India’s home to 13 of the 25 best-selling whisky brands in the whole world. These brands include the mass-produced and mass-bottled likes of McDowell’s, Officer’s Choice, Imperial Blue and Blender’s Pride. In fact, up until last year, Officer’s Choice was the top-selling whisky, purely based on sales by volume, as reported by Forbes.
This year, United Spirits’ McDowell’s has taken the crown with sales of 30,700. The figure comes in light from Forbes‘ ‘25 Best-Selling Whisky Brands In The World’ list. It is based on the number of sales by thousands of 9-litre cases, which is the standard industry sales metric as per the magazine. ‘Sales of ‘1,000’ means 1 million cases were sold, totalling 9 million litres.’ So clearly, that’s a huge number, but if you’re not someone who’s impressed by figures and are looking for lesser-known Indian whisky brands to add to your bar, check out these five Indian whisky brands.
5 lesser-known Indian whisky brands that deserve a special place in your home bar
1. Rampur Single Malt Whisky
Rampur Distillery was the original name for Radico Khaitan, India’s fourth-largest spirits company. It has been making whisky for more than half a century, and started producing malted barley for its blends in 1990, but only launched its first single malt for export in 2016. This is a creamy and malty whisky with notes of vanilla, apricot and apple.
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2. Amrut Single Malt Whisky
Distilled from barley grown in the North West of India. Amrut matures their single malt in New American Oak and ex-bourbon before bottling. Amrut Single Malt is an award-winning brand of high-quality home-grown malts in the country that are distilled in Karnataka. Twenty variants of this single malt whisky are available in select cities across the country.
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3. Paul John Single Malt Whisky
Paul John Whisky is an international award-winning single malt from India’s sunshine state. Its blend is made from six row barley, sourced from foothills of Himalayas, and is distilled and matured in Goa. The brand offers an array of whiskies for every mood and occasion.
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4. Woodburns Whisky
Woodburns Whisky is another gorgeous blend from Goa. It was launched last year by Fullarton Distilleries and is currently marketed as contemporary Indian whisky.
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5. Kamet
Kamet is matured in a combination of ex-bourbon American oak, ex-French oak and ex-sherry casks. The usage of wine and sherry casks gives Kamet a vinous complexity on the nose and a beautiful natural colour.
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