Indri: Trini (India Single Malt Whisky: 46% ABV)
Visual: Bright, slightly darkened gold. Fast, thick streaks from the spirit.
Nose: Thick and slightly oily. Sticky honey. Crunchy nut cornflakes. Light soot. Cereals. Water keeps mostly the same but smoother. Vanilla, custard and stewed apricot come out over time.
Body: Honey. Sticky. Slight treacle. Thick mouthfeel. Cinnamon. Water keeps same set but smoother. Adds toffee. Crunchy nut cornflakes. Apples. Slight strawberry.
Finish: Dry. Sticky toffee and liquorice. Cinnamon. Vanilla. Water adds honey, honey nut cornflakes. Slight candy sugars and dark fruit.
Conclusion: This is a thick and sweet whisky that shows the weight I often consider correlated to the aging of whisky in a hot country, but without that kind of steam like fluffy I feel I associate with a lot of them – possibly due to the longer than common aging that aspect has been smoothed out.
Considering the three barrels used for aging this, I have to admit I am not getting the range of subtleties from each of them, instead getting a more straightforward but intense flavor of the combination of everything.
It has big honey sweetness and almost treacle like character – but a few drops of water makes it more smooth and integrated. The most unusual subtlety that we do get is a cinnamon sweetness used gently under the bigger sweet flavours.
Despite an only slightly higher than normal abv there is a lot of room for extra water here, and with enough you start getting gentle apple notes coming out which, again, work well with the cinnamon. It feels like here, with a good chunk of water, the influence of the three barrel aging finally shows itself with extra notes.
Generally a big sticky sweet dram that can show a bit of subtlety with some water, not too fancy but big and smooth.
Background: The second dram of the World Whisky event at Independent Spirit, and from an Indian Distillery I had not heard of. I knew Amrut and Paul Johns, but had not encountered Indri, so this was a bit exciting. This has been aged between five to six years, unusual length for such a hot climate where they tend towards shorter maturation – as the heat tends to result in a lot of loss of spirit, and also tends to result in a quicker, though different maturation to colder climes. It has been aged in Bourbon, PX Sherry and red wine barrels. Even more unusual it uses six row barley from the Rajasthan, which is a type not often used in the UK due to its low yield.