New Limited Amrut Whisky One Of India’s First 10 Year Old Single Malts

How much do you know about Indian whisky? It is actually quite the fascinating subject of a nation full of whisky drinkers and a local industry creating a lot of domestic product viewed by other portions of the whisky world as not being true to the definition of the spirit. We’ll cover Indian whisky at a later time in a more detailed post, but for now I’d like to call your attention to an interesting new release announced recently from Amrut Distilleries, an Indian distillery credited with being one of the first in that country to produce whisky from actual malted grains and not molasses like many others there do.

The new Amrut Greedy Angels, for hardcore fans of this Indian whisky brand, is an already known quantity previously released as a very limited edition eight-year old expression. The new bottling just unveiled is a 10 year whisky that is also very limited, with only 320 bottles being released globally. It will also be a spendy little purchase for a relatively young offering, pricing around 500 euros (around $550 USD).

Now why would you want to pay over $500 for a 10 year whisky? Because it is said by Amrut to be the first decade old single malt ever to be produced in India, that’s why. Here’s how Amrut breaks down what’s behind “Greedy Angels – Chairman’s Reserve”:

Given the high temperatures and humidity in India the loss of whisky during maturation is close to 10-12% in comparison to Scotland’s 1-2%. This makes ageing of these malts a very tricky affair and the quantity left for bottling quite meagre compared to what was started off with. A total of 320 bottles of these exquisite bottles are available with 284 bottles sailing to Europe & 36 to the United States of America. The specially designed package consists of a 700/750 ml crystal decanter bottled at 46% ABV and a 50 ml miniature decanter bottled at full cask strength of 71% ABV.

Interested in getting a bottle after reading all of this? You may be too late unfortunately, as Amrut said it is aware already that “almost all of the bottles have been pre-sold or reserved and most of the units will end up as collectibles in shelves of aficionados.” Bummer, but maybe if you get lucky you can score a bottle before they all disappear.

Amrut, if you are unfamiliar with it, “was launched in 2004 as an experiment by Amrut Distilleries, a Bangalore based conglomerate that started operations in 1948. Amrut was the first ever-Indian single malt and was launched in Glasgow, right in the heart of Scotland. The whiskies were received well across the world owing to their quality and have grown aggressively. Amrut now bottles around 18 expressions of single malts, which are sold in 40 countries and growing.”