Amrut Naarangi

Amrut is always making experiments to enhance the whisky experience of their consumers. Naaragi, is a single malt that had been matured 3 years on a traditional oak cask, to then be finished for another 3 years in a cask that previously held a combination of oloroso sherry, matured wine and orange peels. Bottled at 50%abv, tawny color. On the nose, it is all about oranges. Old orange peel, orange caramel, orange spices. Bbq sauce, super citric. Lemon and citric green apples. On the nose, it follows the same path: Tangerine, lime, lemoncello. A second sip gave me burnt paper and raw cereal. Aftertaste is a mildly peated. Burnt hay; sulphuric and copper notes. Dry and peaty; tobacco ashes. Overall, this is exactly what it has to be, a tribute to all things that are related to oranges. Naarangi must mean "oranges" or something like that, since it sounds very similar to "naranjas" which the spanish word for Oranges. A citric, but strong dram, my score for it is a solid 84 over 100.

So this is going to be unique....oranges and sherry, and 6 years old? OK. Nose - well not to shock anyone but orange spice. It actually brings me back to the one and only time I had an orange chocolate and was confused as hell with it. Like people want THAT? However on whisky I'm not sure I have such an instant dislike. In fact, I'm somewhat intrigued by the lack of an amrut oak finish on the nose. More shocked I even get some vanilla with the chocolate (sherry influence?) and well orange peels for sure. Taste - So once again orange way hard up front, but then comes spices and oak, then it softens and lets in vanilla and perhaps even honey, then back to oak and rich flavors. The finish almost even has me thinking for a second there might be some peat in here. Bitters and sours and sweet and spicy are all over this dram. This is complex and truly unique whisky so in these sense, I'm a big fan. Would this be a daily drinker for me? No. Will I buy another bottle? Nope. Am I reasonably happy with this however? Yeah, actually am pretty happy with this. It once again shows that power of amrut's finish from the oak being able to offset odd and overly sweet whiskies. Scoring a 3.25 due to the insane complexity but holding back a bit as I can't really get past the orange oddities I get. I think here again Amrut had epic potential and we got good whisky instead.

Dramfest 2020. Not as good as it's brothers but a stuffed palate seemed to favor this dram and I enjoyed its its weirdness.

Definitely orange on the nose but the taste is mixture of thick spices with a sherry finish

Nose: bitter dried orange peel, cooking spices (coriander, cinnamon), fig newtons. Taste: slightly sweeter than the nose, sherry, figs, then bitter orange peel comes in strong. Decent mouthfeel. Finish: left with the bitter orange peel. Balance: pretty one dimensional. And that dimension is not what I look for in a whiskey. Though, it is executed okay. 82.5/100