As one who doesn’t live in the UK/Scotland, it’s no wonder I have a ongoing love affair with world whiskies. quite earlier in my single malt whisky road I purchased and tried couple of world whiskies from Japan, South Africa, Europe but somehow one important market eluded me – India, at least until now.

There are 2 known single malt whisky producers from India: Paul John and Amrut and I finally got to taste one of Amrut single cask expressions – a PX sherry cask distilled on June 2009 and was bottled August 2013. Yes, only 4years old one but it should not come as a surprise as Indian whisky isn’t aged for long due to the hot and humid climate there. Amrut rarely age their whisky over 4 years as the angel’s share is x5-x8 than the usual one in Scotland (their oldest expression is 8 years old)

So a 4 years old whisky from PX sherry single cask – is it a sherry bomb or not?

Amrut single cask sherry PX cask #2701 (62.8%, 301 bottles, 81 euro)

Nose: Oh my, this is one big sherried nose: sweet syrup, soaked raisins, bit cloying, rubber notes (like crocs sandals!), nutmeg and sweeeeeetness. the PX hides everything else so very one dimensional. with water (lots of water!), sweetness recedes a bit and we get chocolate

Palate: Wow, it’s so sweet, heavy & concentrated sherries and soaked raisins. With water, finally we get the notes that were hidden below the sweet river – spices, oak with wood spices, chocolate filled with cherry,

Finish: medium length, lingering sherries and with water, oak wood, spices and lingering pepper.

Conclusion: Well, this one isn’t intended to drink neat. Even though I love cask strength whiskies couldn’t enjoy it that way as it felt more sherry than whisky. Hell, it felt more sherry than sherry! But after diluting with water I could actually enjoy it a bit even though it’s still very PX sherry influenced. It’s not a complex whisky but if you like your big (very big!) sweet sherried whisky, it’s one you should look at.