Amrut Fusion: On a new high

IT HAS A TINGLING, FRUITY TASTE, and was rated the third best whisky in the world in 2010 by the influential trade publication Whisky Bible (WB). Then, in November 2010, Jim Murray, WB’s publisher, gave Amrut Fusion a Liquid Gold rating of 97 on 100, taking it to the same league as a Glenfiddich 50-year-old. No other Indian whisky has gotten close. But there’s something that India’s best single malt, Amrut Fusion, made from an 80:20 mix of Indian barley and Scottish peated barley, can’t boast of: age. In a world where the best in class are often at least a decade old, Amrut Distilleries’ single malt, aged four, is comparatively juvenile.

“We’ve taught the West that age is a bit of a myth,” says Surrinder Kumar, the 54-year-old master distiller who’s been with Amrut for 30 years.

According to Amrut chairman and managing director Neelakanta Rao Jagdale, “convincing the West that the ageing process here is different” has been his biggest challenge since they began selling Amrut Fusion in 2004. “At blind tastings abroad, people would say this is a 10- or 15-year-old whisky. We had to explain that if I keep it for 10 years, there will be nothing left in the barrel,” he says.
Lined up in a shed on Amrut’s four-acre campus, a 45-minute drive from Bangalore, are some 5,000 barrels. Almost all are made of American oak as India does not boast wood good enough for ageing whisky. Every couple of months, a distiller opens a barrel, dips a little cup, and tastes the whisky to check the maturing process.

Once the grist (made from an extract of barley, yeast, and water) is poured, it reacts with the char-lined inner surface of the barrel, and starts absorbing taste and colour from the wood. Some liquid vapourises (‘angel’s share’ in trade terms). Kumar explains that more liquid escapes in warmer climates than in, say, Scotland. Also, there is less chance of moisture seeping in, which dilutes the whisky. “While the liquid loss in Scotland is about 2% a year, it could be up to 10% here. The ‘ageing’ process is accelerated,” he adds.

Gurus like Glenfiddich’s master distiller and global brand ambassador, Ian Miller, have been wowed. “I tasted Amrut Fusion at one of the biggest pubs in Glasgow recently. It could easily be a Speyside whisky,” he says, referring to the spring-filled haven of whisky-making in Scotland. He adds that Amrut is a great example of how the world of whisky is changing as countries such as Japan and India have begun introducing new varieties. “It proves that India has come a long, long way from just being a market of blended whiskies made from molasses,” says Miller.

Jagdale’s father started the distillery in 1948, selling rum and brandy to army folk posted in Bangalore. Its office, housed in a Raj-era building, is strewn with military keepsakes. The tasting counter where visitors sample whisky is made of wood from the vats in which the distillery’s rum was sent to Indian soldiers during the Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971. And on a wall hangs a citation from former adjutant general Lt. Gen. S.S. Grewal, thanking Amrut for sending 600 free cases of rum to soldiers fighting in the 1999 Kargil War.

Amid these mementos, the son is battling a dilemma these days—to scale up or not. At 6,000 to 7,000 cases a year, Amrut is tiny. Industry giant, the UB Group, the second largest spirits manufacturer in the world, sells a million-plus cases. Amrut Fusion retails for around £50 (Rs 3,552) a bottle and mostly abroad—in markets such as England, Scotland, Ireland, and the U.S. That’s because, despite India being the world’s largest whisky market at 200 million cases a year, single malts account for barely 1% by volume. In the West, that figure stands at 9%.

“We were clear that volume was not the idea. We just wanted to create a world class single malt,” says Jagdale. But now, with the recent reviews, expansion doesn’t seem a bad option. Spirits consultant Sandeep Arora says there’s a growing market that can be tapped in India. “Amrut needs a much better roll-out. Now, it is available only in Bangalore,” he says. (Besides Amrut Fusion, the distillery makes four other varieties of single malt.)

Jagdale accepts the point on the opportunity. But he feels the distillery will have to be careful about being able to sustain quality over larger volumes. Hence, a limited expansion is planned in Mumbai and Delhi in 2011.

A big challenge could be when biggies like UB start making single malts. After all, the potential to distil world class whisky in half the time makes for a compelling business. So far they’ve chased volumes, but that could change.

These things don’t worry Jagdale. In the early years when the distillery could not afford a Scottish potstill (a copper distillation chamber), he convinced some Scottish friends to share designs and Amrut made its own potstill in India, using some help from Scottish consultants.

“We’ve learnt to beat the odds,” he says.