In high spirits: The world is acquiring a taste for Indian single malt
Synopsis
What began as an experimental offering is now maturing into a story of its own.
The journey of Indian single malt whisky has its roots in old stocks and spunk.
In the 1980s, late NR Jagdale, the Chairman and Managing Director of Amrut Distilleries, started using malt whisky to make blends of higher quality than those that were sold in the country then. In the 1990s, an influx of international brands with lighter whiskies compelled Amrut to reduce the malt content in their whiskies. This resulted in the surplus stock of
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How Indian whisky moved from back-street dens to pride-of-place
The thought of Indian whisky once made even the least discerning spirits-drinker shudder. Now the price of it does. Bangalore is a long way from Islay but its distillers have changed the way we think about Indian spirits.
Leading this charge is Amrut, a distillery founded in Karnataka in 1948 and initially producing spirits including dark rum and blue grape brandy. Solan No 1 is the first single malt whisky made by Amrut, although its whisky making heritage dates back further, with its popular MaQuinosh Premium whisky blended with sugar cane.
Amrut soon discovered one of the main problems of distilling in a hot climate: after only a year of maturing its first malt it discovered that the agnels had taken more than their fair share, with evaporation accounting for more than 10 per cent of each barrel, compared to around two per cent in Scotland.