015, cask 2126 for Norfolk Wines

This Amrut run concludes with a pair of single casks selected for Norfolk Wine & Spirits in Massachusetts. While the entire state of Ohio will likely never see an Amrut single cask, at least a couple of individual retailers in The Baked Bean State were awarded a few. All of these casks appear to have been reduced to 60%abv, as if they were Knob Creek bourbons. What interests me about this particular cask is that its spirit was distilled from, per the retailer's website, "malted Indian Peated Barley". So Amrut did not use imported peated barley from Scotland during this spirit run. I'm intrigued...

Distillery: Amrut
Region: Bangalore, India
Age: 6 years (June 2015 - August 2021)
Maturation: bourbon cask

Cask #: 2126
Outturn: 120 bottles

Exclusive to: Norfolk Wine & Spirits
Alcohol by Volume: 60%
Chillfiltered? No
Color added? No
(from a bottle split)

NEAT

Woody smoke mixes with an industrial greasiness in the nose, then shifts into a hay bale fire after 20+ minutes. Honey, nectarines and ginger fill the middle, with rye bread in the background. Just the right amount of sweetness in the palate arrives in the form of clementines and black licorice. A mix of ocean-y peat, sea salt and cinnamon frame the sweetness rather than overwhelm it. Cayenne pepper colors the background. It finishes with salt, sweet, smoke and a squeeze of lemon.

DILUTED to ~46%abv, or nearly 2 tsp of water per 30mL whisky

The nose becomes simpler: smoky and briny, with a curious polyester note in the midground. The palate also narrows, featuring wood smoke, salt, cayenne and lime. It finishes with soot, lime and cayenne.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Unlike the 6 year old cask for Whisky Neat, this 6yo for Norfolk Wines actually performs best when neat. It dazzles with neither complexity nor fireworks, rather it hits each note well, feeling balanced and polished to the point that it is (SPOILER ALERT) my favorite of the single casks from this month's series, and it'll finish second among these ten Amruts. In fact it could compete well with most of Scotland's peaters. While its $200 price tag is a dealbreaker for me, I'd be willing to pony up $100-$125 for this 6 year old whisky. Yes, I just typed that.

Availability - Possibly still available at the retailer
Pricing - $199.99
Rating - 87

Amrut Aatma 7 year old 2013, cask 4670

Aatma can refer to "soul" or "spirit" (in Hindi), or it can be one of two Indian horror movies, or it'll be printed in white letters on a very red label on the front of an Amrut whisky bottle. I haven't seen either of those films, and this is the wrong Michael Kravitz Era for discussions about the soul. Instead, I regret to inform you that this is a whisky post.

It's great to see US-exclusive single casks from Amrut, especially when they're in the 5-8 year range, especially especially when they cost a fraction of the Greedy Angels series. There appear to be six of such Amrut Aatmas thus far. Today's very dark whisky came from a port pipe filled with unpeated Indian malt spirit.

Distillery: Amrut
Region: Bangalore, India
Range: Aatma
Age: 7 years (April 2013 - December 2020)
Maturation: Port pipe
Cask #: 4670
Outturn: 360 bottles
Exclusive to: USA
Alcohol by Volume: 56.5%
Chillfiltered? No
Color added? No
(sample pilfered from a recent whisky event)

NEAT

Lots of hot fudge, golden raisins and prune juice in the nose, followed by lime candy, saline, cloves and tawny port. The palate shows tart cherries, sweeter dried cherries and dried currants first. Notes of root beer and cassia bark appear later on. It finishes with dried cranberries, cassis and cassia.

DILUTED to ~46%abv, or 1⅓ tsp of water per 30mL whisky

Now I'm finding stewed and mulled fruit (with spices included) in the nose. The golden raisins return but with semi-sweet chocolate this time. The palate barely changes, perhaps gaining cloves and losing cassia. It finishes with dried cherries, dried cranberries and bitter cocoa.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Unlike Wednesday's 6 year old single cask, this 7yo works well both neat and diluted. The Aatma also, thankfully, lacks the 6yo's punishing heat. It's a very comfortable dessert pour that never gets too sweet, but it's all cask. This style negates the necessity of putting a distillery's name on the bottle, yet it is more impressive than most 7 year old Scottish single casks I've had. I would have enjoyed better balance between the vessel and the spirit (the Aatma, perhaps?), but those of you who like cask juice may adore this thing.

Availability - Possibly sold out
Pricing - $200 and up?
Rating - 85

Amrut 6 year old 2014, cask 3820 for Whisky Neat

More and more single cask Amruts that list age statements and vintages are appearing in the United States. For a while, official single casks were rare so all we had were Blackadder casks missing both of those elements. But now the distillery is embracing a massive carbon footprint, flinging some of India's tempered poison across many thousands of miles over to us Yanks.

For instance, here's an Oloroso butt with six years on it, bottled for the Whisky Neat group. I have no idea how my buddy, Mr. NO, got his mitts on a bottle, but I don't ask questions. I just drink what people hand me.

Distillery: Amrut
Region: Bangalore, India
Age: 6 years (July 2014 - September 2020)
Maturation: Oloroso sherry butt

Cask #: 3820
Outturn: 480 bottles

Exclusive to: Whisky Neat
Alcohol by Volume: 60%
Chillfiltered? No
Color added? No
(Thank you, Mr. NO!)

NEAT

The nose starts with heat, VOCs and saline. Then some orange oil, dates and florals. Hints of maple syrup, mint leaf and dark chocolate color the edges. The palate is really really hot. After my feeling returns to my face, I find some black raisins and pumpernickel bread up front, tobacco and black coffee in the back. A bit of ash too, but maybe that's from my cooked taste buds. It finishes hot, salty and tangy with plenty of black raisins involved.

Please, water.

DILUTED to ~46%abv, or nearly 2 tsp of water per 30mL whisky

The nose gets slightly mustier, yeastier, with orange oil, raspberries, toffee and almonds. This is a completely different palate. Now there are lemons and dried apricots. Ginger and cloves. It's much sweeter, though a woody bitterness lurks in the background. It finishes with sweet and salt in tune. A little bit of pepper to go with the lemons and dried apricots too.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Even though this goes against the name on the bottle, I do not prefer to drink this neat, where it registers much hotter than its already sizable ABV. Water wakes it up, bringing out fruit and variety, properly burying all those black raisins. Can't say it's my favorite Amrut, but perhaps some dilution experiments could further lift up this whisky.

Availability - ???
Pricing - $100+
Rating - 83 (diluted only, it loses 8-10 points when neat)

Luxury Product Report: Amrut Greedy Angels 10 year old, Unpeated

When Amrut dropped a trio of 10 year old Greedy Angels releases in 2019, I was able to take part in bottle splits of two of 'em. I reviewed the multi-cask peated GA10 almost exactly two years ago and loved it. So when the opportunity to take part in a split of another GA10, I leapt in for 2oz. This specific Greedy was nearly opposite in style from the other: unpeated and aged solely in ex-bourbon casks. Thanks to the Bangalore climate, the angels whisked away with almost two-thirds of the casks' contents across one decade of maturation. I hope they're good and drunk up there.

Here's a bottle pic from the distributor's site because I can't find my own photo, per usual:

Distillery: Amrut

Region: Bangalore, India

Age: minimum 10 years
Maturation: ex-bourbon casks
Outturn: 900 bottles, 300 of which went to the US
Alcohol by Volume: 55%
Chillfiltered? No
Color added? No
(from a bottle split)

NEAT

The nose takes time to open up. Dulce de leche, cornbread and cilantro arrive first. Subtler notes of yellow nectarines and ocean air stay in the back. Buttery American chardonnay and toasted oak arrive next, followed by orange blossoms. Hot and extractive, the palate is mostly vanilla bean with some flowers and citrons far behind. A mild peach note appears after a while. It finishes sweeter, with lots of vanilla and honey. A little bit of tart citrus and a lot of tannins.

DILUTED to ~46%abv, or nearly 1¼ tsp of water per 30mL whisky

Oak still, er, lumbers across the nose, but the fruit notes expand, with pineapple and grapefruit up front, and Kasugai kiwi gummies in the background. A bright fresh herbal grows with time as well. The palate has cooled off. Pineapple, guava, fruity cinnamon and ginger powder gradually push the vanilla into the midground. More citrus, less vanilla and fewer tannins invade the finish.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Though the Whiskybase community is enthralled by this release, I am not. I'll repeat my note from above: this reads hot and extractive when neat. Though one may think that result is to be expected from the warehouses' climate, the peated sherry finish Greedy one did not have that character.

This GA10 can be a good, warm drinker once diluted, but I'd be extremely peeved if I'd paid $750+ for it. Yes, the final rating doesn't look too ugly, but this may have the weakest QPR of any Amrut I've tried. I'd be much happier with the much cheaper 2021 Spectrum, or some of the Kadhambam, Portonova, or even Fusion batches.

Availability - ???
Pricing - $750 in the US in 2019
Rating - 84 (diluted only)

Amrut Spectrum 004, 2021 release

This post's entire introductory paragraph appeared in my head at once. I wrote it, then went back and looked at my review of the previous Amrut Spectrum release, and discovered that I essentially wrote the same exact thing three years ago. Oh well, here's an intro anyway, with new jokes.

Amrut Spectrum shouldn't appeal to my palate, but it does. It is indeed 100% cask hijinks, yet it works. How Amrut beat Lumsden, Reynier and Walker to the quadruple-stave vessel mystifies me. Where is Saucy Dr. Bill's Glenmorangie Ménage à Quatre? Perhaps I oughtn't encourage him.

If you haven't heard Amrut Spectrum's cask recipe yet, here it goes:

Maturation step 1 - ex-bourbon casks

Maturation step 2 - bespoke casks made of four different stave types: Level 3 charred American oak, toasted French oak, Oloroso-seasoned, and PX-seasoned.

This method worked for the 2017 release. Here's the 2021 release:

Distillery: Amrut
Region: Bangalore, India
Expression: Spectrum 004
Age: ???
Release year: 2021
Maturation: see above
Outturn: 6,000 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 50%
Chillfiltered? No
Color added? ???
(sample spirited away from an event)

NOTES

The gigantic schnozz is back! Dessert begins with dried berries, milk chocolate, almond extract and toffee. Then a tiramisu fashioned with a large dose of espresso, and dried apricots on the side. There are also some staves with a really nice mustiness to 'em. The palate is its own crazy confection that shouldn't work but does. Imagine a rum cake made with honey and lemon zest, filled with blueberry jam and black walnuts, and topped with figs and yellow nectarines. Served at a shisha bar. The finish holds onto the figs and black walnuts, while introducing oranges and grapefruits. The tannins remain impressively mild throughout.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

This 2021 version of Spectrum 004 has an outturn that is more than thrice the size of 2017's, at less than half the price per bottle, allowing more people access to this Technicolor whisky. As with the 2017, the "spirit was only present to deliver the product in a liquid medium", but what a product. Hopefully more batches will follow as Amrut tries out different time frames for each maturation. Or different cask sizes and oak types (and less virgin oak). Keep this going, Amrut!

Availability - USA and Europe
Pricing - $170-$210 in the US
Rating - 88