Amrut Naarangi Orange Flavoured Single Malt

[William]

Amrut Naarangi is the new orange flavoured single malt from Amrut.

This latest offering from Indian single malt whisky producer Amrut derives its name from the Hindi word, Naarangi which means Orange. They claim that it is the only single malt whisky ever produced in the world to have expressions of orange.



To produce this whisky, Amrut procured Olorosso Sherry casks from Spain and matured wine along with Orange peel in it for a period of three years. The wine and orange peel concoction was left to mature for 3 years in Bangalore, lending the barrel a unique Orange essence.

The wine and peels were then spilled and the barrels were filled with three year old matured single malt whisky and allowed to mature for three more years. In this period, the barrels have lent the Orange characteristics to the whisky and the result is the new Amrut Naarangi single malt

EU regulations for malt whiskies state that adding anything to a whisky disqualifies it from being called a whisky, however, Amrut have developed a novel solution to to get around the EU regulations and the new Amrut Naarangi which they have created appears to meet all EU guidelines.

Will this be the start of a new method to flavour whisky and still be able to call it whisky?

Do you think this is bending the rules?

Do you think it should be called whisky or should it be classed as a flavoured whisky?

Some more info here on the Amrut Naarangi:

www.scotchmaltwhisky.co.uk/amrutnaarangi.htm
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There's no bad whisky. Just good whisky and better whisky.

[Quaich1]

Interesting development. I would call it a flavored whisky and yes I think it is bending the rules. Once one goes down this road, what stops distilleries from using other "shortcuts" to flavor or amend the "recipe" particularly of single malts. Sets a bad precedent I think.
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"Always carry a large flagon of whisky in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake."
W.C. Fields (1880-1946)

[sorren]

I don't think even beckham could bend it that much ...🙈

[Alexppp]

I understand the concerns but to be honest I don't see what the problem is, it would be pretty arbitrary to say that whisky is allowed to be matured in casks that previously contained sherry but not allowed in casks that previously contained orange-infused sherry.

[opelfruit]

Don't see what the problem is.

You can mature whisky is casks that have held sherry and make the whisky taste of sherry.....or of red wine cask, or marsalla casks, or rum casks for sweetness. What's the problem with maturing it in an ex-strawberry liquer cask, or orange-infused sherry cask, or a cask that has held midori.....


doesn't mean it's going to taste nice if you have ex-midori cask whisky, but it's all the same to me. It's spent oak, and the industry already does it.



oh yeah, and the whisky industry also flavours whisky by peating the malted barley.....
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"Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whisky is barely enough."

[Blackadder]

[Andy M]

I am surprised this is allowed, the way i see it is these are not just ordinary wine/sherry casks that are being used these are sherry casks which have been flavoured with orange. It certainly at least bends the rules of malt whisky production.

[opelfruit]

This isn't scotch, it's Indian whisky and as far as I was aware the SWA were the fuddy duddies that liked to force what they believe to be "tradition" over future development and have no jurisdiction over what they can do in India....


SWA rules don't apply, all that has to apply are EU rules on what can be labelled as "whisky" for sale in Europe (and any other local labelling rules for countries they want to sell it in).


Not sure why this is any different from Arran maturing whisky in amarone or tokaji casks or Suntory maturing Hibiki 12yo partially in plum liquer casks, or in fact Glenmo maturing whisky in either super-tuscan, Glos de Tart cask, using chocolate malts or whatever else they do. Amrut also do the Kadhambam which contains ex-rum, ex-oloroso and also ex-bangalore blue brandy casks......and that's bloody good stuff!

Sherry finish is just the more common one and some distilleries have their own "recipe" for the sherry mix they put in the cask to "rinse" them prior to filling.....with some sherry left slopping about no doubt.

They "traditionally" had plenty of spent sherry casks lying around so they were cheap, and it tasted better than fish cask whisky.


All a bit of a none story if you ask me
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"Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whisky is barely enough."

[Islay Pete]

I don't think anyone said that SWA rules apply; they have only mentioned the EU regulations and Amrut IMO has bent the rules to produce a whisky which is infused with orange flavour which it wouldn't have acquired naturally from a normal sherry cask.

I doubt it is a method of malt whisky production that will catch on but it has certainly got us talking about the Amrut brand, perhaps that is Amruts intention.

I would be interested to taste it to see how much orange influence this production method has had on the whisky or should i say flavoured whisky.

[Alexppp]

[Bookie]

The tasting note certainly makes it sound like a flavoured whisky or whisky liqueur, not a single malt.

[Quaich1]

William, since you opened this thread, what's your answers to the questions you posed? I would be interested in your take on this. Cheers.
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"Always carry a large flagon of whisky in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake."
W.C. Fields (1880-1946)

[William]

Hi Murray, I thought this would make an interesting topic and would draw varied opinions.

Personally I do think it is bending the rules, as Bookie says above, they have indirectly added orange to the whisky, this could potentially open the gates to be able to flavour whisky with whatever flavour you like and still call it malt whisky. I don't see that happening though as it would be an expensive process.

The tasting note describes it as "full bodied like a syrup"? I would guess this is perhaps due to the sugars from the orange which have been added to the wine/sherry in the casks after fermentation of the wine/sherry. Yeasts would normally transform any sugars present in the grape juice into ethanol during fermentation but the orange has been added after fermentation of the wine/sherry, even after the sherry has already matured. This is where I consider the rules to have been bent.

I haven't tasted it and have no intention of buying a bottle as it doesn't appeal to me but I would certainly be interested in hearing an opinion if anyone does taste it.
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There's no bad whisky. Just good whisky and better whisky.

[Samson]

I would call it a flavored malt whisky also, not a single malt. It will be interesting to see if there is a reaction from the Scotch Whisky Association.

[opelfruit]