Synopsis

India's booming single malt whisky market faces a significant challenge: time. Demand has surged dramatically, outpacing production capabilities due to the years required for maturation. Distilleries are struggling to meet orders, with even increased capacity needing years to yield sellable stock. This situation mirrors past global whisky booms, highlighting the long-term nature of whisky production.

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Mumbai: India's single malt boom has run into a hurdle that money can't surmount-time. Whisky has to spend years in barrels before it can be sold and single malt takes time to mature, but demand has far outstripped supply, said producers.

Sales of Indian single malts surged more than sixfold since 2020 to 490,000 nine-litre cases in 2025, according to industry executives. So far this year, though, annual growth has slowed to 22% from 26% in 2024. "Single malts cannot be produced overnight," said Paul John, founder of John Distilleries. "They require years of maturation, and demand over the past few years has far exceeded what anyone anticipated."

The company has been able to meet less than half the demand from trade partners, he said, adding, "While Indian single malts do not require an age statement, maturation remains essential to producing a high-quality whisky." Single malt refers to whisky made entirely from malted barley at one distillery-prized for its unique taste-as opposed to a blend of whiskies from multiple distilleries. In Scotland, the evaporation during barrel ageing, known as the angels' share, is just 2-3% a year, while in the heat of India, it is usually more than 10%.

Bengaluru-based Amrut Distilleries increased production capacity more than 40% last year, but the additional whisky will take four-five years of ageing before it is ready to be sold, said its managing director Rakshit Jagdale. "So, at the moment, we are facing a situation where we don't have enough products to sell. More than exports, India has now turned out to be the largest market for all domestic single malt whisky distilleries," he said, adding that the company is rationing out stocks globally, including within the country.

Last week, the Indian Malt Whisky Association launched a certification mark to authenticate locally produced single malts. To qualify, whiskies must be made from 100% malted barley at a single Indian distillery, distilled in copper pot stills, matured for at least three years in oak casks and produced entirely in the country without added flavouring.

Kunal Madan, chief marketing officer at Radico Khaitan, drew parallels with the Japanese whisky boom. "The world discovered it almost overnight, and suddenly everyone wanted a bottle. Indian single malts are going through a similar moment," he said, adding that even Scotch distilleries with centuries of history periodically grapple with forecasting demand because production decisions are made years before whisky reaches consumers. Amrut and Paul John were the first Indian single malt brands, launched in the 2000s, followed by the likes of Rampur, launched by Radico Khaitan about a decade ago. However, in the past few years, the market has seen a flurry of new single malt distillers like Piccadily Agro-which launched Indri and Kamet-as well as global liquor companies including Pernod Ricard and Diageo adding their own Indian brands such as Longitude 77 and Godawan.