Tasting two extreme Amruts

May 6, 2013

Tasting two extreme Amruts

Long time no Amrut! Agreed, a crying shame, so let’s have two of them today and we’ll go to the two extremes, from the oldest and possibly the sweetest official ever to the peatiest, or at least one of the peatiest independent versions.

Amrut 2004/2012 'Greedy Angels' (50%, OB)

This baby from two casks, #2800 and 2864, that gave only 86 litres altogether, so 144 bottles while 274 litres have been lost to the angels (but do they have angels too in India?) Probably wee 180l barrels since 86+274=360. So less than 25% have remained for us. Agreed, enough maths. Colour: full gold. Nose: gorgeously fruity and sweet, we’re more or less in Sauternes territories here. Also reminds me of Jurrassian straw wine (vin de paille). Bags of sultanas, a little Muscat, vanilla, apricot jam or liqueur, then more sweet herbs (is that genepy? Wormwood?), crystallised pineapples and papayas. Plus, above all, only a slight oakiness (new planks), never strong. It’s got something of an old honeyed Speysider, between old Caperdonich and Balvenie. With water: the wormwood comes to the front. The whole remains extremely clean. Plum pie. Mouth (neat): exactly in line with the nose, which does not happen so often. The only big difference is that we also have quite some liquorice here. Strong herbal tea with mint (forgotten in the teapot). Other than that, same Sauternes-y feeling, apricot jam, a little Grand-Marnier… Very rounded without being dull, very full, oily… With water: once again, little changes. Maybe the citrusy part becomes a notch more prominent. Pink grapefruits that add a great zestiness. Finish: that’s where it’s a little less impressive. A little short but it remains clean. In fact there isn’t much happening anymore, but no worries at all. Comments: simply another impressive Amrut, tasting more like +/-25 year old on a ‘Scotch’ scale. But greedy Garudas! – although Garudas are more into snakes than whisky, aren’t there. SGP:651 - 89 points.

Peated Amrut (62.7%, Blackadder, Raw Cask, cask #BA14/2012, 282 bottles, 2012)

282 bottles at cask strength, that’s much more and from a larger cask (hogshead) but this baby’s been partly aged in Scotland. I doubt it’s spent much time in Bangalore. By the way, age or vintage aren’t disclosed anyway, which suggests a lot of, cough, cough, youth. Colour: gold (so it mustn’t be too young). Nose: peat and vanilla and the other way ‘round. Very straight, very simple and yet it’s pretty flawless. And it’s not even aggressive. With water: no changes, since it wasn’t aggressive in the first place. Mouth (neat): wham! Peat and bitter herbs, an ultra-heavy liqueur. Oily mouth feel. With water: sweet peat, an even bigger herbal side, more liquorice, some juniper, some lemon zests. Remains very herbal and very liqueury (strong liqueurs), the peat bring more herbalness rather than smokiness here. Interesting! Finish: very long this time, ion the same junipery notes. Comments: quite a beast, probably not to everyone’s liking but I’m quite a fan. SGP:376 - 85 points.