Amrut – Peated Cask Strength Indian Single Malt (70cl, 62.8%)

This is a peated Indian single malt from Amrut, in a 70cl bottle. The barley is dried over peat fires in Scotland and then processed in India, and the distillery gives the malt a phenol level of about 23 ppm. The whisky matured for four to five years in bourbon casks in the warm climate of Bengaluru, where roughly 10 to 12% of each cask is lost to evaporation every year. It is bottled at 62.8%, non-chill-filtered and with no added colouring. The nose is coarsely ground smoked barley and smoked herring with salted butter, with a peppery edge. The palate starts young and boisterous, then turns to firm malt and noticeably drier oak. In the finish the peat becomes more restrained, with unsweetened medium-roast Mysore coffee, then soft liquorice and molasses.