WHISKY IS HAVING ITS MOMENT IN INDIA. MUCH LIKE GIN DID A FEW YEARS BACK when even small batch Indian distilleries, realised that bottling gin made good business sense in a country which can get boiling hot for at least six months of the year. Some of the gins which have been created in India today sell at a higher price than even Tanqueray was and is, and with good reason. The gin craze was preceded by the love for Montepulciano in North India primarily. Again, any red wine being drunk other than at the height of winter in India, is absurd. Which brings me to ask what explains the Indian love for whisky—which is made to be sipped in the cool climes of Scotland or England, not in the heat and dust of Gurugram? One of my overriding memories is from 20 years ago when I had just shifted to Delhi and went to the uber-chic The Golf Bar in ITC Maurya. I heard a young entrepreneur order “a Scotch on the rocks, with ice”, proudly and loudly. He even gave the tables closest to him a once over, to make sure we knew he knew how to order a Scotch. Not much has changed in the city.
While 20 years back it was rare to hear of youngsters choosing to drink whisky in India, today there is a spurt in whisky drinking. India has also become home to a burgeoning range of Indian whisky blends, far removed from Royal Stag and Black Dog, which were made famous by Bollywood. Hot cities like Calcutta have flourishing whisky clubs like The Calcutta Malt and Spirits Club and the Dram Club and so on. Many homes in Calcutta and Delhi have whisky collections which would put a Scottish whisky bar to shame. Today, whisky pairings with bar bites and tasting menus are commonplace.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a great appreciator of the finer things in life, from good wine to caviar to the best Hilsa in Bengal. Which is why I was pleased to spend an evening recently listening to Rachel Barrie, the legendary Scotch whisky maker known as the ‘First Lady of Scotch’. The world of single malts is unsurprisingly a patriarchal one, so it’s always refreshing to see a woman at the top of her game. Barrie currently serves as Master Blender at Brown-Forman, where she oversees The Glendronach, Glenglassaugh and Benriach.
Since the Scots are simply fabulous narrators and raconteurs, it was a perfect evening hearing her walk us through Scotland’s “Valley of Brambles” and the Scottish Highlands. I learnt about sherry cask maturation, how it creates whiskies defined by depth, structure and a richly layered character.
I’ve gone for a couple of Cognac tastings before, and single malt tastings are similar. You take in the fragrance of the whisky, sometimes you spot a fruitiness, sometimes a peaty flavour. But I find unadulterated alcohol, other than wine, a little too strong for my palate.
I’m a cocktail person and love my whisky cocktails. Whether it’s a Rusty Nail with Drambuie and whisky, or a Manhattan with Bourbon and Martini Rosso, a Rob Roy pleases me a lot, as does an Old Fashioned and my favourite—the Whisky Sour. It’s the mix of the strength of the whisky with the sweetness of either vermouth or orange rind that finds favour with me.
I’ve spent the last month drinking more Highballs than I care for—both in Japan and in Kolkata’s answer to Japanese fusion cooking, Yokocho. True whisky cocktail aficionados love Highballs because the whisky is actually made palatable for the heat of India, given that it’s one part whisky to two parts soda.
But it’s the rise of the whisky cocktail—a Highball here, an Old Fashioned there, whisky washed with butter somewhere else—that made me realise that whisky is the new It drink in town. Most fine-dining restaurants and even cocktail bars and speakeasies now have an entire menu section dedicated to whisky cocktails. To make whisky more palate-friendly and whisky cocktails more friendly to Indian dietary preferences, they are either sweetened considerably or desi-fied in a manner unique to India. I remember being asked in a very popular bar in Delhi, whether I wanted a “non-veg” Whisky Sour or a “vegetarian” one and realised they meant with egg white or without.
Which explains why it’s a conundrum that India—especially North India—is so fond of the purist single malts and Scotch.
To put things in context, India now has well over 300 single malt whisky labels/variants available if you include limited editions, travel retail releases and state-specific imports. One Delhi retail catalogue I looked at listed 259 single malt products across Indian and imported brands! India is brimming with homegrown single malts such as Amrut, Paul John, Rampur, Godawan and newer craft labels.
Industry reports show that Indian single malts now account for more than half of the category’s sales in India. It is this love for whisky that has spurred the world's best whisky makers to reach out to the Indian consumer. The Indian community of whisky drinkers is increasingly regarded as a knowledgeable group of single malt Scotch collectors and connoisseurs—even if I would guess that most would want to eat dal and rice while on holiday in Scotland. I must confess, it still amuses me that people who pronounce “genuine” as “genoo-wine” can pronounce Scottish names like Lagavulin without hesitation.
Or maybe I am just being judgmental. Which is highly probable.
But the upside of what I can only assume is a nouveau riche fascination with single malts, cigars and Scotch is that we now have access to a bouquet of whiskies that, until a few years ago, could only be sampled on foreign shores. And if it wasn’t for the inexplicable whisky craze, I wouldn’t have had the pleasure of sipping a Glendronach 12 Year Old and savouring the sherried autumn fruit, gingerbread, chocolate praline—and was that a hint of orange peel I tasted?—along with layers of maraschino cherry, walnut liqueur and dark chocolate mint, served at just the right temperature and with just the right food. All while sitting in Gurugram, in the heart of Haryana.
To read more stories from Esquire India's July 2026 issue, pick up a copy of the magazine from your nearest newspaper stand or bookstore. Or click here to subscribe to the magazine.