Heard great things about Amrut so been wanting to have a try of this for a while. This is from a 2/3 full bottle that's been open a month or so.
Nose neat: There's rich, fruity barley, oak, spice and a tangy peat note emerges with some persistent sniffing.
Taste neat: This is rich and concentrated. Effervescent barley and sour fruit.
Finish: Med - long. Chewy sour fruit syrup and some faint peat.
I don't think I've ever split a review into neat and then with water but this one is worthy of the extra effort. It doesn't need water, and it's one you can play about with quite a lot, but it definitely improves the experience. The happy place for me is about a 1/4 tsp to a 30-35 ml pour. I'll let that sit for a little while . . .
Nose: That's better! Fruits, lots of them. I've spent over a year in India, all visits combined, and this does take me back. Lychees and a similar fruit that I only remember the Thai name 'glop-jai' for. Mango? yes , I think so - overripe, woody ones. There's a lovely American cream soda sherbet note (could eat that stuff by the lb as a kid). Much more peat and barrel char type smoke coming out now. Sour notes have the upper hand but sweetness is there. Dusty barley.
Taste: Sweet arrival that hints at fruit but then unwinds into the cream soda. Then a note like a wooden fruit market stall bench after a long day in the Indian sun develops. Woody, sweaty and overripe. Some baking spices; clove, hints of cardamom and some cinnamon.
Finish: This is so much better with water added. Longer with a beautiful mild peat, sweet liquorice tang along with the fruit syrup but less concentrated and lighter, sweeter. Less sour and the cream soda makes a final appearance.
Overall, really good and given my experiences with 'molasses whisky' this is in a whole different league. The cream soda note is so unusual but a delight and the quality of both barley and production very evident. Also interesting to see a malt matured in a hotter climate. You can sense the youth but there's complexity with it.; not masses, but enough. .
The peated CS is for me the best Amrut I've ever had (one of the top whiskies as well), with the Bourbon single casks I've opened very close behind.
Give me a good fragrant Durian any day.