Amrut

Amrut Distillery was founded in 1948 as Amrut Laboratories. The company, founded by Shri JN Radhakrishna, began mixing and bottling alcoholic beverages of various kinds. During the 1950s and 1960s, Amrut introduced products for the Indian Armed Forces as well as for the mainstream market; among them was dark rum Amrut XXX and Silver Cup Brandy. During the 1970s, Amrut began promoting grape brandy called Bejois, which was made from Bangalore blue grapes.

The company did not start producing malt whiskey until the 1980s. Guidelines for what whiskey is are definitely lax in India. In fact, 90 percent of the whiskey consumed in India is made from molasses, and blended malt whiskey can sometimes contain only 4 percent malt whiskey. Amrut sought to offer a better product - one that would meet global requirements. In order to improve this process, he used the help of experts from Scotland. The barley is specially grown at the foot of the Himalayas and the whiskey matures at an altitude of more than 900 m above sea level near the city of Bangalore. Thanks to the tropical conditions, the whiskey matures extremely quickly. Up to 15 percent of alcohol is lost each year. This is the so-called angelic proportion, and therefore it is not wise to let whiskey mature for more than a few years so that its alcohol content does not fall below 40 percent when it no longer becomes whiskey.