India’s famous single malt

Amrut Distilleries,a part of the 64-year-old NR Jagdale Group,aggregates Rs 200 crore in sales every year from over 40 lakh cases of liquor,most of which are consumed in India. At just 7,000-8,000 cases a year,single malts are a miniscule part — an indulgence,really — of this business. “It’s like producing an Olympic athlete. You cannot churn them out by the dozen,” says Neelakanta Rao R Jagdale,managing director of Amrut Distilleries,at his office in Rajajinagar,Bangalore.

“We are targeting 25,000-30,000 cases in the next couple of years and we are extremely happy at the reception our single malts have got in the world market,” says his son and executive director Rakshit Jagdale,the man behind the group’s foray into single malts in 2004. Pursuing an MBA in marketing from the UK,Rakshit surveyed the single malt market as part of his thesis and returned home with an encouraging report. “We had set aside some of our whisky by the early 2000s and with this,we decided to launch Amrut Indian Single Malt,with 40 per cent alcohol,in England,” says Rao. “No one had heard of Indian whisky,so initially,we were contemplating foreign names for our single malt brand. But thankfully,we decided against it. Amrut was an old brand of ours and it means ‘elixir’,which we thought was quite apt for an Indian single malt. If the product is good,it will sell,no matter what.” The British press and single malt snobs said cheers to this unlikely whisky from India and Amrut took this first sniff of success seriously enough to craft increasingly complex whiskies.

Vibrant and fanciful,with poetic descriptions on their bottles,Amrut’s amber single malts evoke scenes from Mad Men,the TV show responsible for a whisky revival in the US: you are transported to a gentleman’s den covered in leather,mahogany and smoke,with a liquor cabinet stocked full of bourbon.

For a young single malt brand,Amrut has already launched nine different expressions,or finishes that lend surprising flavours to the whisky,and it is well on its way to announcing exquisite limited editions. Nosing one such peated whisky left to mature in an Oloroso sherry butt,Surrinder Kumar,vice president of production at the distillery,points out its subtleties. Peat,a fossil fuel traditionally used in Scotland to dry malted barley before distillation,imparts a distinct smoky flavour to the whisky. “The peat hides between the sherry notes and the barley. It’s a beautiful whisky with 64 per cent alcohol and it will soon be ready for a single-barrel release,” he says. Indian barley strains,cultivated chiefly in Punjab and Haryana,produce smaller grains with more flavour,but peated grain must be imported from Scotland. The award-winning Fusion,in fact,is made with 80 per cent Indian barley and 20 per cent peated grain from Scotland,distilled and aged separately before being married for six months to a year in casks that were used to age bourbon.

Pitted against an indomitable,200-year-old industry,Amrut’s USP is its zeal to experiment. Already,with cheeky releases like the Kadhambam,literally meaning “a mixture”,a whisky aged first in sherry butts,then in brandy and rum casks,it has earned a libertarian reputation. “Last year,we released a whisky finished in port pipes,and we are now working on several interesting products,including an American-style rye whisky,” says Kumar,whose proudest moment in his 25 years at Amrut came when Rao asked him to sign a limited edition release two years ago. A food technologist from Kashmir,Kumar shows us around the distillery,equipped with two copper pot-stills of different shapes.

Barley grist from a malt mill is churned with hot water and left to ferment for a week in six temperature-controlled steel tanks. It is then double-distilled in the pot-stills and the “heart” of the liquid extracted and filled in imported oak casks — some of them ex-sherry or ex-bourbon — to be left to age for three to four years in one of their four warehouses.

Compared to the 12 years it takes to mature whisky in Scotland,the high temperatures in India allow quicker maturation,but this comes at a cost. For every year the whisky rests,10-11 per cent of it is lost in evaporation through the porous oak. “We call it the angels’ share. In Scotland,the loss is about two per cent a year. Here,at the end of four years,we are left with only half of the original quantity,” says Rao. He is unapologetic about Amrut’s price tags: some of its single malts are more expensive than premium Scottish whiskies. And yet,they sell out fast,he says. The company sells limited quantities of two variants in India,that too,only in Bangalore: Amrut Fusion and Amrut Indian Single Malt. Both contain less than 46 per cent alcohol and sell for over Rs 2,000 a bottle. “We already have a presence in 22 countries. There isn’t enough single malt to meet the demand,” says Rao, adding that now young India is eager to experience quality whiskies. “They will pick up a bottle of Black Label for their dads,but also a single malt for themselves,” he says.