Move over, Scotch; Indian single malt whisky is on the rise, winning international awards and flying off the shelves at home. Global brands are tapping into the boom
- Indian single malts are shaking up whisky-loving India’s US$33 billion spirits industry and ending the long dominance of Scotches like Glenlivet and Talisker
- Global alcohol giants Diageo and Pernod Ricard have got in on the act with their own Indian malt whiskies, as Indian distilleries eye rapid expansion
Oak casks, once used to store bourbon and wine, are stacking up in a distillery near New Delhi, filled with ageing whisky as workers churn out almost 10,000 bottles a day of Indian single malt Indri, recently named the world’s best whisky.
Sugar cane and mustard fields, not peat bogs, ring the distillery, where the two-year-old Indian brand’s owner, Piccadily, is ramping up production and building a three-hole golf course to lure connoisseurs and tipplers in the whisky-loving nation.
As India comes into its own as a maker, not just consumer, of whisky, its single malts are reshaping the country’s US$33 billion spirits market.
Established global brands such as Glenlivet, made by France’s Pernod Ricard, and Talisker, from Britain’s Diageo fight for shelf space with local rivals Indri, Amrut and Radico Khaitan’s Rampur.
Unlike many Asian countries where beer dominates alcohol sales, India is predominantly a whisky-drinking nation. Global awards, increased affluence and a mass of drinkers trying new brands while cooped up during the Covid-19 pandemic have rocked India’s whisky landscape, industry executives and analysts say.