Indri Drú Cask Strength
Indian Single Malt Whisky | 57.2% ABV
Hopelessly Scotch Focused
Last year I attended my first and, to date, only whisky festival in Glasgow. This year I hoped to get to more festivals, but alas, it hasn’t happened yet. But I was keen to get up to Glasgow again. A family gathering thwarted my desire to be at the festival on the Saturday, but I had an opportunity to be there for the Sunday, which I took with both hands.
The blind tasting challenge event hosted by Roy Aqvaviate was my personal highlight of the entire weekend last year. A room crammed full of dozens of wonderful people from the Barfly community tasting whisky, followed by lots of chat and even more sharing of whisky. What’s not to love? I wanted to be there again, and thankfully, I was.
I drove up from north Wales early on the Sunday morning. A fairly mild start to the day as the sun rose and the dawn turned slowly, bit by bit, into daylight. The drive up the M6 and across the border into Scotland is one I enjoy, with some breathtaking scenery along the way. It beats the M5 going south hands down. Sorry Birmingham and Bristol.
As I cross the border it appears Scotland doesn’t seem to be enjoying such a mild start to the day as Wales. The motorway scythes between sheltered hillsides which were coated in a silvery white frost where the sun hadn’t quite managed to reach. An ice warning flashed up on my car's dashboard, the initial sound and flashing symbol gave me a sense of dread, until I realised it was merely an outside temperature notification.
After a few hours of driving I reached the outskirts of Glasgow and the M8, which passes north of the city. Suddenly I see a sign which wasn’t there last year. Glasgow now has a LEZ (Low Emissions Zone), and I had absolutely no idea until now! The signs warned me to make sure my car was exempt, but I had no way of doing so on the motorway. I bit the bullet and followed my satnav off the carriageway and into the zone of terror.
After a worrying time wondering how much this would cost me, and the helpful man behind the desk at the Travelodge talking of £500 fines as he read from the website on his computer, I was relieved to find it wasn’t going to cost me anything and my car was indeed exempt. I had gone from having a gloomy outlook to absolute delight. I could relax and enjoy the rest of my trip.
The Glasgow air was crisp, the sun shone brightly, and it was magnificent. Time to nip into McDonald’s to line my stomach with grease. I certainly know how to treat myself.
Anyway, the reason I go off on a tangent after my initial announcement that I am hopelessly scotch focused is because this event has pulled my pants down for two years in a row now. Last year it was Yoichi’s single malt that was my favourite, and this year it was Indri’s Trini, which won the day. Both whiskies won overall amongst the contingent too, so I wasn’t alone. Although for balance, I would say from discussions that I had on the day that not everybody loved the Trini. I imagine it was the same for the Yoichi last year. We’re all different after all. However, the consensus was clear.
I hadn’t tried the Trini before that day, but my senses suspected it was non-scotch in front of me during the blind tasting. There was something about the tropical flavours and almost rum-like qualities on the nose that set it apart from the scotches in front of us. The palate backed it up too. I could have let my favourable outlook on scotch sway me and denounce the foreign invader, but it was undeniably the best whisky I was tasting at that moment. It trumped an early 2000’s bottling of Laphroaig 10, a Benromach Contrasts: Peat Smoke Sherry, Turntable’s Smokin’ Riff Blended Scotch, and most impressively, Cu Bocan’s 2023 15 year old, which retails at close to £100 a bottle. Still very good whisky, but it wasn’t having the same effect on me.
My scotch focus had resulted in me ignoring all the previous chat about how good the Trini was. It was even reviewed on Dramface, scoring a six and two sevens from Ogilvie, Earie and Wally. Still, I was unmoved, even when £40 is a very reasonable price tag that should have made it worth a punt.
As much as scotch is where my heart lies and it is hard to see that changing, on two separate occasions, I have chosen the non-scotch whisky in a blind tasting against four scotches as my preference. It’s a small sample size, but it’s compelling.
Immediately after the tasting I sought to put that right and I went looking for a bottle of the Trini. In doing this I noticed there was a cask strength bottling from Indri. This left me with a choice. I didn’t have the available money to buy both, but in conversation with another attendee on the day, they had asked if I had tried the cask strength, and it was said in such a way that I felt I should do so. That settled it, and I decided to grab the cask strength ex-bourbon cask bottling and leave the 46% mixed maturation Trini. I then proceeded to give my other half a not so subtle hint that it may be an idea to pick that up for my forthcoming birthday. I am pretty certain she took the bait, as DHL doesn't often deliver her bottle shaped packages.
At £75 for a non-age statement whisky this isn’t cheap, but you are never going to get big age statements from whiskies matured in the hot climates of the region, where maturation is accelerated and losses through evaporation are far greater than in more temperate climates. Trying the Trini made me feel that the £75 would be a worthwhile spend.
The Trini Three Wood, to give it its full title, is matured in, as the name suggests, three different cask types. Ex-bourbon, French red wine and ex-PX sherry. The cask strength Drú is 100% ex-bourbon. I would imagine first fill, but am not certain about that. For a whisky that is exclusively bourbon cask matured, it is very dark indeed. No doubt a result of the sub-tropical climate in which it is matured creating a lot of activity between the spirit and the wood.
That did make me a little nervous when I opened the bottle. I have mentioned in the past that overly woody whiskies are not my bag at all. It is one reason many of the bourbons I have tried are not for me, and some scotches too. We’ll have to see if that is the case here when we get to the tasting.
The Indri may have been the highlight on the whisky front, but of course the absolute highlight of the day was the people. Isn’t it always the way? As much as we love the whisky, it’s the people we are sharing it with that makes it so worthwhile. Although meet ups with fellow whisky nuts is quite rare for me, with time, money, and family life all factors which make it harder to do as regularly as I would like, it really is a tonic for the soul when it does happen. There was even the opportunity to chat face to face with a fellow Dramface writer or two for the first time, although even the ten hours we had wasn’t enough to chat with everybody as much as I wanted. My bad for not being there for the entire weekend. Thankfully, there will be other times, and I can’t wait.
Review
Indri Drú, cask strength, ex-bourbon casks, Batch 01 June 23, 57.2% ABV
£75 limited availability
Bottled at a natural cask strength of 57.2%, and the label tells us it is matured in bourbon oak barrels in a sub-tropical climate, which are then hand selected by their master blender. It’s a very elegant looking bottle with the gold label and font on the bottle, and the wood-effect magnetised box lined with foam to hold the bottle in place.
We discover from the Indri website that the barley is grown by a barley farmer called Goda Ram on what is described as a modest plot of land. The barley is floor malted, distilled in pot stills (three wash and three spirit) and they have been producing malt whisky since 2012. It says they produce four million litres of spirit annually, but if the barley is produced on a modest plot of land on a single farm, I am concluding it isn’t only single malt they are produced from those stills.
They use renewable power to produce their spirits and organic principles for growing their barley, cultivated using an indigenous six row varietal.
Nose
A bowl of overripe tropical fruit with a background of vanilla, coconut and honey. It’s a big punch of fruitiness that I would say you don’t tend to get as impactful in scotch, where the fruits are often, but not always, more gentle. I also get marzipan covered fruitcake, with cinnamon and nutmeg spice.
Palate
Great flavours and a lovely journey on the palate. It starts off with sweet orange and a mix of tropical fruits, but then transitions to sour lime, with chocolate coming and giving us chocolate limes. The sourness begins to subside and the tropical fruits return in abundance, with creamy vanilla, coconut and the remaining chocolate creating the flavour of bounty bars. There’s a light peppery spice that tingles the tongue, but in no way imposes itself. There is oak coming through, but I’m relieved that it’s balanced and not too drying.
As it finishes I get copper coins amongst the creamy coconut and chocolate. It sips well at full strength, and I don’t find water brings anything extra. This is glorious whisky.
The Dregs
At some point in the near future I will be able to sip this side by side with the Trini, but from what I have tasted at this point, I feel the cask strength is a notch above and well deserving of the 8/10 score.
The abundance of tropical fruit and the way those flavours evolve on the palate keep me wanting to go back in for another sip. I am finding it hard to reach past it at the moment, and I think that will continue until the bottle is emptied.
Scotch clearly isn’t the best, at least not always. It produces the majority of the whisky I have come to love and I will never move away from it, but I do need to be more open to the whiskies from other nations in the future. It is time to step out of scotch’s comforting familiarity more often than I do at present.
The Trini and Drú are the only whiskies we can obtain in the UK from Piccadilly’s Indri at the moment, while I hope they keep it coming, perhaps they might also introduce one or two more expressions onto the market in the future.
Drú isn’t even available in its native India, so we can think ourselves lucky we do get to buy it. If the price remains right, Indri will be a staple on my shelf for years to come.
Score: 8/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. RT