How well do you know your Indian single malts? In 2024, they surpassed imported malt sales for the first time, while distillers picked up major international awards and expanded a category once dismissed as a tropical novelty. In March 2026, John Distilleries’ Master Distiller Michael D’Souza was named ‘World’s Best Master Distiller’ at the World Whiskies Awards in London — a proud moment for the fraternity.

World Whisky Day, celebrated annually on the third Saturday in May was founded in 2012 by Blair Bowman, a whisky consultant and rare cask broker, to celebrate all drams globally. A good time to ask connoisseurs to pick their top three Indian single malts.

Swati Sharma, co-founder, The Dram Club (TDC)

Swati has been busting malt myths via the Dram Club, a Mumbai-based 11,000 member strong whisky appreciation club, established in 2019, guiding over 400 malt tastings across the country. “It is assumed that women only enjoy lighter, sweeter, gentler whiskies. It’s lazy, and it’s empirically false,” she says, at the outset. “Some of the women I’ve poured for have walked straight past the easy-drinking malts and gone for the boldest, peatiest, cask-strength expressions on the table. Palate is personal. It doesn’t read gender.”  

Her top Indian single malt picks include Godawan (01 Rich & Rounded and  02- Fruit & Spice). She says this is “because of the conservation story (Godawan is named after the Great Indian Bustard and a part of all sales go towards conservation of the endangered Indian avian species), the artisanal positioning, the slow-crafted approach — and crucially, none of it comes at the cost of the liquid or the experience.” She adds that Goa-based Paul John comes close as they’ve been quietly pushing the envelope on what a tropical single malt can taste like, finding expressions that speak specifically to the evolving Indian palate rather than chasing a Western template. The whiskies are bolder, more intense and pair well with the flavour complexity of Indian food.

Swati is confident that the spirited Indian single malt fraternity will grow robustly given global headwinds pointing to an Asia dominance in the malt market between 2027-2030. “India is the only spirits market in the world that is growing at the top of the pyramid in volume, categories, styles, cask finishes and provenance stories.”  

Uday Balaji, The Whisky Advisor

Sampling over 2,000 whiskies across 100 distilleries across the globe, Coimbatore-based Uday Balaji calls himself a whisky evangelist.

He is a certified trainer for the Whisky Ambassador Programme (original accredited Scotch Whisky training course ) and India’s only executive bourbon steward — an advanced level in the Bourbon Certification Programme providing classroom training, hands-on bourbon distilling, and sensory training for managers, programme directors, and team leaders.

Balaji says, “there’s a big misconception that Indian GenZ is not drinking —they just want better experiences and refined storytelling. Single malts typically used to be looked at as their father’s drinks, so it is up to the brands to make it more attractive to the younger lot. That’s where whisky cocktails come in, though it is prohibitively expensive to use single malts in a cocktail.” 

Picking his top three straight pours in the Indian single malt space, Uday suggests, “The Amrut Peated Port Pipe, available at duty free, is a superior product with depth and a smokey character. Paul John Select Cask Classic is unpeated and the epitome of what a robust tropical single malt should be. Rampur Asava, the first India cabernet sauvignon cask finished malt, is a good example of how to control the astringency of a wine cask to yield a sophisticated malt with restraint.”

Hemanth Rao, founder, Single Malt Amateur Club (SMAC)

A love for malt drove Hemanth Rao to establish SMAC in Bengaluru in 2011, hosting tastings and malt experiences for over 8,400 members across the globe.

His top three Indian single malts are sherry forward, peaty and consistently breaking perceptions of what Indian single malts can be. He says, “DeVans GianChand (a Jammu-based spirits producer) has Manshaa, a peated whisky with a strong minerally chalky character in the ₹6,000 - ₹7,000 bracket.”

For a sherry forward malt, (whisky aged in imported sherry casks) Hemanth picks Crazy Cock single mallt whisky, the Dhua edition (from Maharashtra-based South Seas Distilleries) which stands out as it has minimal batch variance. For a unique finish, he favours Rampur Barrel Blush, the only Indian single malt matured in American Bourbon barrels before being finished in Australian Shiraz casks. There is an honourable mention going to Amrut’s Marudham (following Neidhal and Kurinji, the malts are named after landscapes in Tamil’s Sagam literature), a 10-year old single malt.

As Indian single malts win awards across the globe and meet the demands of adventurous, well-travelled consumers, the landscape is shifting from a blended-spirit dominated space to sophisticated Indian drams that can hold their own — both on the world stage and alongside a spicy chicken curry.