Amrut Distillery Tour

There are definitely unique aspects to the Amrut Distillery located on the outskirts of Bengaluru, India. Bengaluru is known as the Silicon Valley of India because of its massive high tech industry, which is indelibly linked to high tech in the USA. Of course, you will find many similarities between Amrut and the world’s finest distilleries.

Amrut Distillery Aligned with Scotch Whisky Association Standards

Amrut Distillery makes their Single Malt Whisky according to the exacting standards set out by the Scotch Whisky Association. Amrut Indian Single Malt Whisky uses 6 row barley, vs the 2 row barley used in Scotland. This results in smaller grains with more flavors and a slightly sweeter taste profile. Barley is 100% Indian grown and comes from Northern States of Haryana, Punjab + Rajasthan. The exception to that is the peated barley from Baird's Malting, Inverness, Scotland.

Amrut buys bourbon barrels from Heaven Hill, Buffalo Trace and Jack Daniels. Amrut uses both American new oak and used bourbon barrels in it's aging process.

Amrut: The Missing Link Between Scotland and Kentucky

Amrut Head Distiller Ashok Chokalingam likes to position Amrut Indian Single Malt Whisky as the missing link between Scotland and Kentucky. The reason behind this analogy is that distillation style and mash bill for Amrut is similar to Scotland. However, maturation is more towards Kentucky as the angel's share is high and humidity is also low. 

The angel's share for Amrut is an average of 10-12% per year. The year on year the loss is on the residual quantity of liquid left in the cask. The most commonly used loss percentage for Scotland is 2% per year. This explains why Amrut’s most most exclusive whiskies; the Greedy Angels bottlings are so special and so rare.

Amrut makes a statement that it’s whiskies mature 3 times faster than Scotland because the maturation profile both on the human palate and on HPLC machine, we get a very similar profile between a 12 year old Scotch Single Malt whisky and an Amrut 4 year old Single Malt Whisky.