First Two Months of 2025

 We had a New Year's Eve party with a bonfire. We also had a karaoke session going in parallel. A few cousins and nephews and nieces attended, so the average age came down significantly.

Also had a trip to Indore, to take a session on Personal Branding for MBA students.

Then, we met as a group of music-minded friends for a beer and lunch in a Pune restaurant called Tipsy Turtle. Sheetal Garg visited from Mumbai, and stayed over. Rina Das we met for the first time, and Dipti Kane too. Planned another meet in August.

Last week of January was spent in Goa, mostly on Colva beach facing the sea- at the Colva Residency. This was the 40th Reunion of our MBA btach too, at nearby Benaulim. One highlight for me was visiting the Paul John Distillery in Cuncolim. Also picked up Kadamba Single Malt made in Goa.

Also, Pooja, my daughter, returned after a 3 year stay in the U.K.- hopefully wiser.

February, we had a trip to Chikhaldara for another reunion, this time of my wife's batchmates from school. Nice resort, and fun with the group, singing and dancing. 

Saw a play Baghi Albele, a comedy, at Ishanya Mall. Presented by WOPA, World of Performing Arts.

Relaxing away the rest of Feb.-it's pretty hot for Feb.

Paul John Distillery Visit

 Just went on a tour of the distillery in Cuncolim, Goa. Amazing! It's a beautiful visitor centre, and our our guides.. two young men and a young lady- were very good.

Asmita took us around the distillery, and showed us what appears to be a simple process of making great whisky. Obviously, it's not so simple! We enjoyed learning about the process, that begins with Barley being converted to beer, and then distilled to make Whisky.

Bourbon casks, for aging

Some products.. there's also an XO Brandy, and Fireball -a cinnamon whisky.

Roulette is also their brand.. 

Asmita, who did a great job explaining the process..

Copper stills, above.

The Peat coms from Scotland, Barley from the Himalayan plains, and water is local. Yeast is also a special variety of Brewer's yeast. Tasted one sip from an in-process 61% alcohol beaker too. 

3 years aging in India is equal to roughly 7 in Scotland, due to the heat. And losses due to evaporation are bigger here. Our malts may not carry an age statement for those reasons, but they are good!

Single Malts - Kilchoman and More

 I got introduced to the class of Whisky called Single Malts, around twenty years ago when I lived in Bangalore, and Prabhakar, a friend, ran his own company. He travelled to the U.K. and elsewhere frequently, and brought back a couple of Malts from there. We experimented, not knowing the right way to drink it. After some failed experiments, we finally got it. Neat, or with a bit of water is best. I think we started with a Glenfiddich (pronounced with a 'k' at the end, as I discovered much later!)

After that, till today, it has been a lot of Single Malts over the years, and each is distinctive. I have found friends- women too, who enjoy Single Malts, and have had some great get-togethers over a drink or two. India now has a decent range of Malts too.

Some malts I have tried-