Distillery Tour #8: Two Moons Distillery (Hong Kong)

TimeforWhisky.com is, obviously, a whisky blog, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying the occasional malternative, be it rum (including every Caroni I can get my hands on), brandy (especially Vallein Tercinier Cognac), and at times, gin (the "whisky drinker's white spirit").

(I stop short at Vodka, of course...)

Gin isn't something we'd typically feature here, but then when you live in HK, it's not every day that someone starts up a local distillery producing a fantastic product. Enter Dimple and Ivan, founders of Two Moons Distillery in Chai Wan, Hong Kong...

The idea for Two Moons Distillery came about in 2017, when Ivan and Dimple were creating their own gin infusions for cocktail events, but were never quite satisfied with the results. After gaining valuable insights from meeting and working with distillers abroad, they decided to set up their own distillery, despite no one else (at the time) having opened a gin distillery in Hong Kong.

Told by many it was "impossible", the duo reached out to HK Customs who more or less said "why not?", and together both sides embarked on a two-year learning journey. It was refreshing to hear Ivan talk of the collaborative experience they had working with Customs - a far cry from what you might expect when dealing with bureaucracy, particularly in the context of alcohol production.

Gin Ambassador course teacher Eddie Nara hearing about Two Moons Gin botanicals from co-founder Ivan Chang

The facility itself is small but smartly designed, with seating around a crescent-shaped bar overlooking the still and bottling facilities, which all sit in a bonded area (interestingly, in Hong Kong only authorised personnel are allowed to enter bonded facilities, and Customs must be notified of each and every non-authorised person who enters).

Speaking of stills, "Luna" (as she's known) is a 100L copper pot and column hybrid still, created by Müller Stills in Germany. Ivan tells a funny story of how Müller weren't sure if they should produce the still for Two Moons, as there was a concern that it may have actually been requested simply to copy and reproduce (because "who distills gin in HK?!"). After satisfying themselves that Ivan and Dimple were legitimate, Müller created the still and it now takes pride of place in the distillery.

Utilising a sugarcane-based neutral grain spirit from Holland, Luna churns out approximately 100-110 bottles in each batch, with 2-3 batches produced per week currently.

Seeking a "balanced, complex and sippable" spirit, the duo experimented with variety of botanicals before settling on 12 to provide citrus notes (Lemon peel, Rose, Tangerine Peel, Pink Peppercorns), Sweetness (Tonka bean, Madagascan vanilla, Chinese apricot kernels), London Dry tradition (Juniper from Italy, Cardamom, Coriander seed) and a slight bitterness on the aftertaste (Licorice root, Oris root). With no sugars or sweeteners, the gin is bottled at 45% (based on taste) in custom bottles which are then wax-dipped by hand.

There are a lot of craft gins out there, and not all of them are good, but I have to say, Dimple and Ivan nailed it with this one. It's one of the few gins I'd happily sip neat, and would make an excellent martini, given the complexity. I particularly like the way the citrus sweetness (never overpowering) balances with the juniper and slight bitterness on the finish.

As if it wasn't impressive enough to start a new distillery in Hong Kong, Dimple and Ivan have taken things one step further to ensure the facility has some serious sustainability credentials too - from re-use of water, to turning the composted botanicals into fertiliser for local community farms, the duo are giving back to the community in more ways than one.

Two Moons is not the only gin distillery in Hong Kong (the current count I believe is 3), but regardless, you have to hand it to anyone who decides to take the leap into distilling, particularly in a city with no recent history of it. Given the quality of the product, I have no doubt Dimple and Ivan will succeed.

Two Moons Distillery is located at the end of the Island MTR line, literally across the road from Chai Wan Station in Chai Wan, HK. Visits can be booked via their website.

A big thanks to Dimple and Ivan for their time and hospitality, and Eddie Nara of Barrel Concepts (and also Gin Ambassador HK teacher) for arranging the tour and introduction.

Cheers,

Martin.

Tasted #394: The Macallan 55 year old - Exclusively bottled to celebrate The Macallan distillery opening 2018

As mentioned a few weeks ago, at the launch of The Macallan's new distillery and visitor centre we were treated to a spectacularly rare whisky - a Macallan, in which the youngest Macallan was 55yo, of which there were only 20 bottles, and which was served only to guests of the distillery launch events for a week in May.

As far as welcome drams go, it's fair to say it was a good one.

Upon picking up a glass, we weren't given any details at all. We were asked to hold off for a few minutes until a toast was made, but that didn't stop me giving it a good long nose...which was all I needed to tell me this wasn't your average sherried Macallan. This was something unique.

We later learned it was a special bottling, released only for the distillery launch events, but weren't given any other details apart from its age. A few days later, Siobhan Sellers (@herguide) posted up the following post (edit: since removed), confirming the ABV (50.3%). I'm sure I also read somewhere that it was limited to 20 bottles, but can't seem to find that info anymore.

The Macallan 55yo - Exclusively bottled to celebrate The Macallan distillery opening 2018 (50.3% ABV, 55yo, Speyside, Scotland, Not commercially available)

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Colour: Burnished copper-gold.

Nose: Sweet orange zest initially. Sultanas. Sultana Bran, figs and sweet dates...but so much more. Leather. Slightest hints of smoke, nutmeg and mince pies. If you search hard enough, some dunnage warehouse. Clean, beautifully sherried and complex.

Palate: Raisins dusted with nutmeg. Some pepper. Apples, cloves, more orange, but then...grapefruit? Lots of grapefruit - both flesh and hints of zest. Ginger, dried fig and candied apricots...this dram had a lot going on, and it was all delicious.

Finish: Long with a slight citrus bittnerness leading to a subtle, lingering earthy smoke.

Rating (on my very non-scientific scale): 92/100. Delicious, just a beautiful example of an incredibly well-aged sherried whisky. To enjoy it amongst friends, as one of the first in the world to tour the new Macallan Distillery was just an incredible experience.

Follow @TimeforWhisky.com on Instagram for more

Cheers,

Martin.

Distillery Tour #7: Joadja Distillery (NSW, Australia)

Whilst I often try to fit some "whisky tourism" into my trips where possible (a distillery tour, bar or whisky show for example), I wasn't expecting to do so on a recent trip back to Australia, considering I was only there for 3 nights for a mate's wedding and to visit my folks in their new Southern Highlands home.

Turns out my parents had a different idea though, and had sneakily booked a tour of Joadja Distillery, in the historic town of Joadja (about 40 minutes from Bowral). The distillery wasn't open that day, but the lovely Valero and Elisa Jimenez (Directors, owners and operators of the Distillery and Joadja Heritage Tours) kindly agreed to open up and show us around.

Even if you're familiar with the Australian whisky scene, you may not have heard of Joadja before. That's because they haven't actually released a whisky yet - although they have produced whisky (and from what I tried, it was very nice indeed - more on that below).

The trip to Joadja takes you on ~10km of (relatively easy-going) dirt road, passing several ancient buildings hinting at the town's historic roots. Upon arrival at the distillery, Elisa and Valero (who also run non-whisky focused tours of the historic town) told us a little about the history of the area - founded in the 1870s as a shale mine and refinery, and staffed at the time by a large population of Scottish shale miners, who not only distilled shale oil, but also their own illegal spirit, or "sly grog", on the side.

So...historical significance - tick!

The Jimenez family (as the name might suggest) have Spanish heritage, with Elisa herself having a direct family connection back to Jerez, enabling them to source high quality ex-Sherry (Oloroso and PX) casks for maturing their whisky.

So, access to high quality sherry casks too - tick, tick!

It was these factors (coupled with some convincing from the Godfather of Australian Whisky Bill Lark) that convinced the family to establish the distillery in 2014, having purchased the site years earlier, seeking a change of lifestyle after running a backpacker's hostel in Sydney. 

It's interesting to note that there was actually a distillery in Joadja previously, on the same site, which had all the equipment but never produced a drop. Those stills however were removed, and made their way to New World Whisky Distillery (aka makers of Starward), whilst Valero and Elisa procured new equipment for their distillery.

Soon after arriving at the distillery we were greeted by an immense downpour - so heavy that we couldn't even hear Valero speak. When things quietened down, and we were taken on a tour of the town, the local spring (supplying all the water used in the distillation) was flowing. No concerns about water availability then!

The distillery uses an 800L spirit still, and produces a powerful but nuanced new make. Maturation occurs in the same location,  just a few metres away, mostly in 32L casks which previously held Oloroso or PX Sherry (the distillery also sells the sherry which came from the casks, and it's very tasty stuff).

As with most young Australian distilleries, Joadja are also producing and selling new make ("Outlaw"), Anis, and a Dry Gin, all of which are available now. Their whisky is not yet available, although Bottles #1 and #40 will be given away at the upcoming Brigadoon festival in Bundanoon - Bottle #1 to Scottish-Australian legend Jimmy Barnes, and #40 to be raffled off at the event. It's expected the whisky will be available for sale to the public this year.

I was fortunate enough to try a dram of the first cask (JW001), at a cask-strength 60.8% ABV, and whilst I've promised not to post detailed tasting notes (as what I tasted was still a 'work in progress'), I can confirm it was an impressive dram for only 2 years old, and reminded me very much of other Australian distilleries in their younger years - distilleries which have since gone on to produce world-class whiskies.

Certainly a distillery to keep an eye on.

Whilst the distillery is a bit of a trek from Sydney, it's one I can recommend making - make it a day trip and include a tour of the historic town too. You can't taste any of the whisky during the tour, but you can see the equipment up close, and try the sherry which seasoned the casks that are now maturing the whisky.

You can also see Kangaroos, and really, how many distilleries can lay claim to that!?

A huge thanks must go to Elisa and Valero for their immense hospitality during our visit, and for generously allowing us to taste their spirits. Personally I'm excited to see another NSW distillery producing high-quality spirit, and can't wait to see this distillery grow and no doubt go onto great things.

Cheers,
Martin.

TimeforWhisky gets hands-on experience at the Archie Rose Distilling Co, ahead of the new "Tailored Spirits" program

Today is a pioneering day for the Australian spirits world - the first time (as far as we're aware) that an Australian Distillery has made personalised Gin, Vodka and (of course) Whisky so accessible, affordable and easy. To celebrate, and to find out just what this was all about, I recently rolled up my sleeves and tried my hand at a few of the stages of whisky production at Sydney's Archie Rose Distilling Co.

The program I'm talking about is Archie Rose's tailored spirits program, which launches today (Archie Rose, of course, being the Sydney-based distillery we also visited back in April). The full press-release has been included at the bottom of this article, but the key details are these:

• On the Archie Rose website, you'll be able to select Gin, Vodka or Whisky, and "tailor" the elements to suit your needs. We've seen a sneak preview of the interface, and it is slick.
• For example, with the tailored gin, you'll be able to select up to 5 botanicals (and the intensity of each) for a unique, personalised gin. Blood lime, orange, mint, fresh apples? You name it.
• For the whisky, you'll be able to choose your cask type, base grain (rye or malt), level of peat or wood smoke and ABV (46%, 60% or custom).
• Those choosing the whisky option will be able to spend up to 2 and a half days getting hands-on experience actually making their whisky - mashing in, pitching yeast, distillation etc... (a $500AUD option).

That all sounds great, but the part we find incredible is the pricing:

• Tailored Vodka: $84AUD
• Tailored Gin: $89AUD
• Tailored Whisky: From $4,000AUD for a 20L Cask

A bottle of your own, tailored gin/vodka for under $90AUD? We can see bars and consumers alike lapping this up, and no doubt more than a few groups of friends will get together to take up the whisky cask offer too...

To understand a little more about how the program will work, I recently spent a morning at Archie Rose, getting some hands-on experience with the mashing and spirit cuts.

First some background - it was my birthday recently, and Steph bought me a small 2L charred American Oak cask (from Barrel Barn), to help me tick off #9 on my #101drams charitable challenge. A cask is all well and good, but it's nothing without some new make spirit, and so I weighed up the options - lay my hands on some Scottish new make single malt, buy a few bottles of Buffalo Trace White Dog, buy a few bottles of Archie Rose White Rye etc... when I figured I'd drop the folks at Archie Rose an e-mail and see if they'd be willing to sell me 4L of proper new make.

Not only were they, they also helped me figure out what type of spirit would suit my situation best. As the cask was to be matured in Hong Kong, with its hot and humid climate (humidity often meaning the angels take more alcohol and less water), it was suggested I go for a slightly higher ABV (but keeping it under 70% as I had to transport the new make back on the plane with me), so we settled on 67% ABV. As I wanted to mature two batches of spirit (one in HK's winter, one in HK's summer) I decided to go for 2L of "speyside spec" single malt new make, and 2L of "heavily peated" single malt new make.

With the spirit agreed upon, I was asked if I'd like to spend a morning at the distillery, to get some hands-on experience actually making some new make spirit?

Errm, not really something you say no to is it!?

Arriving at Archie Rose early one morning, I met Head Distiller Joe Dinsmoor (formerly of Lark Distillery) and Assistant Distiller Shane Casey who had just started the mashing in of a new batch of single malt. Having been on more distillery tours than I can remember, I knew how this process worked, but seeing it up close, and actually getting involved, just made it that much more real. Unlike most Scottish distilleries, Archie Rose mashing is done manually by hand (at least until a new mash tun arrives in 2016), 4 days a week, with 600kg of barley. Luckily for my arms, they were mashing the malted barley that day, and not the "cement-like" rye...

The regular single malt includes 100kg (1/6) of peated malt, described by Joe as the "pepper on the steak". Having tried their single malt new make, I can assure you they've made the right choice - it's smooth, flavoursome and should age incredibly well. The "heavily peated" new make includes 300kg (half) of peat-smoked malted barley.

Speaking of malted barley, part of my morning included loading the hopper with fresh malt, ready for the next session of mashing. Slightly tiring work loading up those 25kg bags, but it did give me an opportunity to try each type. The peated barley had an incredible woodsmoke, BBQ note which I'd happily munch on as a snack.

With that done, it was over to the stills to see the low wines coming off the wash still (described as having a "rollercoaster of flavour", although obviously a little rough) and the foreshots coming off the spirit still. There's no automation or computerisation when it comes to making the spirit cuts at Archie Rose - Joe and team make the decision based on nosing and tasting the spirit multiple times as it comes off the still (Joe did explain that the results are fairly consistent, and so they generally know at what time/volume the foreshots start to end and the heart run begins). I had a little nose at a few stages (nearing the end of the foreshots), and it was fascinating to see how quickly it could change, and how new flavours/notes were introduced as it progressed.

For anyone visiting, don't expect a spirit safe like you'll find (mandated by law) in the UK. "Cutting the spirit" here involves wheeling in a new receptacle and moving the hose into it!

With the cuts done, there was time to sample the two new make spirits I was taking home:

• Archie Rose Single Malt New Make Spirit (67% ABV): A smooth, banana/bubblegum nose leading to a rich, thick oily palate of asparagus and strawberry bubblegum, with a long, smooth finish with hints of lamb fat. Complex and delicious.
• Archie Rose "Heavily Peated" Single Malt New Make Spirit (67% ABV): A campfire BBQ nose with hints of pork, more pork on the palate (with some confectionary sweetness) and a long, sweet and sherberty finish. Also delicious.

Can't wait to see how they go in our little 2L cask, which is currently being seasoned with a mix of sherry and port (more on that in the coming months).

One thing I found interesting, which I'd never had a sense of from previous distillery tours, was how a distiller actually spends their day. While there wasn't really any "down time", there were brief (and we mean brief) periods of waiting for certain stages, but there was also a tendency for things to happen all at once too. For example, at undoubtedly the most time critical point - the spirit cutting, there were multiple delivery men arriving, phone calls, and even a truck delivering a load of 200L ex-sherry casks (which smelled amazing, by the way). The life of a distiller can be a frantic one at times, but Joe and Shane kept their cool like pros.

With the heart run well underway, and my new make all bottled up, it was time for me to get out of the way and let the blokes get back to work. As I sat down to a delicious chicken sando at Black Star Pastry just next door (please come to Hong Kong!), I reflected back on what I'd seen, and how while we whisky enthusiasts might think it's all fun and games making whisky, it's actually bloody hard, skilful work. A big cheers to the men and women around the world who make the whisky we know and love, day-in, day-out.

TimeforWhisky would like to say a huge thanks to Will, Dave, Joe and the team at Archie Rose for having us along and for producing us a fantastic new make spirit which is sure to work a treat in our little mini cask.

Cheers,
Martin.

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Full press release:

"Archie Rose Distilling Co. is enabling you to create your own tailored spirits, giving you a truly unique experience in designing your own personal gin, vodka or whisky, right down to your name on the label.

The award-winning distillery and bar prides itself on its opening up the distilling experience to the public and invites you to try your hand at spirits design via the Archie Rose website, where a custom application has been developed to guide you through the process.

“This is something we’ve been working on for some time,” says founder and owner, Will Edwards. “Every day we are lucky enough to able to play with pure botanical distillates, unique malts and rare casks to create our spirits’ flavour profiles, and thought why should we be the ones having all the fun designing spirits? It was a natural progression to go down this route and give people the opportunity to get really involved in the distilling process, which we are so passionate about.” 

Designing your Tailored Vodka or gin begins at https://archierose.com.au/tailored-spirits/ where you have the option to select up to five of the distillery’s unique botanical distillates to add to your bottle of Original Vodka or Signature Dry Gin. The intensity for each botanical is then chosen to give your spirit its unique flavour profile. The final step is personalising the bottle, by adding your name or the person lucky enough to be receiving it as a gift, and the custom made label is created – your Tailored Spirit forever marked as your own and delivered to your door. 

For those wanting to up the ante, Tailored Whisky is an incredibly unique offering allowing you to personalise almost every aspect of your whisky including the option for you and four friends to assist in the actual making of your whisky on site.

To ensure your Tailored Whisky is precisely to your specifications, options include a choice of Single Malt Whisky or Rye Whisky; a custom made 20L, 50L or 100L cask of any wood type the Archie Rose cooper has available including New American Oak, French Oak, Ex-Bourbon, Ex-Port and Ex-Sherry and setting your desired level of smoke influence from a choice of peated or wood smoked malts, among others.

Your name is stencilled on to your cask prior to it being stored and displayed in the bar rack until mature with the Archie Rose Production Manager and Head Distiller managing the maturation process. You will receive a 200ml sample annually to create a library of your whisky’s maturation however your cask can be sampled at any time by appointment. 

Bottling the Tailored Whisky at your desired ABV on maturation includes batch details and your name on the label. Six bottles of the final product will be presented in a handmade wooden Archie Rose crate with full brewing and distillation notes, one bottle of filtered water used in the production of the whisky and two Glencairn glasses. The remaining bottles will be packed in Archie Rose cases with an option to keep your empty cask.

Tailored Vodka: $84
Tailored Gin: $89
Tailored Whisky: From $4,000 for a 20L Cask

Available from Monday 2 November at: https://archierose.com.au/tailored-spirits/"

Distillery Tour #6: Amrut Distilleries (Bangalore, India) (Tasted #217)

If you were to say our Distillery Tour posts had a theme, it would surely have to be "Not Scottish" (don't worry, those tours have happened, they were awesome, and the posts will be up soon). So far we've covered distillery visits in Melbourne, Sydney, Japan (twice), and Taiwan, and now it's India's  turn.

This tour was originally planned for 2013, but after having to cancel a work trip to Bangalore for personal reasons, it wasn't until 2015 that another chance came up. I needed to make a quick Mon-Fri trip to Bangalore for work, and took the opportunity to ask Amrut Distilleries if I'd be able to take a look around the distillery on the Saturday. Thankfully they were more than happy to have me, and so the plan was set.

Saturday rolls around, and we (myself and a colleague) make the journey out to South West Bangalore (25km, a little over an hour) in a hotel car. We weren't quite sure what to expect, but we did learn that our tour would be conducted by Master Distiller Surrinder Kumar, who had kindly come in on his day off to show us around!

Surrinder, with a whopping 29 years of experience under his belt, started by talking us through the fascinating story of how Amrut Single Malt came to be, and how even though it makes up an incredibly small percentage of their total output (details further on), it's put them on the global map.

To most whisky drinkers, Amrut was unheard-of until their single malt started gaining a global following in the late 2000's. The company however has been actually been making spirit since 1948 (initially "IMFL", or "Indian-made Foreign Liquor" distilled from molasses), and was producing Indian "whisky" a long time before the single malt came along. In fact, an excess of malt whisky (previously used for blending popular local Indian blended "whiskies"), which the distillery noted was of significantly higher quality than most other Indian whiskies, was one of the catalysts for the launch of Amrut Single Malt.

3rd generation owner and son of current Chairman, Rakshit Jagdale (studying his MBA at the time in England) was asked to investigate launching a single malt product outside India, starting with the UK. The product was already there - they just needed to get it into the public's conscious. Research showed that the public perceived it to be similar in style to a 15-18yr old Speysider, and so a plan was drawn up to launch it in the UK - initially in Indian restaurants, taking the same approach as Indian beers like Kingfisher and Cobra.

After some time, volumes weren't picking up and the company considered ending the project, but (taking a renewed spirit of perseverance from the Gahdhi statue in London), Rakshit forged on, seeking importers for each country and...well the rest is history, with Amrut currently available in 22 countries (although still very limited in India).

I mentioned Amrut Single Malt being an "incredibly small percentage" of Amrut's total production. How small? Well, there are approximately 14,000 x 4.5L cases of Amrut Single Malt produced each year (a total of 63,000L), compared to 200,000 x 9L cases produced of all other products.....per month! In other words - 21,600,000L, making the single malt about 0.2% of total production. A very successful 0.2%, you'd have to say!

Unsurprisingly, Amrut can't keep up with worldwide demand for that 63,000L, and are currently increasing warehousing from their current 6 warehouses. They're also experimenting with temperature-controlled warehouses, like some Bourbon distilleries in the US, but for now it remains an experimentation only.

Just before Surrinder took us out to tour the operations, he mentioned that a new product was on the horizon - "Greedy Angel's Chairman's Reserve", at an incredible 10 years old ("incredible" considering the distillery experiences 10-12% Angels' share each year). That product has since been released (and likely sold out) - and comes with a 50mL cask-strength sample of the whisky at 71% ABV.

By this stage we'd spent a good 90 minutes with the clearly passionate Surrinder, and our tour was no less comprehensive, taking another 90 minutes and showing us into all facets of the operation, which employs hundreds of staff from Bangalore.

Production of all products occurs via two 7.5hr shifts each day, with the single malt being distilled on a Monday. Temperature controlled fermentation takes 1 week (kept under 30degC), and whilst we didn't get to taste the wash (at 6.5-7% ABV), we did taste the new make (73% ABV off the still, 63% ABV into the cask), which was fruity, oily, rich, subtly peaty (on the palate, not the nose) and incredibly smooth.

We got to talking about distillery visits, and Surrinder mentioned a visit to a popular Lowland distillery (he didn't mention it by name, but we figured out it was Auchentoshan) where he noted some tips for triple distillation. Despite only having two stills (that's them above), Surrinder experimented with triple-distilled Amrut about 3 years ago, and mentioned that it was currently ageing away in the underground "cellar" - possibly a year or two away from release...

...which of course, was my queue to try my luck, and ask if I could taste it. Before I knew it, Surrinder was asking one of the production managers to fetch a sample from the "cellar", and a few minutes later, this vibrant orange sample appeared:

Triple Distilled Amrut (name not yet known) (64% ABV, ~3yo, Karnataka, India, not yet available)
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Colour: Intensely vibrant orange.
Nose: Light, citrusy. Lemon oil. Some esthers and some caramel chews.
Palate: Light, zesty. Lemon cheese cake. Young and hot, but very drinkable. In another 12-18 months I imagine it will be incredible.
Finish: Very long, lots of caramel chews.
Rating (on my very non-scientific scale): 91/100. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

Exciting stuff. After a look at the malt mill, the delivery setup (which receives 16-17 trucks per day) and the fermentation tanks, it was time to venture into one of the warehouses.

Maturation Warehouse 1 (just next to the still room) is home to casks racked 5 high, including a few weird and wonderful whiskies which have featured in recent and soon-to-be-released (we hope) whiskies. Chief amongst these was this cask of Amrut "Naarangi", which saw Amrut age sherry infused with orange peels in the cask for 3 years, before emptying it, then ageing an already 3 year old sherry-matured Amrut for another 3 years in said cask. The resulting whisky is said to have some subtle, but noticeable orange notes, without being considered a "flavoured" whisky.

Next, it was off to the bottling and packaging floors, where I saw whiskies the likes of which I'd never seen before. How so? Take a look for yourself...

That's right - Tetra-pak "whisky"! This is an example of the local blended "whisky" Amrut produces for the local market, and sells for mere cents. The packaging line for these products runs 24 hours a day - such is the popularity of these throughout India.

Having seen the production, ageing and packaging facilities, it was time to visit Surrinder's "lab", with a variety of International and local whiskies, and several single cask samples (Amrut do a great private cask program, which was taken up by Dram Full with the recent Dram Full Amrut bottling - now sold out).

Amrut aren't allowed to sell any bottles from the distillery, but we were kindly gifted a 50mL mini each - continuing my tradition of collecting miniatures from distilleries I've visited.

..and with that, it was time to draw the tour to a close, and head back to the city, then the airport, then back to HK. An extremely informative and enjoyable day, and a tour I'm very glad I (finally) got to take.

A huge thanks must go to Surrinder, Ashok and Pramod for making this tour happen - especially Surrinder for spending so much time with us on his day off. If you ever find yourself in Bangalore and have some spare time, I can highly recommend booking a tour of this fascinating distillery.

Cheers,
Martin.