In December last year when India kickstarted its presidency of the G20 summit at Udaipur, delegates were welcomed to a dinner on an island in the middle of Lake Pichola to discuss global challenges. India also used the opportunity to do a soft power flex on the international stage. This included generous doses of Rajasthani culture- colourful safas (traditional headgear) for delegates, local food like dal-baati churma, a millet station and a made-in-India artisanal single malt called Godawan. This, however, wasn’t Godawan’s first global outing. Distilled in Rajasthan and named after the Great Indian Bustard, the whisky was served at the India Pavilion of the Cannes Film Festival last year. And it’s not the only one. Amrut, made in a distillery in Bengaluru, went from a blind tasting at a Glasgow pub to stores in the EU and the US. Long dismissed as mere molasses or blends, Indian whiskies are making even desi Scotch snobs (you know the kind who brag about how they paid a bomb for a bottle from some obscure or mothballed distillery) wake up and smell the Patiala peg.

It didn’t happen overnight, but Indian craft whisky has been making steady strides, with Amrut and Paul John being pioneers. Prem Dewan, MD of DeVANS Modern Breweries that entered the single malt segment with GianChand last year, admits that there are many hurdles along the way, including the Scotch-is-best attitude. “For years, we were made to believe that there is nothing equivalent to Scotch in the whole world and that no other country could make anything which could even touch Scotch as far as quality was concerned. And we believed it!”

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