My previous booze reviews this month have been of whiskies that were peated to one degree or another: relatively mild (the Nikka Pure Malt White) to not-so-mild (the Ardbeg Corryvreckan and the Caol Ila Feis Ile 2016). To close out the month, let’s do a whisky that’s not peated at all. This is the Double Cask from Rampur, the Indian malt whisky distillery from the Radico Khaitan group. I’d lost sight of them after reviewing their original (?) release, the Rampur Select a few years ago. In the intervening period they’ve certainly expanded their portfolio of releases quite dramatically: their website lists five regular releases and four limited edition releases. This Double Cask is one of the regular releases. As per the distillery’s website, it is made by marrying spirit from American oak bourbon barrels and European Oak sherry casks (butts? re-made hogsheads or barrels?). So, not double maturation. As to what the ratio of the cask types in the vatting is, I have no idea. Well, I don’t purchase very much whisky any more but for some reason I couldn’t resist when I saw this bottle in the liquor department of my Costco last week. Let’s see if my weakness did me a favour or did me in. Continue reading
Category Archives: Rampur
Rampur Select Casks
Rampur is the latest Indian malt whisky to hit the market, following Paul John and the more established Amrut. Unlike those, Rampur is based in North India. The distillery was established in 1943, before India gained its independence, but it wasn’t until the early 1990s that they started distilling malt whisky—until very recently most of this went into their own blends. The distillery is owned by Radico-Khaitan and produces a mind-boggling volume of neutral spirit from molasses and grain, and also produces and sells a large range of whisky, rum, brandy and vodka (feast your eyes on the company’s romantic website). Most of these are for the Indian market—unlike the Rampur Select, which is only for the international market. This market now includes the United States. This release showed up here earlier this year and is going for anywhere between $60 and $75. Presumably, a large part of this is going to recoup the cost of the ludicrous packaging (each bottle is inside a silk pouch inside a round tin) and whoever they paid to come up with the purple prose of the marketing materials. Among other things, we are told that Rampur is the Kohinoor of single malts—I guess that means that the company will shortly be illegally taken over by the British crown. On the tin we’re also told that the princely state of Rampur rated a 15 gun salute—they’re going to feel really silly when some distillery located in an ex-princely state that rated a 21 gun salute puts their whisky on the market. Continue reading