{"id":2185,"date":"2016-08-30T17:05:15","date_gmt":"2016-08-30T21:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/?p=2185"},"modified":"2017-12-22T15:58:11","modified_gmt":"2017-12-22T20:58:11","slug":"amrut-fusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/2016\/08\/30\/amrut-fusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Amrut Fusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amrut is a very popular single malt whisky maker from India.\u00a0 Yes, you heard that last part right. As discussed in my earlier Kavalan<\/a> (Taiwan) reviews, you can actually make excellent malt whisky in hot and humid tropical environments.<\/p>\n

Wood barrel aging is a complex thing, with many different processes occurring simultaneously (see my Source of Whisky’s Flavour<\/a> article for more info). A lot of these can be accelerated by temperature – although not all, and not uniformly. One key difference is that hot and humid environments increase both water and alcohol evaporation (respectively), leading to a greater combined “angel’s share” over time. This differs from traditional malt whisky matured in relatively cold and damp Scotland (which preferentially favours the loss of alcohol over water, and more slowly over time).<\/p>\n

The end result is that barrel aging is largely accelerated in hot and humid climates, and thus Indian whiskys (like Taiwanese ones) are typically bottled very young. As such, don’t expect to see age statements on any Amrut malt whisky – it would be very misleading, relative to our typical Scottish age “calibration.”<\/p>\n

Fusion is one of Amrut’s most popular entry-level single malts.\u00a0 Unusually, it is a mixture of 25% peated Scottish barley and 75% unpeated Indian malt (both distilled independently). The combined product was then matured in a combination of new and used American oak barrels at the Amrut distillery in Bangalore. As a result, you can expect a lightly-peated malt whisky – but one with many of the “tropical” fruit flavours common to Indian whisky.<\/p>\n

As an aside, my initial exposure to Amrut was their basic Indian Single Malt expression – which is pure Indian barley, matured in a mix of new and old American oak. Personally, I am not a fan of that one – I find it too sweet, almost like a banana liqueur. Let’s see how the Fusion does instead. I obtained a sample through a swap with 89Justin on Reddit.<\/p>\n

First, the Meta-Critic scores:<\/p>\n

Amrut 100 Peated: 8.91 \u00b1 0.37 on 6 reviews ($$$$)
\nAmrut Fusion: 8.90 \u00b1 0.24 on 22 reviews ($$$$)<\/strong>
\nAmrut Peated Single Malt: 8.66 \u00b1 0.35 on 10 reviews ($$$$)
\nAmrut Single Malt: 8.37 \u00b1 0.47 on 13 reviews ($$$)<\/p>\n

Ardmore Traditional Cask: 8.51 \u00b1 0.23 on 19 reviews ($$$)
\nBowmore 12yo: 8.36 \u00b1 0.23 on 16 reviews ($$$)
\nHighland Park 12yo: 8.65 \u00b1 0.22 on 21 reviews ($$$)
\nJura 10yo Origin: 8.01 \u00b1 0.38 on 16 reviews ($$$)
\nLedaig 10yo: 8.21 \u00b1 0.35 on 16 reviews ($$$)
\nLongrow Peated: 8.81 \u00b1 0.19 on 12 reviews ($$$)
\nOban 14yo: 8.44 \u00b1 0.40 on 15 reviews ($$$$)
\nSpringbank 10yo: 8.69 \u00b1 0.24 on 19 reviews ($$$$)
\nTalisker 10yo: 8.92 \u00b1 0.19 on 21 reviews ($$$$)<\/p>\n

I’ve focused on many of the classic lightly-peated (flavour cluster I<\/a>) whiskies from my database above. As you can see from the mean scores, Amrut Fusion is extensively reviewed, and does very well in comparison. It’s also typically a good value (~$80-$85 CAD at the LCBO in Ontario, or SAQ in Quebec)<\/p>\n

And now my tasting notes:<\/p>\n

Nose<\/strong>: Red-skinned fruits, especially currants and plum, followed by tropical banana, pineapple, and guava. Definite smoke, but more campfire-style than peaty. Vanilla and brown sugar. Malty, with a faint yeasty smell.\u00a0 Also a touch of glue, unfortunately.\u00a0 Definitely complex and distinctive, a nice mix of aromas.<\/p>\n

Palate<\/strong>: Red fruits again, and some citrus now (orange). The caramel and vanilla picks up, as do the classic rye baking spices (especially all spice). Some tongue tingle and a bit of burn (likely due to the 50% ABV). Smoke is still there, and complimented by some dry peat. Slightly oily mouthfeel, with a good substantial weight.<\/p>\n

\"Amrut.Fusion\"Finish<\/strong>: Fairly long. Lingering orange and berry sweetness, plus some artificial sweetness (banana candies?). Otherwise, lots of extinguished smoke on the way out, which makes for a nice finish.<\/p>\n

This was a pleasant surprise after the basic Amrut Indian Single Malt.\u00a0 While I get the same tropical fruit notes here (especially banana), they are not as overwhelming. Given that Fusion is typically only typically ~$10 more, I strongly recommend you skip right over to this one.<\/p>\n

In some ways, Fusion reminds me of a tropical fruit version of Highland Park – lightly peated, with loads of fruit flavour. It is probably a bit sweeter up front, and the character of the peat is bit different, but I expect fans of the classic HP style would appreciate this Indian malt as well.<\/p>\n

Amrut Fusion is an extensively reviewed whisky, with a fairly consistent above-average ranking from most reviewers.\u00a0 At the lower end (but still positive) are Serge of Whisky Fun<\/a>, Oliver of Pour Me Another One<\/a>, and Ruben of Whisky Notes<\/a>.\u00a0 At the high end are Thomas of Whisky Saga<\/a>, Jim Murray (96 score), and Josh the The Whiskey Jug<\/a>. More typical are Nathan the Scotch Noob<\/a>, and the boys at Quebec Whisky<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amrut is a very popular single malt whisky maker from India.\u00a0 Yes, you heard that last part right. As discussed in my earlier Kavalan (Taiwan) reviews, you can actually make excellent malt whisky in hot and humid tropical environments. Wood barrel aging is a complex thing, with many different processes occurring simultaneously (see my Source of Whisky’s Flavour article for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[78,137,18,29,17],"class_list":["post-2185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whiskies","tag-amrut","tag-india","tag-nas","tag-sherry","tag-single-malt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2185"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2462,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185\/revisions\/2462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}