Amrut Fusion

Whisky is undoubtedly the most preferred alcoholic drink in India. White spirits and wines still languish on the periphery of Indian ‘Boozeria’. Someone once said that the amount of ‘Scotch’ consumed in India is 3 times of that produced in Scotland! With all this near-divine status for Whisky in general, Indians are relatively at bay when it comes to ‘Single Malts’. So 3M was taken by surprise when his Scottish boss mentioned that he had tasted an 'Indian Singe Malt' in Glasgow which was excellent... he called ‘एमरूट’. This was dismissed as ‘Scottish idiosyncrasy’ by me! Must be some smart Sardar in Scotland who would have rebottled the local produce and given it some exotic Indian brand name to fool these gullible Scots… Indian jugaad at its best.

Then suddenly came the news that a Single Malt from India called ‘Amrut’ (means 'Nectar of the Gods') has be declared as the 3^rd Best in the World by none less that Jim Murray in his Whisky Bible… And now it has been declared as the ‘World Whisky of the Year’ by Malt Advocate Magazine!

Wait… it is ‘Amrut’ not ‘Amrit’… a clear give away that the owner of the brand is from a land ‘South of Narmada’! But it cannot be owned by a speaker of a Dravidian language… or else the brand would have been ‘Amrutha’. Hmmm… so 3M started to find out more about the origins of this divine golden liquid. Good ol’ Google helped me understand that the owner is a Marathi Manoos – Neelkanthrao Jagdale of Amrut Distilleries of Bengaluru. 


Chaila… a Marathi Single Malt? So should we say ‘Cheers’ or ‘चांगभलं’?

So let’s all sing 

"अमृताहुनी गोड व्हिस्की तुझी नीळकंठा..."

3Mpedia:  Before Mr. Jagadale, there have been other Marathi Manoos like Rajeev Samant of Sula Wines and Sham Chougule of Chateau Indage who have won international accolades for their wines. Also there is another Marathi family in Bengaluru which has been ruling the hearts of 'Bevdaas' in and around the Cauvery Basin for more than a century – The Khodays!