It’s time to sip some golden smooth matured malt and bid goodbye to the year 2021, don't miss that 2022 will bring in new trends and new brands that the year will boast about. Apart from the scotch whisky industry, the blended malts market too promises to be more experimenting with innovative flavours and new launches. Not to miss that whisky has always been in the robust category.
Hemanth Rao - Founder of Single Malt Amateur Club sharing insights says “2022 will witness a significant spike in the number of brands entering the blended whisky space, with malt imports taking place in bulk for blending, bottling, and selling. Next year will also see an uptake in whisky editions that cater to the Indian palate and we will see more experimentation with different casks and combinations. The market is set to expand in the single malt whisky space, with many Indian players increasing their market share. Reduced taxes on imported whisky will lead to an explosion of imported brands and variants with competitive price points. We are now witnessing many whisky lovers take shopping trips to cities like Mumbai, Gurgaon, and Kolkata, which offer far more whisky options at reduced prices”.
Single malt Scotch whiskies are rated as one of the most expensive spirits that is seen across the globe. The luxury consumers as well as whisky collectors are always in look out for something fancy to tickle their senses. With distillery upgrades and refurbishments along with new brands appearing, the game plan looks changing. Shivam Ginglani- Founder and CEO of Black Bow, India's first authentic Himalayan Whiskey, that’s crafted amidst the mountains in Solan, Himachal Pradesh is all set to target the evolving new age drinker who’s experimental, aspirational, and value-seeking. He adds “Indian homegrown brands have started to become on par with quality to international standards. Brands such as Paul John and Amrut lead the way by not only winning International taste awards but are establishing Indian Whiskey as a category globally. If we talk about future trends, even legacy brands within Blended Scotch & Single malts are starting to reposition themselves to younger audiences as well as drive different formats of consumption with a focus on cocktails. Home consumption has taken an uptake in the past year & may continue in 2022 in India as well. At a global level, the RTD (Ready To Drink) segment for on-the-go consumption is the highest growth in US & Europe”.
With pandemic being a roadblock but 2021 the market did revive and after a temporary bump, the single malt Scotch has bounced back for growth and good. With consumers finding ways to elevate their home bar experience, they are moving towards more premium brands and stepping up the spirit’s game. The transition is slow but Akash Tomar, Brand Ambassador, DIAGEO India shares his view saying “It’s seen that brands these days are going more towards responsible and environment and sustainability friendly products like Diegeo launched their first carbon neutral whiskey distillery in North America. More people are shifting to that side as more people believe that they can do business in spite of being more responsible towards the environment as well. Secondly the acceptance for whisky has gone up even in terms of highballs, there’s much innovation happening and the limited-edition bottles are doing more business. Last year Johnny Walker, Blue Label came up with their limited editions like come with Ghost and Rare. Some whiskey collectors are always on top of what is coming up in the market or what can be exclusively made for them. The other trends would be different styles of drinking whisky. Most of the people still feel like if you're having a Scotch whisky, it should be consumed over ice but now people are being more aware as they travel more. For single what I see lot of brands are going for cask finish like the rum cask, chardonnay cask so in 2022 I am hopeful to see more cask finish whiskies”.
Don’t miss the fact that a lot of new world whisky is one that you should watch out for with premium products from countries including India. These fantastically priced spirits will surely change the drinking game.