What the Heck, Amrut?

Hi @Nozinan,

I believe you may be referring to these coffee beans roasted and aged in ex-Amrut whisky barrels:

kcroasters.com/products/…

As for those new bottles with lower ABV, come on Amrut, I expected more from you than that.

@Nozinan the Horror! The Horror! This is why you never assume that something that you like will remain available. The whisk(e)y landscape is constantly changing. Assume nothing.

Why would Amrut do this, reduce ABVs? My guess is to up their volume of output. Maybe they will ramp up production and later decide that they can bring back some of these Cask Strength favourites. Maybe, if we are lucky. I am not holding my breath.

I sent a message to the distillery and had a reply by none other than Ashok Chockalingham.

I’ve screen grabbed it for you.

I don’t know how I feel about the answer. While I don’t go through a lot of these bottles, it’s uncomfortable knowing I can’t replace the ones I use, and the possibility of the return... will it be the same?

@Nozinan FORO rearing its ugly head? I would take his response as encouraging. It appears he is prepared to listen to the concerns of his customers.

Perhaps this will only affect the duty free version?

@Jonathan The only version is DF now -IS has gone Travel Retail.

It's like the Armstrong Bladnochs - if you 'aint got em, you 'aint gonna get em.

If you seem.... grab em.

@Nozinan the espresso bean variety coming soon was from me, and i was told by the Amrut representative at the London whisky fair so I’d say its pretty credible. Glad I stocked up a bit on IS and also have an unopened Port now... though, maybe the introduction of a travel retail doesn’t necessarily mean abolition of the normal expression?

@RikS The original bottlings no longer appear on their website, and Ashok confirmed that they dropped the ABV. The old IS and Portonova are no more.

I have a few but I will always worry about not having enough. It's the Macallan CS all over again.

@Nozinan well, it will be a sweet and powerful memory then

Oh, damn!!! Thanks for the heads up @Nozinan. IS is probably my favorite sherry bomb I've had to date along with the Glendronach 18 which is priced a lot higher. I'm typically not big on 'em but the IS is special and quite unique. Looks like I'm gonna have to snatch up any remaining bottles that are left around these parts.

I've yet to try the Portnova though.

The was made public in October 2018 on the TWE blog.I brought 6 bottles then and I am happy I did.

They are not quite as good as the first batch I tried though. The newer releases are a little thinner in mouth feel and are missing that heavy syrupy texture from the earlier releases. Still a lovely dram. Gonna be missed.