The pioneers
India drinks more whisky than any country on earth, but its single malt story starts in 2004, when Bangalore's Amrut — a family firm from 1948 — launched its malt in Glasgow, poured blind to Scots who guessed Speyside. Fusion, marrying Indian barley with peated Scottish malt, was soon ranked the world's third-finest whisky. On the Goa coast, Paul John followed with malts from six-row barley — huskier and oilier than Scotland's two-row, giving honey, cocoa and spice.
Tropical maturation runs about three times Scottish speed — Amrut's 12-year Greedy Angels is named for the two-thirds of the cask the angels drank.