I’m writing this article against the backdrop of Diageo India acquiring Nao Spirits and Beverages, a process that began 3 years ago with a strategic minority stake by the multinational. Nao Spirits, with brands like Greater Than (and several extensions) and Hapusa gins, was a flag bearer for white spirits in India.

It is a testament – to paraphrase a cricket promotional slogan from the 1970s – that it wasn’t only big boys who could play at night.

Nao was pretty much the first Indian company to play in a different sandpit from Indian single malts. It gave entrepreneurs the confidence to launch a range of brands in the white spirits sector, from the ever-present gin to white rums and vodkas, to homegrown agave spirits, as well as our native/ heritage spirits brands.

Maestro, a subsidiary of Allied Blenders & Distillers, has partnered with Russian Standard vodka (L). It has added the small-batch Pumori gin (C), and Segredo Aldeia white rum (R) to its portfolio.

Mid-sized Indian companies were slow to follow but eventually did so, driven by the twin objectives of premiumisation and portfolio completion. Companies that were hitherto content with providing third-party bottling and blending services also jumped on to the bandwagon.

It also helped, of course, that you could launch a white spirit more quickly, as it did not have the significant entry barrier of needing to age your liquid.

Leading importers, including Monika Alcobev, are quite bullish on the white spirits sector, with products represented from across agave spirits (1800 Cristalino Tequila) to vodka, gin and rum. Its COO, Hemang Chandat (R), says there is a need to evolve with changing consumer tastes.

BRIGHT SPOT

Not all these brands succeeded, and a shakeout is already in play as you read this. Despite a recent IWSR report indicating that gin and rum grew by just 1% and 2% respectively in 2024 – with vodka a bright spot at 5% – this hasn’t slowed the pace of launches of new white spirit brands.

Just a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit Goa twice in subsequent weeks. I visited Petrichor Spirits, a greenfield rum distillery producing Usacha, a new white rum. Revelry Spirits, another greenfield distillery, launched Vanaha, a premium “forest-to-bottle” gin.

Given that the Indian summer is perfect for sipping gin-soaked Highballs, we thought it appropriate time to understand what’s leading to this continued growth in the Indian white spirits sector. We spoke to a variety of players, ranging from startups to mid-sized Indian companies and multi-nationals.

John Distilleries’ Malhar (L) is a classic gin in citrus and spice variants. Heemanshu Ashar, Global Brand Ambassador (R), says India’s diverse terroir inspired the company to create brands that reflect each region’s rich botanical diversity.

EXPANDING PORTFOLIOS

As part of their growth journey leading Indian mid-sized companies are progressing in a manner that will help them resemble MNCs, including a well-rounded portfolio of brands that straddle both dark and white spirits categories. That portfolio is being built either through acquisitions or strategic investments.

Allied Blenders & Distillers (ABD) recently acquired Fullarton’s rum and gin brands; and Tilaknagar Industries picked up a stake in Spaceman Spirits, the owners of Samsara gin and Sitara rum.

It also helps that consumers are increasing their repertoire of spirits. Varun Jain, Managing Director of NV Group, says imbibers are looking for world-class homegrown alternatives with exceptional quality and “strong brand stories rooted in Indian heritage.”

Revelry Distillery’s Vanaha gin (L) joins the craft bandwagon. Its Founder, Vaniitha Jain, says white spirits are poised for sustained growth in India.

The growth in cocktail culture across India has also helped the cause of white spirits, which now forms the basis of up to 70% of cocktail menus. The consumer premiumisation journey has also seen a shift from “mass-produced labels to premium craft and artisanal white spirits”, says Abhishek Modi, Managing Director of Modi Ilva.

Vaniitha Jain, founder of Revelry Distillery, notes that while white spirits account for a tiny share of total spirits consumption in India, “that gap signals an opportunity… India is at an inflection point, with white spirits poised for sustained growth.”

Leading importers, including Monika Alcobev, are quite bullish on the white spirits sector, with products represented from across agave spirits to vodka, gin and rum. Hemang Chandat, COO of Monika Alcobev, attributes this to “the need to evolve with changing consumer tastes and ensuring our offerings remain relevant in a dynamic and growing market”.

Amrut Distilleries was an early mover in the white rum segment, offering a true ‘Two Indies’ experience (L). Its Nilgiris dry gin (R) is enhanced by the aroma of betelnut leaves and carefully chosen teas.

VODKA TAKES WING

Modi Illva, an Indo-Italian joint venture, began operations in 2010 with Artic vodka as its first product, an Italian brand produced in India. Artic was intended to occupy the sweet spot between Smirnoff and Absolut. It hasn’t looked back since and its latest edition, Artic Luscious Limone, is due to be released shortly.

Abhishek also highlights the continued resurgence in the category due to white spirits making inroads in Tier 2/3 cities, which is “helped by social media, modern retail, and changing gender norms”.

Piccadily Agro, another mid-sized Indian company, is the latest to launch a vodka brand, Cashmir, made from a variety of Indian winter wheat. Piccadily is known more for its aged spirits, in the form of Indri single malt and Camikara rum.

The move into vodka, says Shalini Sharma, Marketing Head at Piccadily, is due to a consumer affinity for “homegrown labels that stand for purity, design and distinct identity”. I’m sure that, coming from Picadilly, a gin brand is not far off!

With the market wide open, can the the Russians and the Japanese be far behind? ABD doesn’t have its own vodka, but has partnered with Russian Standard vodka, launching three variants: Original, Gold and Platinum.

Haku vodka and Roku gin from Suntory (L), says Category Manager Rohini Menezes (R), reflects consumer curiosity about global flavours and a growing cocktail culture.

GLOBAL FLAVOURS

Japan has substantial equity in the Indian consumer’s mind for its craftsmanship and perfection. Haku vodka from Suntory is an embodiment of that. Although filtered through bamboo charcoal for extra purity, it retains the essential character of the liquid, enabling it to be equally as well sipped as consumed in a cocktail.

Rohini Menezes, Category Manager at the House of Suntory Brands, says that their move into the white spirits category in India reflects a clear consumer trend characterised by “curiosity about global flavours and a growing cocktail culture”.

Varun (NV Group) says that when he launched Smoke Lab, “vodka was an under-served space from an Indian brand perspective,” and there was a clear opportunity to launch a world-class homegrown alternative.

Smoke Lab is fulfilling this vision and is currently present in key markets, such as New York and Florida, in the US. Apart from its eye-catching design, what makes Smoke Lab stand out is the use of homegrown flavours such as aniseed, saffron and, most recently, green chilli and mango.

For a spirit that’s often written off due to its “colourless and odourless” nature, it’s truly remarkable to see the diversity of interest in the category. This is particularly notable given the strong headwinds that may even hinder a growth trajectory in the high single digits.

NV Group’s Smoke Lab vodka (L) uses homegrown flavours such as aniseed, saffron, green chilli and mango. It also makes super-premium gin, Mohulo. Its Managing Director, Varun Jain (C), plans to re-launch Blue Moon gin (R).

GIN RENAISSANCE

Launched in December 2020, Nilgiris dry gin brings out the essence of botanicals foraged in Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiri mountains, rising more than 7,000 feet above sea level. Using a specially procured copper pot still at its Kumbalgodu distillery (Bengaluru), Amrut’s alchemists worked for 4 years to finally bottle the gin’s herbal-forward, refreshingly complex profile that is enhanced by the floral texture of ‘paan’ (betelnut leaves) and the depth of carefully chosen teas.

ABD, India’s largest alcobev company by sales, set up a subsidiary, ABD Maestro, to focus on luxury and premium spirits. Its Managing Director, Bikram Basu, says the market is split between whiskey and white spirits at an estimated 85% and 15% respectively.

Zoya gin has been one of Maestro’s releases under this, with two expressions in the form of espresso and watermelon. The acquisition of Fullarton Distilleries and its consumer brands has added to the ABD portfolio Pumori, a small batch gin with a pink variant, and Segredo Aldeia white and Café rums.

NV Group also has Mohulo, a super-premium gin, and is planning a re-launch of Blue Moon gin “with a renewed focus on distillation and craftsmanship”. Blue Moon gin and vodka are legacy brands from New Belgium, and Smoke and Mohulo represent New Belgium stepping up the pyramid.

Bapuna Alcobrew from Madhya Pradesh has launched Chambal gin and Daku silver rum (L). Pervez Bapuna (R) feels there’s an opportunity to shape the narrative, not just follow it.

TAPPING TERROIR

Historically, Madhya Pradesh has not had representation in the beverage alcohol space, but Pervez Bapuna of Bapuna Alcobrew hopes to change that soon with his trio of white spirits brands: Chambal gin, Daku silver rum and an upcoming vodka.

Pervez feels “there’s an opportunity to shape and not follow the narrative. It’s also a segment that enables us to respond to evolving preferences with speed”.

At Radico Khaitan, Brand Head Abhinav Rastogi points to luxury gin Jaisalmer which – like its Rampur single malt whiskey – has a name “inspired by royal Indian heritage”.

Suntory’s white spirits portfolio in India also includes Roku, their Japanese gin, which features six botanicals, indicating a clear shift that they have also seen in the Indian consumer’s preference for premiumisation. Among other botanicals Roku is crafted with Sansho pepper, Sakura flowers and Yuzu peel, helping to bring global flavours to Indian cocktails.

John Distilleries Ltd. is another classic case of a giant in the Indian single malt category broadening its portfolio with Malhar, a classic gin in citrus and spice variants. For Malhar, it was India’s diverse terroir that inspired the company to create brands that “reflect our region’s rich botanical diversity,” says Heemanshu Ashar, Global Brand Ambassador for JDL.

Nestled in the foothills of Uttarakhand’s Kumaon region, Himmaleh Spirits is crafting terroir-forward, additive-free spirits. Its distillery is a fiercely artisanal space, and its custom-built copper pot still distills small-batch artisanal spirits Kumaon&I, India’s first provincial dry gin.

Revelry Spirits’ Vanaha gin is another case in point when it comes to tapping terroir. It marries technical sophistication in the form of a five-step distillation process, including the use of cold vacuum distillation, which allows preservation of natural aromas and oils of delicate botanicals.

Vaniitha Jain is the newest Indian infopreneur who says white spirits are a “high-potential, under-penetrated category. But Revelry is investing in where the puck is going, not where it has been.”

Piccadily Agro has launched Cashmir vodka (L). Marketing Head Shalini Sharma (R) says it is due to consumers’ affinity for homegrown labels.

CANE RUMS

Amrut Distilleries was an early mover in the white rum segment, with its Two Indies brand, a blend of three distinct rum variants. At its core lies jaggery-based rum sourced from Mandya (Karnataka), carefully hand-picked Caribbean rums from the West Indies, and Amrut’s own sugarcane rum. The result is a smooth, vibrant white rum that offers a true ‘Two Indies’ experience.

White rum caught on 4 years ago with Still Distilling’s Maka Zai. Fullarton’s Segredo Aldeia and Bapuna Alcobrew’s Daku rums have entered the category more recently.

Given the rich history of sugarcane cultivation in India, it was only a matter of time before Agricole or pure cane rums caught on. Himmaleh’s Neoli white rum is crafted entirely from fresh-first press sugarcane juice and fermented using natural wild yeasts.

The newest addition, Hudka, signals the distillery’s confident leap into the vodka category. Distilled from locally grown Sativa rice and pristine spring water, Hudka is clean, crisp and subtly layered with notes of citrus and grain.

Launching shortly is Usacha (‘from the cane’ in Konkani) from Goa’s Petrichor Spirits, starting with a white rum and later introducing an Agricole-style white rum. Blanco or flavoured white rums are a safer bet in India, where dark rum still bears the shadow of Old Monk.

Modi Illva, an Indo-Italian joint venture, began operations in 2010 with Artic vodka as its first product, an Italian brand produced in India.

AGAVE WAVE

Desmond Nazareth was an early mover in this space, setting up his agave distillery more than 10 years ago. Desmondji, his eponymous brand of agave spirits, is now riding the agave boom in India.

Maya Pistola earlier, and now more recently El Goonda and Gracia Agave, are all attempting to ride the agave wave. Gracia comes in five flavours, including blueberry, Yuzzu and passionfruit.

Suzann Homan, the founder of Kantala Spirits, credits the excitement in the Indian alcohol space to a societal change with more openness towards alcohol and with the younger generation keen to try out new brands.

We suspect, given the need for portfolio width, that most Indian mid-sized companies will move towards launching an agave spirits brand, whether by acquiring an existing one, creating one in Mexico (Loka Loca), or piggybacking on Desmondji.

Cocktails from Six Brothers’ (flower-based) Mahura are an attempt by Dahanu-based South Seas Distillery to elevate the category of native spirits. Cashew and coconut feni are also going places on bar-tops and dining tables.

NATIVE SPIRITS

At the recently concluded Cashew Festival in Goa, it was delightful to see and taste high-quality feni brands, both coconut and cashew, from a variety of producers. Hansel Vaz, of the trend-setting Cazulo Feni, also chose the occasion to relaunch Dona Maria, a cashew feni brand that his father had first launched in 1983.

The robustness that he and other entrepreneurs are seeing in the feni market has also led him to launch two new variants: an aalem (ginger) feni, and a coffee-flavoured feni.

Mumbai’s Bandra Born has a full-fledged Mahura bar on their ground floor, courtesy of Six Brothers Mahura, offering a range of Mahura cocktails. Six Brothers, in a further attempt to elevate the brand and the category, also recently ran a cocktail competition in the UK.

“People are increasingly moving toward lighter, cleaner spirits, with a strong interest in what goes into the bottle, how it’s made, and whether they can connect to it beyond just a brand,” says Vaniitha of Revelry.

It’s clear in my conversations with industry professionals that companies are sparing no expense in their pursuit of launching world-class white spirits brands in India, whether these be imported ones or built from the ground up.

From creating greenfield distilleries to celebrity tie-ups and employing best-of-breed distilling talent, companies are investing painstaking years in recipe development. The years to come will bear witness to these efforts and slowly help shift the balance of power between dark and white spirits in India.

Himmaleh Spirits is crafting terroir-forward, additive-free spirits such as Jin Jiji gin (with Darjeeling tea), the small-batch Kumaon&I gin (C), and Neoli white rum (R) from sugarcane juice and natural wild yeasts.