Indri

Born in 1927, Kedar Nath Sharma founded Kedar Nath & Sons in 1953 as a liquor distribution business that would quickly own all the liquor contracts in undivided Punjab. Inspired by the hustle and bustle of London’s Piccadilly Circus, the company opened a restaurant named ‘Picadili’ in Chandigarh in 1967, followed by a movie theatre in 1972 and the first of what would be a ‘Piccadily’ hotel chain in 1975. When a sugar mill and distillery was purchased in Patalia, Punjab in 1993, Piccadily Agro Industries was founded as the spirits producing brand of the company, with a second distillery in the small village of Indri in Haryana following in 1994. Located 150 miles North of Delhi and near the base of the Himalayas, the word ‘Indri’ is also a derivation of the Sanskrit word ‘Indris’, which denotes the five senses.

India is the biggest consumer of whisky in the world, but the vast majority of ‘whisky’ made in India is actually produced with molasses, making it essentially a rum and meaning it can’t be sold outside of Asia as whisky. However, Indri is the fourth Indian brand to release Single Malt whisky in Europe following Amrut, Rampur and Paul John – as with the latter, Indri uses indigenous 6-row barley which has been grown for hundreds of years in Rajasthan – it produces a smaller yield but arguably more depth of flavour. 90% of their output is unpeated, with one peated run taking place every three months.

Production of Single Malt whisky at Indri first started in 2012 and was eventually overseen by Surrinder Kumar, who is considered by many to be the forefather of Indian Single Malt whisky after serving as Master Distiller and Blender at Amrut from 2006 to 2014. Graeme Bowie, who previously worked with Angus Dundee and was the first distillery manager for Ardnamurchan, joined in 2020 to be involved with the final blending of the initial release and now runs the distillery operations. A blended whisky named ‘Whistler’ launched in 2020, with Indri Single Malt launching in 2021 and Camikara Rum in 2022.

Agneya - derived from the Sanskrit word meaning 'belonging to fire' - introduces a lightly peated element to the whisky, with maturation taking place in a combination of ex-Bourbon and ex-Oloroso Sherry casks. I've been trying to find out with little success where the peat is sourced from - peated whiskies from Paul John used to import peat from Scotland as local peat would introduce too much of a burnt character.

Since sampling Trini I've been a BIG fan of Indri and the 2024 Diwali edition was the first I had tried that had any kind of smoky element - and it blew my ruddy socks off. So my hopes were already high when a sample bottle arrived from the brand, and fortunately those hopes were met.

Paul John Edited - the lightly peated expression as opposed to the unpeated Brilliance or the heavily peated Bold - was probably my favourite for the entire PJ portfolio, and yet I think Agneya is even better. The vanilla notes from the Bourbon influence, the sweeter dark fruit from the Oloroso barrels and the soft bonfire smoke interplay wonderfully together, making the finish rich and lengthy with hints of brazil nuts, charred orange peels and dark chocolate.