India drinks more whisky than any other country, and for a long time, most of the market has been centred around mass-produced blends and Indian-made foreign liquors (IMFL).
Indian single malt is a much younger idea, built over the past twenty years by a handful of distilleries including Amrut in Bangalore, Rampur in Uttar Pradesh, Indri in Haryana, and Paul John in Goa, all working in a climate that behaves nothing like Scotland’s.
Enough people are buying it now, at home and abroad, for the category to have become a commercial story rather than a curiosity, which is why two pieces of news last month were so welcome to drinkers.
The India-UK Free Trade Agreement came into force on July 15, 2026, immediately cutting India’s import duty on Scotch whisky from 150% to 75%, with a phased reduction to 40% over the next 10 years.
11 days later, the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC) published its estimate for Indian single malts. The category sold roughly 500,000 nine-liter cases in 2025, up about 22% year on year, with homegrown producers accounting for around 92% of the made-in-India segment.
Few people are better placed to comment than Paul P. John, chairman of John Distilleries, who laid down his first Goan malt spirit in 2008 and launched it in London before launching at home in India.
We talked about where the growth is really coming from, why cheaper Scotch might help him more than it hurts, and what he expects Indian single malt to look like a decade from now.
From Goa in 2008 to Half a Million Cases
When John laid down his first malt spirit in Goa in 2008, there was nothing to measure an ambition against. As he put it, “there was no meaningful Indian single malt category against which one could set a realistic ceiling.” The question in front of him was narrower and harder.
“Our first question was far more fundamental: could we create, using Indian barley and our tropical conditions, a single malt that would be taken seriously alongside established whiskies from anywhere in the world?”
He is straightforward about not having predicted the numbers. What he says has surprised him more is the change in how the whisky is received. “Indian single malt has moved from curiosity to credibility and, increasingly, to collectability.”
The trajectory behind the 2025 figure suggests a category still finding its size. CIABC’s estimates have the segment growing from around 350,000 cases in 2023 to 400,000 in 2024 before reaching half a million last year. John’s own reading is that the limit sits with the producers rather than the drinkers.
“The real ceiling will be determined not only by demand, but by the industry’s ability to maintain quality, mature sufficient stocks, invest patiently and retain consumer trust as volumes grow.”
Where the Indian Single Malt Growth Is Coming From
I asked Paul John to break down where he thinks that the 22% year-on-year growth for 2025 came from. Was it new drinkers, existing drinkers, or the increased international recognition feeding back into the market? John was hesitant to comment on the biggest drivers without proper research, but believes that all three types of drinkers contributed to the growth.
He believes that new drinkers are coming to single malt for the first time because Indian producers have made it easier to find and easier to understand. Existing drinkers are already drinking premium blends and want more provenance and more individuality in the glass. And finally, there is the effect of awards, reviews, and export sales traveling back to India.
“A decade ago, imported origin often functioned as a shortcut for quality,” he says, and part of what has changed is that Indian producers stopped asking for consideration on the grounds of nationality alone. “The strongest Indian single malts do not taste like copies of Scotch. They proudly express Indian barley, climate, maturation and distilling choices in their own voice.”
John Distilleries launched Paul John in London before India to get exactly that independent read, and he says he remains grateful for the sequence: “being judged and appreciated outside India before being celebrated at home gave the brand a discipline and credibility that has become part of its foundation.”
He is careful not to overstate what any of it buys you. “International credibility may generate the first purchase; it cannot generate the fifth. Repeat purchase comes from the liquid.”
Why Paul John Says Age Is a Bluff
Paul John has been making a version of this argument for years, and Goa’s climate is the reason. The distillery’s warehouses lose around 8% of their contents to the angel’s share annually, against roughly 2% in Scotland.
He describes average temperatures of about 30°C and humidity that stays above 70% year-round, passing 90% through the three months of monsoon. Those conditions, he says, “accelerate extraction, oxidation and interaction with the cask, while the annual angel’s share is far higher.”
His objection is not to age itself but to the shorthand. “It tells you how long whisky has spent in wood. It does not, by itself, tell you how good that whisky is.” A relatively young Goan whisky, he argues, can reach a concentration and texture that a Scottish age comparison will not help you predict.
Without naming names, John tells me he once tasted “a 49-year-old whisky aged in a barrel which had finished its journey producing Scotch and the barrel had nothing more to lend itself to the malt spirit anymore.” A distillery had filled a spent cask, left it alone for nearly half a century, and produced something with a very impressive number on the label and not much else.
For John, an age statement without context can be actively misleading rather than merely incomplete. “The glass must remain the final judge.”
He also concedes that age remains a useful signal at retail for buyers with no particular interest in a producer’s climate.
Drinkers who already explore Japanese, Taiwanese, and Australian whisky tend to have made their peace with non-age-statement bottlings; others have not, and John’s position is that the responsibility falls on producers to explain cask activity and maturation honestly rather than to wave the question away.
Some of this shows up in how the whisky is presented. Every expression in the Paul John portfolio except Nirvana is non-chill-filtered, and John says they use very little water when reducing the ABV, because Goa’s humidity means they lose proportionally more alcohol than water during maturation.
Indian Single Malt Whisky Pricing Alongside Scotch, Before and After the Tariff Cut
Indian single malts currently run from around ₹2,300 at entry level to about ₹8,000 for premium bottlings, which is roughly $26 to $90. Imported single malt has typically started well above that.
John says Scotch pricing was a conscious reference point in 2012, because it was the frame everyone used, retailers and distributors included. He is firm that being cheaper was never the position.
“Price has to reflect liquid quality, cost of production, maturation losses, packaging, distribution and the position of each expression within the portfolio,” he says, and tropical maturation delivers intensity quickly while destroying a great deal of stock along the way, which he calls “a real cost, not a shortcut.”
Paul John now has expressions above ₹8,000 running up past ₹20,000, or around $225. “Our ambition has always been to create a world-class single malt from India,” he says.
On the tariff, his answer begins with a refusal to pick a side. “It is both competition and an opportunity to grow the category.” Cheaper Scotch means more competition on the same shelf, and also more people coming to premium whisky for the first time, more tastings, and more retail conversation about single malt, which he thinks serious Indian producers can benefit from.
His warning to his own side of the industry is blunt: “we should not assume that a historical price advantage will protect us indefinitely.” His broader position is that “stronger competition is healthy provided the playing field is fair,” and that it ought to push Indian producers deeper into quality, stock, and consumer education.
He is also skeptical that the duty cut reaches shoppers in full. State excise, VAT, route-to-market costs, margins, and registration structures all sit between the customs rate and the price on the bottle, a point made across the trade press when the agreement took effect. Whatever adjustment arrives will likely be gradual and will vary considerably from state to state in India.
The Constraint Is Not Demand
Asked what worries him about the next few years, Paul John says that the pressure, as he sees it, is on supply: securing good barley, buying casks years ahead of when they are needed, and expanding distillation and warehousing without cutting corners. One of those pressures cannot be worked around at all.
“Unlike many consumer categories, you cannot accelerate time. Every bottle released today reflects decisions made many years ago.”
His concern is what happens if the category outruns its own standards, and he names the risk as not insufficient demand but “growing faster than the industry’s ability to maintain the standards that have built consumer trust.”
Put more plainly: “I dread that one badly made Indian Single Malt as someone’s first experience can tarnish the category built by reputable producers.”
Some of that thinking sits behind the Indian Malt Whisky Association, which John co-founded and which has set out what qualifies as Indian single malt.
“Every great whisky-producing nation has built its reputation on clearly defined standards that protect both producers and consumers,” he says, and his view is that a category speaking with one voice about its own rules stands on firmer ground internationally than one still arguing about them.
“Healthy competition should be built around craftsmanship and innovation,” he says, rather than around competing interpretations of what the category is.
The Next Chapter For Indian Single Malt Whisky
For all his love of Indian single malts, Paul John does not expect Indian drinkers to abandon blends. “The same person may drink a familiar blend socially, select a premium blend for celebration and enjoy a single malt when seeking a more considered experience,” he says.
He expects single malt to remain a small share of what India drinks overall, while becoming a far bigger business in real terms. The mainstream whisky market is large enough that even a slight rise in the proportion of drinkers reaching for a single malt adds up to a great many bottles.
Further down the line, he thinks the interesting development will be internal variety, with different Indian climates, barley varieties, and maturation conditions producing regional characters of their own.
“Just as consumers today appreciate the differences between Speyside, Islay or Campbeltown, I believe they will increasingly recognise the unique character that different Indian distilleries bring to the category.”
He frames the whole thing as a change of task for producers. “The first chapter of Indian single malt was about proving that India could make world-class whisky. The next chapter is about defining what makes Indian single malt uniquely Indian.”
Read the full article at What Paul John Thinks Indian Single Malt Whisky Looks Like in 10 Years
