Paul John Indian Single Malt Just Dropped Its New Christmas Whisky
Christmas is almost here, so that means it’s time to drink things like hot cocoa, eggnog, mulled cider, and Indian single malt whisky. You read that right, because acclaimed Indian whisky brand Paul John just announced the details of its annual Christmas Edition single malt, and this time around it was partially aged in rum barrels.
Indian whisky has been becoming more popular here in the U.S., as different brands and distilleries like Paul John, Amrut, and Rampur have introduced their excellent whisky to the American market. Paul John is part of the larger John Distilleries company, which has a few distilleries under its umbrella and also produces wine and brandy. It was founded in 1992, but the Paul John single malts have only been available to the international market since 2008. The main distillery is located in Goa, a state on the west coast of India that has a tropical climate which greatly affects the whisky’s maturation process and flavor. There are a few different core expressions, all non-age statement whiskies, including the unpeated Nirvana and Brilliance and the peated Bold single malts. Then there are peated and unpeated versions of the Select Cask whiskies, along with a few others that are aged in sherry casks.
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Paul John’s whisky is made from a mashbill of 100 percent malted barley that’s grown near the Himalayas, while the peat is imported from Scotland. After distillation, the whisky is matured mostly in ex-bourbon and virgin oak casks (with the exceptions noted before) in warehouses where the angel’s share can reach as much as 10 percent due to the climate, resulting in an accelerated form of aging.
Previous Christmas Editions have been matured in different ways—the 2022 edition, for example, was finished in an interesting combination of ex-bourbon, brandy, and peated Oloroso sherry casks. This year’s release, the seventh overall, employs less types of casks, but yields a flavor that is just as complex as past expressions according to the distillery. The 2024 Christmas Edition is a blend of single malt finished in Caribbean rum casks and single malt aged in virgin oak, resulting in notes of coconut, candied orange, and toasted oak, with fruit tart, salted toffee, and chewy tannins on the finish.
Paul John 2024 Christmas Edition Indian Single Malt Whisky is available now at select retailers around the country (SRP $80). And you can find the entire lineup, including past Christmas Editions, available to purchase now from websites like Total Wine.
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