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Friday, July 15, 2022

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