India to save Scotch from the rocks?

With Scotch on the rocks because of beaming bourbon sales, it is quite appropriate that our Indian affinity for ‘the water of life’ is perking up flagging spirits in Scotland. With a Taiwanese single malt and a Japanese blended whisky adjudged the world’s best, respectively, in 2015, Scotland’s quaich of sorrows must be overflowing anyway. But add to that the news that total exports were down by around 7% by value in 2014, no wonder the Scots are noting gratefully that at least Scotch shipments to India went up 29% by value and 30% by volume in the same period. What producers there secretly must wish now is for the old saying, “more Scotch is drunk in India than is produced in Scotland”, to come true, sooner rather than later. A Bollywood film or two set in the highlands would not be amiss either.

At present, India, as the world’s largest consumer of whisky — imported and locally produced — is only Scotland’s third-largest market by volume and 11th-largest by value, despite its penchant for Patiala pegs. However, if the US continues its swadeshi shift to bourbon and other indigenously distilled whiskies and China continues to frown on extravagant liquor habits, more canny johnnies will probably be (metaphorically) walking over from Caledonia in search of spiritual uplift of another kind in India.