It used to be the winemakers. Rarely did a fortnight go by without one winery or the other?new-world or old?hosting wine tastings for the glitterati, the well-heeled and the occasional connoisseur. Nowadays, winemakers are busy looking for other emerging markets, but they have been replaced by men with strange accents, who wear plaid skirts with stockings and a leather bag draped over the front. Scotch whisky was always an Indian weakness, or fondness, but now, we are seeing a major upgrade. With more disposable money, higher aspirations and awareness through frequent travel, Indians are taking to single malts like a Delhi voter to the Aam Aadmi Party. The sale of single malts in India has clocked a 32% rise between 2008 and 2012, making it the fastest-growing market for single malts, and brand ambassadors and malt specialists with a Scottish burr are now racking up frequent flyer miles to India, hosting single malt events and some, like William Grant & Sons, one of the few family-owned distillers, taking it a step further.
William Grant, the makers of the best-selling single malt brands, Glenfiddich and The Balvenie, apart from blended whisky, like the eponymous Grant?s, has just established a sales and marketing office in Gurgaon to ?target the growing opportunities for premium international spirits in India? and to expand its brand portfolio across the country. The timing could not be better. Changes in policy and the spread of malls have made shopping for spirits a more enjoyable, international experience, and there are as many single malts on shelves as there are blended Scotch brands, including newly-discovered brands like Lagavulin, Talisker, Jura and Highland Park, to name a few. It?s a similar story at upmarket restaurants and five-star hotels. The Leela Kempinski in Gurgaon offers a great range of single malts, including the extremely rare Glenfiddich 50 Year Old, with a single dram priced at R60,000. Coming through duty-free shops at international airports in India, there are bigger crowds at single malt counters than at the blended Scotch stalls, which include the perennial favourite, Johnnie Walker. A recent survey showed that 60% of single malts bought at duty-free channels in India were for gifts, an indication of their privileged status.
That represents a sea change in whisky-drinking habits in India. Today, there are single malt clubs in almost every big city, where special releases and hard-to-get bottles of single malts are available for members along with regular tasting sessions. There?s even an India chapter of the elite Scotch Malt Whisky Society in Mumbai and Pune. Many Indians who favoured blends earlier?Chivas Regal, Black Label, Teacher?s, Ballantine’s?have now switched to single malts, says Pramod Krishna, long-serving director general of the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies, a trade body that monitors the wine and spirits industry in India. According to him, single malts replaced blended Scotch whisky as the default spirit to be served at upper-middle-class weddings about five years ago. ?Reverse migration by NRIs along with increased travel by professionals abroad and aggressive marketing by whisky brands have made it far more aspirational,? Krishna said during a speech at the World Whiskies Conference in London.
He is certainly right about aggressive marketing. Ian Millar, the global brand ambassador for William Grant, was in India to host some Glenfiddich-related events, close on the heels of another global brand ambassador for another single malt distiller. Millar, a genial Scot from Dufftown, which has a number of single malt distillers in the area, including William Grant, attributes the change to an increase in overall wealth in India over the last decade or so, with more people being able to afford single malts, generally higher-priced than blended whiskies. In fact, this is the time of the year, the festive season, when single malt manufacturers bring out special editions and some rare old vintages stored in their sherry casks. Last October, a single bottle of a Bowmore ?64 sold in a London auction for ?61,000 and another auction saw a bottle of 64-year-old Dalmore fetch ?28,000. In fact, the record for a single malt was set in 2010 when a Macallan 64-year-old went under the hammer for over half-a-million dollars. The high price for a peg, or a dram, as the Scots call it, of Glenfiddich 50 Year Old is because it is extremely rare. Only 50 bottles of the precious elixir are available worldwide, so it’s little wonder that The Leela sells it per peg. ?This whisky is the jewel in Glenfiddich?s crown and amongst the most valuable whiskies ever released,? says Millar. Indeed, the range of single-cask whiskies from independent bottlers is increasing constantly and big distilleries, having woken up to the commercial potential of the liquid gold lying unappreciated in their cellars, have begun offering an expanding range of limited production, special-edition bottlings.
Add to that special events, like the one hosted by Millar, dressed in the traditional kilt, and William Grant, which paired a range of Glenfiddich, including the 12-year-old, the biggest-selling malt worldwide, and the 15-year-old, matured in three types of oak cask, which previously contained sherry, bourbon and new oak, with another iconic award-winning brand, The ITC Maurya?s Dum Pukht restaurant. The legendary restaurant?s tasting menu, its signature dal, kakori kababs, slow-cooked prawns and biryani, and the raan-e-dum pukht paired with the Glenfiddich range, including the 18-year-old and the 30-year-old, was a marriage made pretty close to heaven. The most rewarding pairing was the restaurant?s exquisite dessert tray with the Glenfiddich Voyage of Discovery, a special-edition malt with a Madeira cask finish. For the uninitiated, single malts are made of barley, yeast and water, and aged in oak casks in a single distillery as opposed to blended whiskies, which contain a mix of barrel-aged malt and grain whiskies, and are sourced from different distilleries.
Unlike Scotch whisky, which can only be legally made in Scotland, single malts are also made in Ireland, Japan, Sweden and even India, with the Bangalore-based Amrut brand making waves in the home of single malts. Amrut Fusion Single Malt was rated one of the best three whiskies in the world in 2010, though it is rarely available in India. Scotch whisky regulations dictate ?single-malt whisky? must be made in a single distillery from malted (sprouting) barley, must be distilled in a pot still and aged for at least three years in oak casks. Only three ingredients are to be used: barley, water and yeast. Amrut single malt whiskies are made from selected Indian barley grown in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. For some expressions such as Fusion or Peated, barley is sourced from Scotland and used along with Indian barley. Water is sourced from the foothills of the Himalayas. The barley is carefully milled, mashed, fermented and distilled in small batches to preserve the natural aroma, and matured in oak barrels in unique tropical conditions in Bangalore?s 3,000 ft altitude. After maturation, the whisky is filtered to retain its natural uniqueness. Most of it is exported, which is why, we hardly see it in a liquor store.
What we do see are an ever-widening range of single malts, which are gradually growing in popularity and sales. Glenfiddich, however, is the current market leader in India with a 40% market share in the category since it made its official entry into the country in 2009. While the single malt community in India is still a relatively niche segment, there has been significant growth in certain categories, mainly the 30-plus age group, reasonably well-travelled with a higher-than-average disposable income, predominantly belonging to the major metros. There has also been growth in the female consumer segment over the past few years. It?s a pattern with a familiar ring. Every marketer now acknowledges that single malts saved the Scotch industry from a dizzying fall from favour in the 1970s when white spirits like vodka, rum and tequila grabbed market share. There were only about 30 single malts produced then; today, there are more than 200, and they?ve stolen a huge chunk of the Scotch market away from traditional blended whiskies. Like elsewhere across the globe, at first, the premium, more expensive single malts occupied a niche for the curious drinker. But thanks to media exposure and savvy marketing, they soon became a major force in rebranding Scotch as a more refined and distinctive whisky. Most consumers are now well-versed in regional differences between distilleries in the Highlands, Lowlands, Speyside, Islay and Campbeltown.
That?s possibly the reason why more and more Indians are willing to spend so much for good single malt. For one thing, there?s the taste. No single malts taste the same, and many connoisseurs will swear by a particular brand. Some people prefer a dry and peaty Islay, others the sweetness of a Speyside or the depth of a Campbeltown. Competition is now driving change, with single malt distillers going in for increasing experimentation and variety. As Millar explains: ?Innovation is vitally important. We have to keep customers excited and keep the brand alive.? So next time you are browsing the shelves at the local liquor store, you might just find a single malt that has a hint of Bordeaux, matured in a cask that originally contained a classic red wine! Single malts are getting increasingly singular.