Featured at World Whisky Day 2022: Rampur distillery was founded in 1943 in the Indian city of Rampur, making it the oldest distillery in India and also part of the Radico Khaitan liquor conglomerate. The company has a portfolio producing spirits for the Indian domestic market, the international market, and the Indian military market, along with neutral spirit for use in a variety of commercial products. They also own their own bottling plant, enabling them to incorporate much of the production process. Rampur is part of the international portfolio. Situated at the base of the Himalayas, the location and elevation give it greater climate variance not seen elsewhere in India. The Rampur Asāva are aged for a time in ex-bourbon casks before being transferred to casks formerly containing cabernet sauvignon wine from India. This expression was first released in October 2020.
Distillery: Rampur
Region: Foreign
Age: NAS
Strength: 45%
Price: $93.99
Maturation: ex-cabernet sauvignon casks from India
Location: Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, India
Nose: Cherry candy, rubber, cumquat, anise, pear, burnt sugar, floral, char
Palate: Cherry, rubber, floral
Finish: Ammonia, Robatusin
Comments: Water is not needed. Stunning in the right cocktail.
Adam – There’s a nice light, cherry scent on the nose that gradually opens up into fruit, along with a hint of artificial processing. The nose is easily the most striking thing about this whisky, layered and fruity, buoyantly so. I am not familiar with cabernet sauvignon from India but it makes me wonder, since India is not known – at least to me – for its wine. Still, the heat and variety of weather seem to call out a bright red that is strongly felt in this whisky. The palate flushes that cherry sensation at you even more stridently than the nose, with a dash of florals in passing before almost rushing to a hit of medicinal with a hint of rubber, the cherry only returning at the tail of the finish. I have not been the hugest fan of Indian whiskies over the years, but the Asāva is nothing like any of them. This is why I enjoy pursuing whiskies from an area of country even if I’ve had one or two lackluster experiences. The Asāva now has me intrigued in what India can do again; even if the tempo of the experience feels off and a few of the flavor elements off-putting if isolated, the rich potential shown in this dram calls for me to cheer them on.
Kate – I feel like I just ate a potpourri bomb. The Asāva is so sweet on the nose, and so floral on the palate, yet so bitter on the finish.
Bill – There’s a lot going on in the nose. It’s getting more complex the more I let it sit out, which is unusual to me. I really want a cigar or a pipe with this, to balance it out. There’s only one other whisky that’s given me this Robutusin flavor before, and it’s Southern Comfort.
Tastes like compote or tart pie filling before you bake it.
Henry – Sweet red fruit on the nose. Lots of sweetness, with just a hint of char. Sweetness continues into the front of the palate, mixing quickly with a harsher astringency that carries through into the finish, which, as it lingers, retreats to leather polish and a cloying chemical sweetness.
Ben – Tastes like compote or tart pie filling before you bake it. The Asāva tastes like how the manufactured cherry from a car wash vacuuming would taste. It doesn’t taste like medicine. It’s not a cough drop, even with all that cherry, even though you think it would.
