Whisky : Amrut Port Pipe Peated (Single Cask #2713 bottled for LMDW)

Country/Region : India (Bangalore)

ABV : 62.8% Cask Strength

Cask : American Virgin Oak / Port Pipe

Tasting : Neat in a Glencairn @ Maison du Whisky Singapore

Nose : Thick and syrupy port wine with the sweet smokey smell of burning grass and earth.

Palate : Unmistakable spicy cinnamon and clove undergird this whisky, though they are largely overridden by the pungent and dry nature of the port. It has an almost sour astringency to it. Charred oak, burnt sugar, toasted earth all come and go, largely dominated by the tannic port.

Finish : Long lingering burn from the high alcohol content, rich wintertime spices radiate from the back of the mouth. This glass would really have benefited from more time to rest and develop— I think we gave it a half hour, but I imagine this bottle will only become more nuanced and approachable, especially in the finish, as it’s open and slowly oxidizes.

Score : 7

Mental Image : The unmistakable influence of the Port carries me back to childhood, kneeling down in an old stone church to take a sip of communion wine; sweet and warm with the unmistakable radiating heat of a port wine. As a child the taste of communion wine on a Sunday morning was unique and stuck with me, so that even now, port wine has the effect of surfacing these gentle memories.

Something Better : Octomore 8.3 (more peat, more balance & subtlety from variety of wine casks blended)

Something Similar : Amrut Peated Cask Strength (peat shines through without wine/port influence)

Something Worse : Kilchoman Machir Bay (similar peat spices, less body, less fruit)

Notes : I enjoyed this a great deal and might have enjoyed it more had I not done the tasting on the same night I tasted the Amrut Spectrum 004 which really grabbed me. It is ultimately not as complex a whisky as I would have hoped. The Port influence is a little too overpowering and drowns out all of the more subtle notes. Still, it was overall a fun dram to pick through, its unbalanced and that is not a bad thing. I would love to have a bottle of this to play around and try matching it with some different foods to see what happens with the flavors— however, that’s not likely given its limited nature and relatively high price point.

I also think it is the type of high octane bottle that needs a lot more time to breath. I think breathing in the glass or the bottle might tamp down some of port and allow more of the natural malt flavors to come forward. It may have also benefited from a bit more water in the glass, I added a few drops as we went along, which did bring out some more earthy notes, but also amplified the sweetness of the port.