Amrut Peated Cask Strength

I was at the Dublin airport last week, and they had amrut peated CS - I did my due diligence and took the bottles out of the cases and discovered they had two batches on the shelves - batch 28 (bott. Jan 2016) and batch 35 (I can't remember when bottled). Originally, I went for 35, as it was significantly lighter in colour (natural colour) as I like distillate driven spirits - but then I went back and grabbed the darker 28 instead since I've had some smashing woody Amruts. I don't regret my choice, though I regret not picking up batch 35 as well....

A dense, rich, gorgeous nose. Woody and tropical and slightly floral: Leather, heather flowers, lavender, dried peach, dried apricot, dried papaya, light sweet smoke (wood smoke/char rather than vegetal peat smoke), custard. The palate is quite smoky, and rich – fire roasted chickpeas, lots of dried fruit, oak – ever so slightly astringent, in a good way - tannins and tobacco play in lightly. Finish is lightly smoky, vegetal, dry – still lots of tropical fruit and dried fruit. There’s a growing richness and smokiness, a flourish of spice, and I get some more tobacco oils (like the finish of a good cigar, a few hours after it has been smoked).

Batch 12 was more malty, less woody, less smoky – and sweeter. That being said, they are definitely in the same family, and they are both brilliant. This is smokier, and, oddly, brighter at the same time. I like this with a touch of water added – it’s a bit too dense at cask strength. Richer, smokier, but not as well balanced as batch 12. A terrific buy, I should have picked up 35 as well...

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