Indian Whisky
The manufacture of whisky from malted grains in India was pioneered by Amrut Distilleries in 1982. Amrut Distilleries began procuring barley from farmers in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, in addition to molasses, and launched Prestige Blended Malt Whisky in the Canteen Stores Department in 1986. The first batch of single malt whisky was ready within 18 months. Because India had no culture of consuming single malts at the time, the company did not consider bottling it as a single malt. Instead, the whisky was blended with alcohol distilled from sugarcane to produce MaQintosh Premium Whisky According to Neelakanta Jagdale, "The alcoholic beverages industry was not a priority in the country. Although we received help to a certain extent from the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), we had to find our own ways to learn about improved distilling methods".Amrut Distilleries launched Amrut, the first single malt whisky to be made in India, on 24 August 2004. The production of Amrut single malt whisky was the result of the distillery having malt that was ageing far in excess of what was needed for its medium range Prestige Malt Whisky.Initially, Amrut aged malt whisky for around a year before blending it. However, due to changing customer preferences, less malt whisky was being added into blended variants.Surinder Kumar, the master blender at Amrut Distilleries, has estimated that because of climate differences, one year of barrel ageing in India is equal to three years of ageing in Scotland.
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