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Amrut Intermediate Sherry Matured

Perfect Quality Sherry; Batch 5

0 494

@VictorReview by @Victor

20th Mar 2014

0

  • Nose
    22
  • Taste
    24
  • Finish
    24
  • Balance
    24
  • Overall
    94

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Distribution of ratings for this: brand user

Amrut avoids the sherry cask sulphur trap by shipping its newly emptied Intermediate Sherry Casks from Spain with Amrut Cask Strength Whisky in them. "Intermediate Sherry" refers to a wood maturation sequence of bourbon-sherry-bourbon. The reviewed bottle is from Batch # 5, bottled May 2011. The reviewed bottle has been open for one month and is 50% full

Colour: reddish-brown, medium depth

Nose: strong bright tart oloroso sherry greets you immediately. This is medium-sweet with a good dry balance. The barley-malt is subtle but apparent under the surface. Deeper inspection reveals underlying bass wood tones and deep dark fruit notes. Very nice. Added water fuses the nose flavours but makes them more intense. I like the nose a little better with water added

Taste: the nose translates to the palate with increased emphasis and fullness. The sherry on the palate is just flawless and very beautiful. This batch 5 goes lush and broad with its fruity flavours in the mouth. This whisky remains very bright and very tart along with the sweet to provide a lovely balance. With water, the flavours are thicker, and similarly nice

Finish: the finish is long, with those perfect wine flavours gradually diminishing. With water added the flavours of the finish are thicker, but not any tastier

Balance: this Amrut Intermediate Sherry is a revelation. Those who can taste sulphur and do not like it need to taste this whisky. Amrut Intermediate Sherry demonstrates the perfection of clean sherry casks. After drinking this it is easy to see what is wrong with so much of Scottish sherried malt whisky. If I were a Scottish distiller I would race to adopt Amrut's system for sherry cask quality control. The difference in sherry cask quality over the average Scottish sherried malt just hits you right in the face with when you drink Amrut Intermediate Sherry. I opened this bottle with friends a month ago. Before I had blinked 5 or 6 times the bottle was 40% empty. Amrut Intermediate Sherry is THAT GOOD

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4 comments

@Nozinan
Nozinan commented

Yes, it absolutely is THAT GOOD. I haven't had some in a while, but there's a small glass bottle with the remains of my bottle waiting for me in the basement. I may need to pay it a visit soon after this review... Thanks for reminding me.

10 years ago 0

@Misty
Misty commented

Great review Victor and I am totally aligned with you. I also found a subtle milk chocolate on the nose and palate which was delightful (Batch 6). It really is so clean though, isn't it.

I don't buy into this 'some sulphur is good' or 'one struck match adds balance', sulphur is always bad in my book!

The only very slight distraction for me is its youth. It tastes very mature in general, but deep down (almost hidden) I can still detect a little phenolic spirity esters indicating it's youthfullness.

I tell you what though if you like that, go find a bottle of 'Portonova'. That really blew my socks off. Probably one of my top 3 port finishes. Their basic cask strength is also quite pleasing (Ripe fruit, orange honeycomb with just a hint of fresh baby vomit). Sounds bizare, but by god it works!

Fair play to Amrut. I would love to see a 12yr old sherry from them, part aged in bangalore and part in a cooler climate.

10 years ago 0

@Nock
Nock commented

Fantastic review. I think you captured batch 5 very well indeed. My memory is that batch 5 was more intense then batch 2. I like that. However, batch 2 had a more dark fruit notes to me. That said, I think I would score them about the same . . . and probably fairly close to your score. Congrats on the reserve bottle. Thanks for talking my wife into telling me to buy the one I have!

10 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor commented

@Nock, I am drinking some of the batch 5 right now. It is such a first rate whisky. I am sorry that we weren't able to get more bottles of Amrut Intermediate Sherry at that bargain Tennessee price. That was a deal not to be missed. Of course, while you were looking at them on the liquor store floor, neither you nor I, nor your wife, knew yet just how much we would all later like them.

It will be fun to later review the batch # 2.

10 years ago 0

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