If you want to taste and discover Northeast India in a bottle, Castle Hill Dark Knight Whiskey is the answer. Aged over four years in new American Oakwood casks, the small batch whiskey by Radiant Manufacturers is distilled, aged and bottled in the Khatkhati region of Northeast India. Khatkhati is situated in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district, which is a stone’s throw from the Nagaland border. While Radiant was set up in 2001, the conceptualisation of the whiskey only began in 2013 when owner and connoisseur Vicky Chand embarked upon a journey with the master blender and distiller John McDougall, who is behind the recipe of Castle Hill Dark Knight Whiskey. Notably, the Northeastern whiskey pays tribute to the great American tradition of whiskey and bourbon craftsmanship.
Bottling of the Castle Hill Dark Knight Whiskey
The liquid gold is made from locally-sourced corn which is distilled using water from a Brahmaputra tributary that flows through the premises of the distillery. Northeastern India being rich in bamboo supplies, the whiskey is then filtered traditionally using bamboo charcoal and batch filled into the charred American Oakwood casks. After ageing the whiskey for four years, it is then bottled in a black bottle with silver detailing and presently sold only in Assam. The good news is that Radiant Manufacturers is looking to expand to Maharashtra and Goa by this year. While the company aims to produce 2,000 to 4,000 casks annually, they look forward to establishing a presence in Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Tripura.
Spread over, 5.4 hectares, t2 recently got a chance to visit Radiant Manufacturers Distillery which works 24 hours a day and has not had a single day-off since December 2023. As we walked through the birthplace of Castle Hill Dark Knight Whiskey, the lush green embraced us while there was no sign of alcohol as one would otherwise expect. We later came to know that due to government protocols, 30 per cent of the distillery’s land is covered in green with huge teak trees overshadowing passersby.
We walked in places where 97 per cent pure spirit was being heated, impurities were being removed, pH level was being maintained, water was being added and flavouring of spirits was in the process. With numerous cannisters of around 50,000 litres of raw spirit bubbling inside, we got a chance to sip the purest of spirits right before the whiskey is flavoured and given the look that we see in our glasses. With five huge floors and different steps being carried out on each floor, the distillery is humongous. We also caught a glimpse of the fermentation room where the purity of spirits and other tech-oriented details of the machinery are digitally controlled. Vicky Chand, the owner, personally tastes all the batches.
Vicky Chand
In a conversation with t2, Vicky Chand said: “We have been in the business for almost 40 years now. It all started when my father, Dani Chand, rented out a shop and ran an alcohol retail business in Kohima back when the state was not ‘dry’ and Nagaland was a part of Assam. (The sale and consumption of liquor was banned in Nagaland in 1989.) When the ban happened, it affected a lot of families and numerous families moved out of Nagaland. We had companies coming for us asking us to pay their dues. Numerous people changed their source of livelihood. Over the years, I gained an interest in the industry and set up the bottling and distilling processes in 2001 and we were buying spirits from across India and failed to get the consistency in quality that we were looking for. That is where it all started.” Talking about the conception of Castle Hill Dark Knight, he said: “We ended up having a black bottle and being a Batman fan, that was not a surprise! (Smiles) My go-to drink is beer but I taste every batch that is made so I consume what I manufacture on a regular basis.”
He added: “From a filtration standpoint, Dark Knight is filtered in bamboo charcoal. We took cues from what Jack Daniel’s was doing and we wanted to add a Northeastern touch to it and bamboo is here in abundance, so it all made sense. Corn being a predominant crop in this part of the country and it being a prime ingredient of Bourbon further drove us to inculcate it in our creation. You can drink Castle Hill Dark Knight Whiskey any way you like, be it with Coke, a splash of water, on the rocks or make an old fashioned whiskey sour or a Manhattan. Presently, we are maturing some malts, working on single malts, maturing wines which would be used in whiskeys later and within five months the barrels will be filled with our new blend as well. We are also working on miniatures and litre-bottles.”