MEET SURRINDER KUMAR, MASTER OF MALT

The growing footprint of Indian single-malt whisky is inextricably tied to the journey of a former agriculture officer

- Sayantan Bera

Master distiller Surrinder Kumar at Piccadily Distilleries’ fermentation unit at Indri, Haryana.

(SAYANTAN DATTA/MINT)

In 2002, Rakshit Jagdale, a young MBA student, went pub crawling in Glasgow, Scotland. Not on a drunken soiree with batchmates but on a more onerous task, assigned by his father. Jagdale, then 26, was carrying miniature single-malt samples brewed, distilled and matured thousands of miles away, in Bengaluru.

It wasn't easy. There was a stigma attached to whisky from India, more so if it was the hallowed single malt. That is not surprising: although India is the largest whisky-drinking nation on the planet, whisky sold in the country was usually made from neutral spirits distilled from molasses, a byproduct of sugar production. In those years, Indian whisky would not even qualify as whisky in Western markets, because it was not made using cereals such as barley.

A meeting that September turned out to be fortuitous. At the famous Pot Still bar in Glasgow, the manager declared the malt to be outstanding. He promised the young student a blind tasting session. At the tasting, whisky enthusiasts thought the samples were of highland whisky, from Scotland's largest producing region, known for its incredible diversity. Some said they had been matured over 10-12 years. The patrons at Pot Still were surprised when told that the samples were from an unknown distiller in India.

Two years later, in August 2004, Amrut Distilleries launched the first Indian single malt in Glasgow. It's been a long journey since that breakthrough. Last year, sales of India-made single malts surpassed imported (also known as bottled-in-origin, or BIO) ones, with brands such as Indri, Amrut, Paul John, Rampur and Godawan emerging as clear winners.