Tasting

Taste a whisky from North India for the first time and you'll likely expect smoke, but find sweetness instead. The climate pushes out in just a few years what a Scotch whisky needs a decade to achieve. That sweetness doesn't come from outside; it forms in the cask itself, as wood and heat work together. The result is plenty of caramel, dried fruit and a spicy sharpness that comes from the six-row barley.

Rampur Double Cask shows this perfectly. After maturing in bourbon and then sherry casks, honey, ripe apricot and a hint of nutshell come together. The young cask maturity never overwhelms the barley beneath it. In Indri Trini, the blend of three cask types creates a broader picture: green apple freshness from the bourbon cask meets raisins from the sherry cask and a slightly winey note from the French wood.

Godawan 01, finished in Pedro Ximénez casks, heads in a darker direction. Dried date and liquorice meet the slightly resinous spice of the botanicals used to pre-treat the casks. Three distilleries, three completely different profiles, linked only by the heat that helped mature them all.

Tasting works here as it does anywhere: a finger's width of whisky in a nosing glass, alongside still water at room temperature, added drop by drop. Given the more intense cask aromas, patience really pays off with these whiskies. Let the glass sit for a while before that first sip, or the alcohol will mask the finer nuances. A single extra drop of water often opens up more aroma in these bold whiskies than you'd expect.