The Noble Dram

The Noble Dram | Ep. 24: Whiskies of the World (Part 7 - India)

The Noble Dram Season 1 Episode 24

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0:00 | 1:09:39

India may not be the first country that comes to mind when you think about great whisky… but it absolutely should be.

In this episode of The Noble Dram, we travel to one of the most fascinating whisky regions on the planet to explore how India became both the largest whisky-consuming nation in the world and a rising powerhouse in single malt production.

We dive into the history of Indian whisky, the unique challenges of aging spirits in extreme climates, and the distilleries that helped put India on the world whisky map.

Aaron’s Pour: Amrut - Indian Single Malt Whisky - 46 ABV
Gavin’s Pour: Indri - Single Malt Indian Whisky - Dru - Cask Strength  - 57.2 ABV

So pour yourself a dram and join us as we discover why India might be one of the most exciting whisky regions in the world right now.

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SPEAKER_02

This week we explore the world of buttered chicken and Bollywood. Yeah, we're going to India, where we take a rickshaw from distillery to distillery and hop on that pack train.

SPEAKER_00

Join us.

SPEAKER_02

Lucky seven, baby. Lucky seven. Lucky seven. Grab a glass.

SPEAKER_00

We want to go in global on whiskeys of the world. So I think to start this off, we should have some whiskeys in our hand. What do you think?

SPEAKER_02

We should. We should. But as I pour, tell them where we are this week, Gavin. We are in India. Yes. The land of. We had this conversation. We were thinking about doing a draft tonight for our favorite Indian food and realized that Gavin and I's um exposure to Indian food goes about six dishes deep, and that's all the more we know. So if you're out there and want to give us recommendations, we'd love to try something new.

SPEAKER_00

Let us know. All right. We're in Houston, so also maybe put in the comments any fun Indian restaurants. Yeah, I'd love to go.

SPEAKER_02

We'll have like a noble dram meetup. Ooh. All right. So bottle number one tonight, Amrut.

SPEAKER_00

Uh is it Amrut or Amrut?

SPEAKER_02

I've always called it Amrut. Oh, okay. I don't know. How else would you pronounce it? You say Amrut. Amrut? I don't even know if they roll ours. Oh my goodness. This is what happens when you're live on the air.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, here, do you need the pocket knife?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, got it. You got it? All right. A trusty pen. Now let's see if the pen works when we're done. Probably not. So, yes, once again, we find ourselves with brand new bottles. So we pop them on air. Ooh. Oh, that one was solid. That one's a good one. That was a good one. All right. So let's talk a little bit about this bottle specifically before we delve into uh Indian whiskey in general. It's a it's a lovely looking bottle. It is. So if we're gonna talk about that bottle, it's so this one comes in, clocks in at I gotta turn the right page. Oh, I can smell it already. Yeah. Uh this clocks in at 46% ABV. Wow. Um comes in at an MSRP of $55. $55. Very reasonable price. Yeah, it's very reasonable. Um, so uh fun little nuggets about this bottle, and then we'll kind of jump back to some other stuff. Um, this one specifically made with 100% malted barley, but not just malted barley, it is India grown malted barley. So the the although the uh the distillery is in the city, or just outside the city of Bangalore, India, which uh for those who aren't real versed in Indian geography, um down in the peninsula, right? India comes to a point down the bottom. This is kind of down in the middle of that, not near the coast, up in the mountains, about 3,000 feet. Okay, uh, but still very tropical uh climate, um, foresty area. But the but the barley itself was grown in the foothills of the Himalayans, so much further north, um, which makes sense. I don't think barley grows real well in a very temperate and warm climate. It needs a little bit of that cooler environment. So this one is designed specifically to kind of capture that essence of Indian terroir, if you will. All right. Um, being fully Indian made, both grains grown, distilled, aged, everything there in India. Um, it is rumored to have both a combination of new and used um charred barrels, but it does not clarify what type of barrels, although I'll tell you the distiller's tasting notes suggest there's probably bourbon barrels uh in this mix as well.

SPEAKER_00

Does it say like American oak barrels? It does not.

SPEAKER_02

They actually make no reference on any of their stuff as to what it's aged in, other than oak aged. But in doing some of my internet sleuthing, um, I stumbled into people that made claims that this was a combination of new fill barrels and refill barrels. Okay. But no one ever actually clarifies exactly what kinds of barrels. So I do want, I know what you're gonna do. You're gonna ask me to give you the history and market research that I did on India because uh it's kind of become my shtick, uh, if you will. I want to run this kind of slightly backwards. Normally I start with the country overall and work down towards a distillery, which actually works really well, except for we started with the bottle, and I thought, why don't we go the other direction this time? So I want to kind of take a step back from this bottle and out to this distillery of Amrut. We're pumping the brakes and no, we're running this backwards. Yeah, run this backwards. Um I can't do the backwards thing. So, all right. So the Amrut distillery actually began operation in 1948. Okay, but didn't produce their actual first single malt until 2004. This was right at the time frame where we see Indian single malt whiskey start to make their presence on the global stage, right? So Amrut's 2004 release of a single malt was the first Indian single malt to be released, right? So 2004, they're pretty late to the game. Amrit found fame in 2009 when their fusion single malt was named by Jim Murray in the Whiskey Bible, was named the third best whiskey in the world. What? Which was a huge shock to pretty much everybody who wasn't from um wasn't from India. And it may have been a shock to people from India as well. The difference between so they had both this and the fusion bottle when I got to the store. I picked this one because the fusion, by its namesake, was fusing two different things. In Fusion, they took both Scottish barley and Indian barley, mixed the grains together, and made their whiskey. This one being fully Indian, considering we kind of got chastised on some of our other selections, that those might not actually have been made in the countries that they were from and uh all that kind of stuff. I was like, nope, we're going 100% Indian uh for our bottle tonight.

SPEAKER_00

To be fair, we asked for them to chastise us in our episode.

SPEAKER_02

So we did, we did, we did. So thank you. And the chastising we received, one, I think was well deserved, but two, I think kind of reinforced the stigma of that episode. Specifically, we're mentioning Japan, where Japans got a little bit wild and loose with their namesakes on how they label stuff. So quite often what you think of as Japanese whiskey wasn't actually made in Japan. One of the bottles we actually had fit that exact description. So I thought it was actually somewhat fitting, even though we were rightly fairly chat.

SPEAKER_00

So thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02

Um, so these guys, like I said, located down in the the southern part uh of India, which actually we'll talk a little bit um here in a minute about when Indian whiskey consumptions. Um, more whiskey is consumed in the southern parts of India than in the northern parts of India. So this makes sense that this is where the the distillery is. Amrut now only makes single malts, and they make a whole variety of them, both peated and unpeated. And then in in going back to the meanings behind things, the the the name Amrut comes from the Sanskrit word, which means nectars of the god. Or nectar of the gods. Should put the plurals in the right places. So, more recent accolades, these guys were named Distillery of the Year at the Tokyo Whiskey and Spirits uh competition in 2024. So, not just a kind of a flash in the pan, like they've been producing consistent quality whiskeys for some time. Now, I want to take a step back again and let's take a look a little bit about whiskey in India, where it ranks in the world, and in a much larger stage.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

So we've talked a lot about per capita consumption of alcohols and whiskey specifically over the last several weeks. Where India bucks this trend is their per capita isn't the highest. But they got a lot of people, right? Um, they are an absolute huge market when it comes to whiskey. So it represents not only the largest volume market, so volume of whiskey sold, also for the last several years has been the largest percentage of growth of any market. So not only is it a huge market, it's growing faster than any other market on the globe. And so what that means is everybody wants to be a part of this, right?

SPEAKER_00

So kind of what you're saying is India is kind of like a sleeping giant. Could be. Oh, you're saying India has a large market.

SPEAKER_02

France consumes way more per person in France. French are heavier drinkers than India. But in India, they just got a lot more people, right? They can kind of flood the market from a volume standpoint. So, to give you an idea why they're the largest market, in 2025, India consumed 280 million cases of whiskey. So, again, a case is 12 750 liter or 750 milliliter bottles. So nine liters in a case, 280 million cases. Right? We're talking 2 billion liters of whiskey. By comparison, that same year, the United States produced 50 million cases. All of the bourbon we think of, all of it was 50. They consumed more than five times that much in India. If you run out the math, in 2025, nearly half of the bottles produced globally were drank in India. I mean, staggering kinds of numbers, right? It helps when you have population that is a billion-esque kind of population. Right. So also in that realm, eight of the top 10 largest selling brands in the world are Indian distilleries. I went to our local big box liquor store because one finding Indian liquors in small mom and pop shops is a lot harder than you would think. Tried that several times, and I finally said, All right, I'm going to the big box. Got to the big box, aisles of bourbon, aisles of scotch, pun intended on that one. There were three bottles.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my god, I got it. I got it.

SPEAKER_02

Three bottles of Indian whiskey on the shelves. That's it. Three. After walking past hundreds of bottles of scotch, hundreds of bottles of bourbon, you get to the largest producers in the world, and there are three bottles. Two from the same distillery, no less, right? So really kind of drives home how small the India world appears to everyone else, but in India it's huge. Part of that is because almost everything India consumes is made in India. It's actually a really small import market. They estimated somewhere between three and five percent of the whiskey consumed in India came from Scotland. All of that whiskey consumed and only three percent may have come from Scotland. Um it's a staggering number. Almost all of that is driven by this massive tariff to import goods into India. Um as of right now, Scotch has a hundred and fifty percent tariff to be imported in. The United States, which just went through a bunch of tariff wars, got it re the bourbon reduced to a hundred percent. Because it also was a hundred and fifty. And if you've caught anything in the news here in the last couple days, there has been talks between the UK and India on a new trade agreement that will allow over the next 10 years, it slowly dropped to only 75% tariffs, which is a huge windfall compared to 150. But that's still an asinine number. We talk about what a crushing blow it is to have a 25% tariff on scotches and bourbons back and forth between here and England. They're talking six times that kind of tariff numbers, which is not surprising why almost everything is made domestically. So here's where it gets kind of fuzzy. Like so many other new whiskey markets, definitions are a bit hazy and certainly not set in stone. So a few years back, a group began, similar to like we talked about in America, similar to how we talked about in Japan, um, a group called the Indian Malt Whiskey Association, that has now defined for themselves what is single malt. I say defined for themselves because there's no legal definition from a government standpoint. But what they've come back and said is if you're part of our group and you want to label a single single malt, you must follow these rules. I'll be honest, they sound a lot like scotch right 100% malted barley must be made at a single distillery in India, aged for at least three years, must have been distilled in a copper pot still, right? All of that stuff sounds very, very much like the rules of scotch. Now, a difference kind of borrows some terminology from the guys in Japan, which was terminology that was ultimately shot down in Scotland, but the reference to pure malt, or what they refer to as 100% malted whiskey, that just means it's a blend of single malt whiskeys from more than one distillery. So the term we would use in Scotland would be blended malts. Um here they refer to those as pure malt. But again, not legal definitions, just this group. Now, the Indian Malt Whiskey Association now has most all of the single malt producers as members. So you feel fairly confident when you walk into the store and pick up a bottle that says Indian single malt, you're probably getting exactly what you think you're getting. Now, as I delved, I actually got to go in and look at all of their regulations and bylaws, and I stumbled into an odd little nugget that I was unaware of, and that sent me down a deep rabbit hole. All right, so I'm gonna start with Gavin. Explain to everybody the difference between ABV and proof.

SPEAKER_00

ABV or um, so ABV is essentially your alcohol per volume.

SPEAKER_02

Um we we talked about this being 46% ABV. That means in this bottle, 54% is not alcohol. Yes, 46% of that bottle by volume is alcohol.

SPEAKER_00

And then your proof is essentially double that number.

SPEAKER_02

So this is where it gets interesting. In the United States, the term proof was double ABV, that's where that standard came from for the US. However, the British system used to have a term called proof that isn't the same proof that we think of in the United States. Oh, really? So in the British standard, when they said 100 proof, and I don't know where they came up with this, but what it said is the whiskey has 1213 the specific gravity of water, right? So specific gravity is the density of a liquid. So what they're saying is it's 100 proof, it is proof when it weighs 1213ths of what that same volume of water would be. But that standard was set long before we had all of quite the level of um exact chemistry and science that we now have. That actually comes out at 57.15% ABV, which means in India, if you catch reference to proof, it is not double the ABV because they use the British standard. It's actually, I I ran this math, 1.75131 times the ABV. That is two is much easier, Matt. I like the American system better.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my gosh, that is some mathing going on there.

SPEAKER_02

One last weird nugget twist that I ran into. I kept finding references to a large percentage of the volume of whiskey production in India being molasses-based. Ah, yes. So again, that ran me down a rabbit hole. Like, wait a second, whiskey is grain-based, not sugar-based. I know what molasses and sugar-based whiskeys or liquors are. Those are called rums. So there's no actual definition of whiskey in India either. And so almost universally, labeling has said any brown liquor that has been aged in a barrel, they just slap the word whiskey on the side. I don't know if it's because there was a bit of a stigma of rum at some point. It was considered lesser and you are more sophisticated if you drank whiskey. But a large share of this 280 million cases of whiskey produced and consumed in in India, it's actually rum. Really? They don't call it rum because they don't have the term rum in India. They call it all whiskey. So if you find yourself in India, like we were. Yes, and you find yourself in the back of a rickshaw, and a guy says, Would you like to try some of my whiskey? Just be aware. It might come out sugary and sweeter than you think it's going to. Because there may be no grain at all uh in your whiskey in India. So Wow. And thus concludes today's lesson. Class dismissed.

SPEAKER_00

All right. Well, let's get to drinking now.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I did a lot of talking. You do a lot of talking. And um it's although I do enjoy talking, I also enjoy drinking whiskey. So let me catch up.

SPEAKER_00

So because they prefer the more colonial or English version of proof, right? Do you think that has ties because of the colonial rule?

SPEAKER_02

It certainly seems like the most likely scenario is that when India was colonized and potentially rum and whiskies were brought to India under British colonial rule, that they would have used British standards. Absolutely makes sense. I find it interesting that it it wasn't until we got to India that I caught reference to a British standard that isn't used at all in scotch production. That part was the part I found interesting. You will find every so often, because the United States is a different bottle size than most all the other global markets, every so often you will find a scotch that actually says proof on the bottle. But to date, I don't recall ever finding one that wasn't two times the ABV, right? I'm a simpleton, I get it, but two times I'm pretty good at that math, right? I can do that. Um so yeah, so when we label when we label the bottles uh in the video, I'm gonna have to make sure not to put proof because now I gotta like is it is it UK proof? Is it the British standard, the BS proof? The BS that that sounds wrong, right? I I don't know.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I guess we'll have to figure that out in short order.

SPEAKER_02

Between now and editing, yeah, I've got to figure this out.

SPEAKER_00

All right. So while you get a little bit of time to s to sniff, sip, and savor, um in the correct order again. I think he's got a nose. I was trying to pause, he paused to get it right. Okay. Um so on this, on the nose for me, uh I put that there was some tropical fruit notes to it. Maybe a bit of like banana almost. Or maybe not banana, but kind of like a banana pudding almost.

SPEAKER_02

Have you ever had you go to um this has nothing to do with any, but you go to the Brazilian steakhouses and they have those like fried bananas.

SPEAKER_00

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I get a little of that on the nose. It the problem is banana always carries with it so much sweetness. Yeah. And I don't get the sweetness on the nose. But the the kind of the potassium banana smell. Yeah. Um, yeah, I I read that little nugget the other day. Is what we think of is what banana smell like. That's not banana at all. That's the potassium. Potassium in the banana? I never really so now it makes me wonder if like artificial banana flavor is just potassium. Like how much banana runs? Much potassium is banana runs. That's exactly where I went with.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Because that's is there a more like when you talk about artificial banana, it is Runs and Laffy Taffy. Those are the only two artificial bananas I can think of. That's right. That is right. We should have done a a uh a Mount Rush more of artificial fruit flavor.

SPEAKER_00

We got time. Uh I also put I think there's some graininess to it, right? I think it's not cereal grain to me, um, but there is a bit of um like I can't put my nose on it, but not my finger or my nose. Um, but you just put your finger in it. Oh, that's a good idea. No, uh keep your fingers out of the glass. Uh and then uh I think there's a little bit of a butter note.

SPEAKER_02

So I get the I get the tropical fruit without the sweetness. I don't know as if I would say grain, right? Like there is a there is a charred note to it. Chard. Okay. And I what I can't tell is it is it kind of that burnt sugar? I I'd say almost the problem is again, I'm gonna say something that sounds very, very sweet and that's not sweet, but like the burnt marshmallow, just the burnt part, not the like you had it on the stick, and your kid lit it on fire and he pulls it out, and it just smells like burnt sugar. Like there's no sweetness to it yet. Not until you peel it open, then you're like, oh, and now I can smell real sugar again. But I get a bit of that burnt, burnt sugar to it.

SPEAKER_00

Um maybe a burnt banana.

SPEAKER_02

Maybe that's where I got that fried banana thing came to mind.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Uh you said butter. I there's an I think oily. Okay. I is that butter, is it not? Again, maybe that's the grease we fried the banana in, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I so what we're saying is it just smells like a roasted banana on a stick.

SPEAKER_02

Maybe Which actually sounds pretty good. Now that I say that I coat it in a little butter and then it is a relatively soft nose, though. I I like we've we've described aromas that should be fairly potent, and I don't know as if that's how I how I feel about it. Um now the distillers notes made reference to licorice, but I don't know as if I get licorice.

SPEAKER_00

Normally I think of licorice as a little darker, like maybe maybe black licorice. A little bit.

SPEAKER_02

Now that you I'm assuming when they say licorice, they mean black licorice and not twizzlers. Twizzlers or uh what is it, cherry nibs? Yeah. Oh, I love the nibs, man. That's a like the that's a movie theater snack to me. Yeah, it is. I don't ever eat those any other place.

SPEAKER_00

I used to eat them all the time in college. Because like I'm at my studio desk and I get it. I can't argue with that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um, okay, so does it does it remain that way on the palate for you though?

SPEAKER_00

I think on the palate we hit a little bit more of a perfumey note. Um, and then I think there's a spiciness to it, which I was not um expecting on this one. But I think that there's a floral perfumey note that I get.

SPEAKER_02

I'll say the first few sips, which weren't lengthy, right? You just take a sip, kind of get what you get. And that last one kind of swirling around. Um I get more sugary notes to it. Again, not this is not bourbony sweet. This is not a sherried scotch, right? Like this is this is that sweet grain kind of notes, just that kind of soft honey-esque. Um I've I mentioned this before. We grew up that there was honeysuckle on the fence outline, like it reminds me a smidge of that. Um I think there's an oakiness to this, um, but not in a not in a bad way. Like I get more of that vanilla oakiness, but not cookies vanilla, right? Like not not like mom's bacon treats at the house, but more of that you had bacon treats at the house? Oh god, that sounds delicious. Bacon and oh never mind. Candy bacon. I um like you've I lived in a country where everyone took or area, part of the country where everyone took shop class in high school. Like it was just like all the guys were in shop class, and if you were really hell bent on it, you also took small engine repair and any other thing that was offered in the shop building. Um, and inevitably all of us freshman year made like an oak shelf to hang on the wall, and everyone was running oak through the saws. This on the palette reminds me of that room full of oak sawdust. Like I get that. Not sometimes we talk about over-oaked and got real drying tannic, not that, but that real soft, sweet oak note to the to the palate to me.

SPEAKER_00

One of my favorite things about what we do is the memory sensory that we get out of all of this, right? Like completely. Like the the things that nosing whiskey and tasting whiskey and and starting to describe it, like it brings back memories that I otherwise probably wouldn't have remembered or like or thought about that day, but it's just like bam.

SPEAKER_02

It's it's always amazing to me how you can go through almost the exact same experience as other people and come away with completely different memories on how that that transpired and how some things stick with you and and something different sticks with somebody else. Um, we had an episode the other day where we made reference to butter rum lifesavers, and I said something about grandma having them in my purse. And my my mother watched the episode and then immediately called and she said, I had completely forgotten about grandma carrying butter rums in her purse. She's like, that was so cool to hear that story. And I was like, Oh my, how could you forget about the butter rums? They were one of my favorite things about going to grandma. Like, Mike, this is gonna sound horrible because it's Coca-Cola I'm talking about. She was an absolute Coke fiend. Like she got up in the morning, drank a Coke, and then by mid morning drank another Coke. Like she had like eight of them a day, right? Um, and if you say like she she was a Coke addict, it sounds different. And that's not what I'm saying. Uh Grandma was a Coke addict. Like butter rums and Coca-Cola. Like those are the two things that just jump out to me about grandma. Um yeah, and like it's always amazing to me. We'll sit around and taste stuff, and like how often I pick up honeysuckle. And I know it's because we had the bushes behind the house, right? Like, if we had had a beehive and had fresh honey, I would say something different than honeysuckle. Um, you grew up on a farm, and right, like, and like, oh, like you get hay and you get barn. And like that, those were things that weren't as big of memories from my childhood. And so it's fun to hear those differences. Um, especially when you run into somebody who's from a completely different part of the country.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Right. Because you talk about that to somebody that grew up in the city, and they're like, oh, smells like the burning tires.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Is it Goodyear or is this a Firestone?

SPEAKER_00

Uh I had somebody that I work with was like, do they even make Firestone tires anymore?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, they do. I mean, you got to go to the budget Firestone tire shop. You know, you're ironic that the discount tire sort of has all the other tires, but the fire eh, whatever. All right, we gotta get back to the whiskey.

SPEAKER_00

Uh finish. Finish. Um this one surprised me, honestly. Uh, with what 46 BBV? I wasn't expecting it to drink as spicy as it does. Um, so I felt like this finish was uh long and lingering.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I'll say the palate felt every bit of low 40s, right? Like if if on the palate alone, I'd have said this was 40 to 43. On the finish, I'm thinking this is upper 40s to 50 kind of percent, maybe. Right? Like it's it's a little bit of a juxtaposition. Um, I'll say the spice is what carried out the longest for me. The flavors overall kind of subsided um in what I would consider to be a medium finish, right? It's not short, but not long either. Um, but man, the tongue tingles and that that peppery spice carried well past everything else. But again, the finish to me has got that oaky sawdust, that sweet vanilla oak kind of thing, which ultimately makes me believe that some of these barrels were bourbon, right? I don't, or potentially new.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

There's no age statement on the bottle, so we don't know how long it's in there. It says single malt whiskey, and by the rules of the Indian malt single malt whiskey association, like that tells me three years. Right. I'll be honest, with new barrels in a hot climate, kind of where we live in Texas, right? Um, I've never seen a Texas Texas whiskey that was this liked. This tells me that this is heavy reused barrels and not new as many new barrels. But is it a a few of them are new barrels and a bunch of reused, and a lot of that color is coming from those new barrels, and a lot of that vanilla sweetness and notes come from there? I I'd absolutely believe that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I I was looking at the bottle just a minute ago because the colors Yeah, it's it's a very honey leveled honey-colored level bottle, I'd say. So we don't talk about the color much on the show, but well, because you can see it.

SPEAKER_02

But here, I'll turn it sideways. You can get a real good look at it.

SPEAKER_00

There you go. Um van white there.

unknown

Try.

SPEAKER_02

Um, so the question is the flavors that we were picking up, the aromas, the all of that. Is it good? Do you find yourself wanting more? Like, where where does this set? Because a lot of times we talk about like this is what I get. But but when it comes to time to put numbers, which is where we are, right? Write your number down.

SPEAKER_00

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

Is this something that you enjoy? Something you wish there was more to? Like, what how do you feel about this? Talk about your feelings, Kevin.

SPEAKER_00

Uh, let's talk about there's a lot of feelings. I think I think we need more time.

SPEAKER_02

I think I need more whiskey to talk about my feelings.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, fair. Um, so this one's interesting. Uh, first pour of the night for us. We didn't have a a pre-pour or anything like that.

SPEAKER_02

Normally, when we do a pre-pour, we try to keep consistent with what we're drinking that night, right? Considering these are the only two bottles of whiskey we own. We there really wasn't an obvious pre-pour. We came in cold on this one. And both of these are new bottles to us. Yeah. So we didn't know what we're getting into, have no idea what the flavor profiles would be. So we're a little hesitant to put a whiskey in that's going to taint that because what you just finished has a huge impact on how you now taste this next class. Yep. Um, I think the order of whiskies is really, really important when you sit down and have a tasting night.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I absolutely agree. And what we try to do here is look at the proof or the ABVs per bottle and try to marry and figure out what's going on.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, ultimately our goal when we pair these up is we want to start with the lighter and move to the more bold. Sometimes that's ABV, sometimes that's lighter peat to bigger peat, sometimes that's sweeter to spicier. Um, sometimes we're wrong. Sometimes we expect them to be one way, and then when we sit down at this one, I was like, ah, we should have started with the other one. Um, we'll never admit that on air, but I it happens, right? That you sit down and you're like, I wish we'd have had this one in a different order. Also, one of the reasons why I like to leave a splash in the glass, so when we get done with the second one, I can go back and hit that first one again and see how it has changed. Um agreed. Because sometimes you're like, I didn't think it was very sweet, but now after having the second one, come back to the first one. I think it's really sweet. Right? So that doesn't get you off the hook. Give us a number.

SPEAKER_00

So um, first, again, I think this was a very interesting bottle. I didn't quite know where I was gonna set with um with the ABV point.

SPEAKER_02

You know, I might have to start playing the Jeopardy theme song if I score. Get to a number. Like you're you're you're trying to make this easy before you break up with us.

SPEAKER_00

Come on. I'm an 81.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, you son of a gun! I'm an 81. I'm also an 81. Uh to me, you talked about not knowing what we were getting into. The truth of the matter is, I've had one bottle of India whiskey in my past. Not from either of these two distilleries, so that may be part of the the dynamic. Um, but I'll be honest, it was years ago, but I distinctly remember not liking it. So there was a lot about tonight that made me nervous because I didn't know was that an outlier bottle that I'd had before, or was that the norm? I will say this is nothing like the one I didn't like before. I actually enjoy this. The things I remembered not liking about the other one, this one doesn't have the this doesn't taste dirty, right? The other one, I I kid you not. It was exactly how I expected water in India to taste. I don't I don't know what that means exactly, but it it didn't taste like it was really crisp and clean. This much crisper, much cleaner. This reminds me a bit of a lowland single ball.

SPEAKER_00

That's a good I would agree with that, right? That's that's a good comparison.

SPEAKER_02

It's a bit grain forward, a bit light barrel notes, there's not a lot of floral depth, there's not a lot of sherry things going on, there's no peat in it. It is that very simple, soft. It's the starter, it's the kitty into the pool. Right? Maybe that's a good way to describe it too. Um is it good enough to be on the shelf? Absolutely. At that price point, I think that's a very reasonable um bottle to have. If you have no other Indian whiskeys, I don't think you're going to be upset about having this one. Um but it's also it's not taken over the top shelf in the collection, right? Yeah, uh that's kind of where I sit. All right. Loved it? Loved it. All right, so we're trying things different. So before we go to bottle number two, because it's my favorite part. I mean, literally getting giddy about Gavin pouring me whiskey. We want you to take a moment and hear just to just take a peek at a cool little announcement we got. For the last couple weeks, we've been teasing a big announcement coming. That's right, the Noble Dram has a barrel pick.

SPEAKER_00

But we don't half-ass anything here, not just one barrel pick, we got two. Larceny, barrel proof, and Elijah Craig, barrel proof.

SPEAKER_02

We want to give a special thanks to the guys at MR Liquor here in Northwest Houston that helped make these barrel picks possible.

SPEAKER_00

With them, we've reserved a limited number of each barrel pick for you, our noble listeners.

SPEAKER_02

For everyone who goes online, reserves a bottle before they go on sale to the general public, you get $10 off per bottle.

SPEAKER_00

Follow the link down below in the comments to reserve each one of these bottles.

SPEAKER_02

And don't miss a chance to enjoy two delicious drinks.

SPEAKER_00

Cheers.

SPEAKER_02

All right. We hope you're as excited as we are about that little nugget.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_02

More information is to come, but for tonight, for right now, I've promised to leave just a splash of this in the glass so I can try it again later. But Gavin, my favorite part of every night is where you pour whiskey for me. I'm gonna pour you some whiskey. So please, please, please.

SPEAKER_00

All right.

SPEAKER_02

We're gonna yours presents better than mine.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, pretty bad. You're gonna hurt yourself, aren't you? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

It's cut.

SPEAKER_00

There we go. We got it. I knew I had confidence in you. How embarrassing is that. Even if it took a while, I knew we'd get there. How embarrassing is that?

SPEAKER_02

It can't be that bad. Is it gonna take you several minutes to get the foil off the top? Look at that. Oh man, just showing me up. Good point. Showing me up.

SPEAKER_00

Oh man. All right. So this bottle is just pulled a car. That's what she said.

SPEAKER_02

It wasn't as squeaky as last time.

unknown

All right.

SPEAKER_00

Uh so we are going to be venturing into the land of Indry.

SPEAKER_02

Indry?

SPEAKER_00

Indry. Did you look this up or is this your guess? That's my guess.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. I didn't I didn't look mine up either. It was my guess. No, it's another frothy pour.

SPEAKER_00

Indry. This is their single malt Indian whiskey. This is the Drew. Indry Drew. Indry Drew. This is Cast Strength.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it smells it.

SPEAKER_00

So. So uh, like we previously mentioned, you know, we we start on maybe some of the lighter side of the proof points or the ABVs.

SPEAKER_02

Even in color, we've started on a lighter side.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Yeah. I mean, look at this. This is more honey, a little bit more amber color here. Um, it's almost like a mahogany or walnut. I mean, that's dark. That is dark. Um, so 57.2 ABV. Yeah. Um we know that we're matured in exbourbon barrels. Uh we talked a slight bit about maybe the India climate, so subtropical, which tends to provide some accelerated aging, but we don't know the age statement on this. Okay. So no age statement. It's labeled single malt, so we have at least three. At least three on that we don't know. Right. Okay. Uh, non-chill filtered and no added colouring to this. So all natural colouring in this, all natural. So injury is distilled by Piccadilly Distillery.

SPEAKER_02

Wow, what a great name.

SPEAKER_00

I know. And when I first started looking into it, I was like, oh, Piccadilly is this like a distillery in London. Yeah. You know, kind of went that route. But again, I think it plays to maybe some of the colonial, British colonial um that that India's experienced. Uh, but nope, just um Piccadilly is in India. Uh, they are on a sprawling 168-acre property, uh, and they are the largest independent manufacturer of malt spirits in India. And they have an annual production capacity of 8 to 9 million liters.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. So in the grand scheme of India, small. Small. But um, still a sizable production.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Yep. Yep. Um, so their production looks kind of like uh 14 uh Scottish style copper pot stills. Um, they have a warehouse capacity of about 75,000 barrels. So not giant, but thinking about 75,000 barrels in a warehouse, it's it's more than I got. It's more than I got, too.

SPEAKER_02

It is absolutely more than I got.

SPEAKER_00

Or mini casks. We have two casks between us. Three liters worth is what I currently store. Right. Um, so the fun thing about uh this distillery, much like when we um talked about some other distilleries, they were very or they are very highly focused on sustainability. So uh they use no fossil fuels in the distillery, they use biomass energy. Really? Which I think is very interesting. Um there are rumors that they have an expansion coming to Scotland.

SPEAKER_02

Whoa, they're so the group that owns this distillery is talking about a distillery in Scotland as well.

SPEAKER_00

So it would be the first of its kind for an Indian beverage alcohol beverage company to own.

SPEAKER_02

To go out. Out. That's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So in the future we may see um a little bit more collaboration between the two. Interesting. With Piccadilly. And something really fun. This is a product that is imported by our good friends at Impex Beverages. Oh, really? So our good friend Sam Filmus. Shout out to Sam. Yeah. So is it not why we picked it? Not why we picked it out.

SPEAKER_02

I shouldn't say that. Gavin picked it up. I don't know why Gavin picked it.

SPEAKER_00

I don't know why I picked it either. Because it had the cool box. It had the cool box and it said cast strength, and it was something a little bit more different.

SPEAKER_02

Um it's a it's a good thing. Because so sometimes when Gavin and I do this, we know exactly what bottles we're going to pick before we go out. And then sometimes we just head to the store and see what we can find. Um, this one, Gavin sends the picture of the bottle, and I am on the way to the store. And when I get there, that bottle was on the shelf at the store. I finally felt it Indian whiskey in it. And so I'm like, good thing he's in it, or we'd had two bottles of injury.

SPEAKER_00

Because yeah, it was the Amroot or Amret was the other one that I was eyeing. Um, so the price point, I think he's you said 55 bucks. This was right around 75 bucks. I think it's like what I paid for this. Oh, he's gotta show me a $20 difference. Does it taste $20 different, though? Is the question.

SPEAKER_02

I'm uh we're we're not there yet, but we're gonna get there. It has $20 worth of color in it for sure.

SPEAKER_00

And it's all natural color. Uh so to dive a little bit deeper into uh this specific expression from injury, this is the Drew. Um and Drew means wood, tree, or a wooden vessel. Okay. So when you talked about like cask or like boat? Love vessel. It just it's just a vessel that um liquid could be um stored in.

SPEAKER_02

Or like a cask, not a not a wooden boat when you say wooden vessel.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I'm gonna get to I'm gonna get to this for just a minute. You mentioned that Amrit was was it named for nectar of the gods or for the gods? Correct. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

That's what Amrit means in Sanskrit.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. So Drew means it's a vessel that a drink was collected and offered to the gods.

SPEAKER_02

So this is a nectar to the gods. Yes. This is the the cup, yes. Okay. So I like it. I the nectar of the gods served in a cup to the gods.

SPEAKER_00

I didn't offer you a drew in traditional sense in a wooden vessel, but I offered it to you in a glass of wonderful dulce.

SPEAKER_02

The only wooden cup I own is the cup by which we served communion at our wedding, and I think my wife would have my butt. If she came in here and we were drinking whiskey out of the communion glass from our wedding. I mean, but what else do you use it for? Nothing. It just sits on the shelf looking pretty. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I still think I'd lose that argument. Probably. I won't lie. Yeah, I wouldn't want to go up against your wife with that. Just saying.

SPEAKER_02

I'm not positive she knows karate, but I think she could learn it pretty quick.

SPEAKER_00

I don't think she needs to know karate. She just needs to know that backhand.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, well, she could do it. She can do it. Uh I'm a big guy who's afraid of my little wife. That's real.

SPEAKER_00

Uh, we all are. Um, so I want to play a little game.

SPEAKER_02

So I don't know this game. You don't know this game. You've been nervous for the last 45 minutes as we try to figure this out.

SPEAKER_00

So uh India is known as the tiger capital of the world. Okay. And it houses about 75% of the wild tiger population.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and I think there's a neighborhood just north of here that has all of the cougars. Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Couldn't help myself. All right, 75% of the world's tiger population lives in India. Okay. So or at least vacations there on the vacations.

SPEAKER_00

Um, I want to know if you were an animal, oh good lord. What would you be? And why?

SPEAKER_02

I think there's an obvious answer. You can't be a tiger. I think I think I absolutely could be a tiger. If I had better hair, I'd say lion. Lion. Yeah, with like a solid mane, but alas, I have no mane. Um I want to make a low-man joke, but it didn't work. Um, no, so I think I think those who know me could at least understand. So I I I've managed to lose weight. I've been working at this really hard. So I'm not as big as I used to be, but I used to be about the size of a bear. But if you were picking a bear, I don't know if it's a grizzly or Kodiak or anything. Like panda. Like you watch the videos of these guys rolling over and falling off of stuff. Like that feels more my speed. Um also know there's a whole series of kung fu movies about a panda bear. Uh-huh. My children were too big to have watched Kung Fu Panda, but I know they're out there. They weren't big as a bear. Uh no, no, no, none of my children are my size. It's a whole different question. Um, I man, I don't know if I've ever been asked this question before. Um yes. So you said lion, or you said lion. No, no, no. So I I I would love to say lion, but I don't think there's enough about me that that aligns with it. All right, well, in The Wizard of Oz, he's cowardly, and I don't know as if I see myself as cowardly. Um yeah, I the notion of a panda bear who sits around and eats all day and is a clumsy buff goofball. I shouldn't say buffoon, that's not fair. Um, I think feels more fitting for who I am. Um it just doesn't feel as regal as I want it to be, right? Like lion is the king of the for the forest?

SPEAKER_00

King of the jungle?

SPEAKER_02

King of the jungle? I neither of which like lions don't live in the forest or the jungle. I've never understood that reference. They're the king of the plains, like that's where they live.

SPEAKER_00

I thought you were gonna say wildcat, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I yeah, I I mean, I mean, let's be honest. If we're if we're truly getting to who I am, um, somebody's pet golden retrievers with a more accurate description. Um so is panda your final answer? We'll go with Panda.

SPEAKER_00

All right. I don't I don't know where we're going with this. This is a three three-step game. Oh good lord. So I want two more answers, no explanation.

SPEAKER_02

No explanation. I just have to give animals.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. That you, if you were an amble animal, that's what you'd be.

SPEAKER_02

All right, put down raccoon. Raccoon.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

And I'll go silverback gorilla. Silverback gorilla. Yeah. I don't think I have to explain that one. No, I think everybody gets it now. Yep. Okay. Now because I used to hang out with Jane Goodall.

SPEAKER_00

Oh.

SPEAKER_02

That's ridiculous. That's a ridiculous data.

SPEAKER_00

I have a fun question. No, I have a question. Or not a question. I have a story about that. Anyways.

SPEAKER_02

Um we have to save all of our gorilla stories for another day. We're not out of time.

SPEAKER_00

Now. Okay. We're gonna play Start Bench Cut.

SPEAKER_02

Start Bench Cut, the three animals out of the three animals.

SPEAKER_00

Um Panda, raccoon, and silver back gorilla.

SPEAKER_02

God, I feel like I have to pick panda to start because that's what I said was me the first time. But what I'll say is not as it pertains to me. If I'm just picking three animals, I think raccoons might start. Okay. One, they're around here, right? Like that helps. Um they're trash pandas. So you kind of get panda with a raccoon, but on a smaller scale. So I mean, uh, I'm with you there. I think if you put them in a face-to-face battle royale, I think the gorilla beats the panda. That is not rooted in knowledge, facts, or anything. This is just purely speculation. So I say gorilla is on the bench, and the panda and his lovable nature doesn't make the cut.

SPEAKER_00

All right. Well, I appreciate you hanging in there on this three-party.

SPEAKER_02

That would be the most ridiculous game we've ever played.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um I kept it a secret because I thought I thought you'd shoot it down. I was absolutely vetoed. That was nonsense. That was nonsense. All right, we gotta get back to whiskey. A little fun.

SPEAKER_02

Gotta get back to whiskey. All right. Joke. Right off the bat, this smells darker than the first one. It does. Like it, like if you blindfolded me and said which one of these is darker than the other, no question, the injury is much darker. I get, um, I wrote down leather to start with. Okay. And then I crossed it out and I wrote sandalwood because that's the imitation leather that you get in like candles and stuff like and tobacco. I get like not the flavored pipe tobacco, but like actual rolled cigar tobacco. Oh, okay. Absolutely get tobacco all over the nose on this one. There's now that I've had a few sips and I've gone back, I can pick up things I picked up on the palette on the nose that I didn't pick up the first time. So I'm gonna save that that item for the the palette because that's where I picked it up first.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, what about you? Um, I would agree. I think there's some leathery pipe tobacco notes. I got pipe tobacco on it a little bit. I also think that's not not the flavored pipe tobacco. No.

SPEAKER_02

This isn't cherry or vanilla pipe tobacco. This is old man tobacco.

SPEAKER_00

This is tobacco that's been sitting in the tin a little long. El Natural. Yeah. A little dryer.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, none of none of the flavored stuff.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I think that there is a um citrus, maybe an orange note that I got on it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I can I can I can see where you're going with that. I don't know if I picked it up myself, but I could see that.

SPEAKER_00

And then um, I think there is a bit of um like a chocolate or nutmeggy kind of note.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Hazelnut? Maybe hazel.

SPEAKER_02

Like this, like in that Sister Hazel? It's it's one of my faves. Um this is so weird. Normally, when you mention a band, it's somebody I've never even heard of that. Actually, I've owned every sister hazel. I was going to say CD. I'll say album, right? For for lack of a better way to describe it. No, so um, I think this has got a nuttiness. I think this has got a little bit of a chocolate chocolate nose to this. Um, I think hazelnut spread kind of reminds me of it's not quite that sweet, right? Um, I'll say a little more dark. Um, I don't know if there's a dark chocolate hazelnut. I feel like if not, it's it's just a little bit bitter. Somebody should get out there and make that because that sounds delicious.

SPEAKER_00

The noble dram dark chocolate hazelnut spread. Oh.

SPEAKER_02

Maybe with a little bit of I'm looking forward to putting that into Chat GPT and having it create a sticker for us.

SPEAKER_00

Um don't tell people our secrets.

SPEAKER_02

No, I so I I I I get that. I I was I was struggling to identify, and I'll tell you on the palette, I picked cognac. Oh, okay. Um, it's got a grapiness, but not sweet like grapes. It's got the taste of cognac on the palate to me. And now that I go back and re-smell it, I can smell that. But the first time through I didn't pick it up. I didn't identify it. I've got a I've got a really beautiful bottle of Armiac, and it has that very same note to it. Um that is I wanted to write red wine, but I don't think it's red wine. Usually it's winy but very dry, right? It's not sweet wine like a sherry would be. Yeah, I've talked myself into cognac.

SPEAKER_00

Going that direction, I think you could almost say that it there's like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich kind of note to it. You get that nuttiness. You beat it.

SPEAKER_02

That is that is like Whole Foods peanut butter, not gif. I mean, this is the kind of stuff you gotta stir before you put it on your bread. It's that kind of rich, dark roasted.

SPEAKER_00

Like the oils start separating.

SPEAKER_02

Almost overly roasted, kind of almost burnt peanut kind of thing go on. Um yeah, I I can see that. I I don't know where jelly falls in there. You mentioned you mentioned citrus on the nose. Yep. And going back and resmelling it, I almost get like orange marmalade. Yeah. Right? That has the little bits of peel in it. Um add that to the list of things British people do. They're like, you could have made this better by stopping and not making it work, but whatever.

SPEAKER_00

Um, yeah, I I think there's some I put orange zest. Um I think the it's spicy.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, especially when you step into the finish. Yeah. Um that cognac note really carries into the finish. I get a ton of oakytannic bits. Like it really makes your mouth pucker on the finish. Yeah. Um like in the it makes this one feel much more oily, right? Having had this one that's so much drier. Um but it I know this is partly proof talking, right? But it really warms you. Like it's a tummy warmer. It it feels like a hug. Yeah, right. Um yeah, that this one is noticeably different than the first for sure.

SPEAKER_00

I think I mean the finish on this, it's long, it's lingering. I put chocolate-covered fruits.

SPEAKER_02

I think like a dried cherry, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That has dark chocolate over the side.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, no, no, I'm with you there.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I think that we've mentioned it in other episodes. You've mentioned it, decadent. I think this is a decadent pour. Yeah. I think this is a you're gonna be eating dark chocolates, some tropical fruits. Yeah, we should have had this out for Valentine's Day.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. Um here's where I'll say the idea of decadent makes me want to uh have a finish that's a little bit richer and creamier. Okay. Right? And that I get it. That phrase decadent makes me feel more extravagant, desserty. This takes a distinct turn on the finish that is much drier and moves away from the decadent. It still feels very much like cognac on the finish to me. It's got that leatheriness, that tobacco-y note, that great, but in a very, very dry way. Um I'm ready to give this a number. Oh boy. I got I let's I'm gonna say this is a distinct step up from bottle number one to me. Um I'm at 86. I absolutely like this bottle. Um, you raised the question earlier. If this bottle is $20 more expensive, is it is it worth it? I say that is $20 very well spent. Um two reasons. One, I think it's better than the first one. But two, that's a that's a single malt whiskey that I would love to put into a tasting with otherworldly whiskies to say, like, hey, this is another twist, a tweak, something different, right? Um, one of the things I enjoy sometimes is when we do tasting, is I I I I break the norm. Let's do something that is not typical. There are times and places for typical. This is not typical, and I love Everything about it being not typical. I would agree with that.

SPEAKER_00

86. I would agree with everything you just said, except for your 86 number. I 86 that. You 86'd my 86? Yeah. And I went 92. Oh man, you did like this. I really enjoy this. I think from the proof standpoint, it sits right where I like it. I think there's a lot of complexity to it. I think getting past the spiciness and starting to get into those specific notes, those flavors, it's it's perfect. Like I this to me is like it's hard to be perfection. But this is it's not that hard. I do it all the time. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I know somebody to ask. It's it is so bold, robust of flavors. Going back and trying the Amrut now, it tastes sweet and creamy. I mean, it really tastes sweet and creamy. Um it almost tastes like a weeded bourbon, right? Now that we've gone to such an polar opposite.

SPEAKER_00

It tastes like a weeded bourbon that's been watered down.

SPEAKER_02

Part of that I think is proof.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's proof.

SPEAKER_02

That's 100% when we go from 57 back down to 46. That's a that's a significant drop. Agreed. Um, yeah, that's an that's an excellent one. I really chaps my butt when you out bottle pick me. Oh, well, um there's always next time. So here's the fun question. Uh which of these is more indicative of traditional Indian whiskey? That's a great question. I'll be honest, neither of these two remind me anything like the bottle I'd had previous. So I say that because it's actually a call to you guys at home. Have you had Indian whiskies? Did you think they were lighter, softer, creamier, or bigger, bolder, spicier, like the Indry? Let us know which, if you've had these, if you've had others, where do you think these rank? Because these are so polar opposite of each other. I don't know if this is a fair statement to say this is what Indian whiskey tastes like, because these two don't taste anything alike. So let us know in the comments down below. We would love to hear your thoughts. And we get to the end and we always have to pick which one. I think I'm toasting to Indry. All right. All right. So we see you guys next week for the final whiskeys of the world episode. Cheers. And Son Java.

SPEAKER_01

We want to thank you, our Noble listener, for joining us. We believe each whiskey has a story, and so do you. So give us your thoughts by leaving a comment. And if you have a whiskey you'd like to see us share, let us know. You don't want to miss a single episode, so subscribe to our YouTube channel.

SPEAKER_02

And make sure to like and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to stay up to date on the Noble Dream.

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If you find watching us difficult, you can always listen to each episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

SPEAKER_02

As always, be noble.

SPEAKER_01

Enjoy your journey responsibly.