How India’s new taste for local whisky is shaking up the global drinks market
For years, Mohinder Singh’s trips outside India meant an obligatory stop at the airport duty-free liquor store, where he would join long queues to stock up on imported single-malt whisky. Then three years ago, he came across a brand – Paul John – that he had never heard of, at a tasting event a few miles from Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, where he teaches politics. It was an Indian single malt; its smoky smell was rich, the taste was even better. Singh was hooked.
“That was a gamechanger for me,” he says. Singh introduced his friends to the brand, which is now their drink of choice when they meet. “Everyone loves it.”
They are not alone. Drinkers in India, the world’s most lucrative whisky market – worth $18.8bn (£15bn) last year – have traditionally clinked glasses of blended whiskies or imported single malts. Now several Indian single malts that were launched internationally a few years ago – led by Paul John, Amrut and Rampur – are grabbing a major share of the domestic market. It is a seismic shift for the global whisky industry.
Vinod Giri, who heads the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC), says homegrown single malts constitute 33% of the market in India, up from 15% five years ago. That figure is poised for an even more rapid rise: sales have surged by an average annual rate of 42% over the past three years, compared with just 7% for imported rivals, according to CIABC data.
This trend has caught the attention of global firms too. Diageo, the world’s second-biggest alcohol company by valuation and headquartered in London, launched an Indian-made single malt in March called Godawan. “Global giants are recognising the demand for homegrown single malts in India,” says Sanjeev Banga, an
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