One man distilled up Amrut and Indri single malts—meet India’s Surrinder Kumar

New Delhi/Karnal: In 2002, Rakshit Jagdale, a young MBA student, went pub crawling in Glasgow, Scotland. Not on a drunken soiree with batchmates but on a more onerous task, assigned by his father. Jagdale, then 26, was carrying miniature single-malt samples brewed, distilled and matured thousands of miles away, in Bengaluru.

It wasn’t easy. There was a stigma attached to whisky from India, more so if it was the hallowed single malt. That is not surprising: although India is the largest whisky-drinking nation on the planet, whisky sold in the country was usually made from neutral spirits distilled from molasses, a by-product of sugar production. In those years, Indian whisky would not even qualify as whisky in Western markets, because it was not made using cereals such as barley.

A meeting that September turned out to be fortuitous. At the famous Pot Still bar in Glasgow, the manager declared the malt to be outstanding. He promised the young student a blind tasting session. At the tasting, whisky enthusiasts thought the samples were of highland whisky, from Scotland’s largest producing region, known for its incredible diversity. Some said they had been matured over 10-12 years. The patrons at Pot Still were surprised when told that the samples were from an unknown distiller in India.

Two years later, in August 2004, Amrut Distilleries launched the first Indian single malt in Glasgow. It’s been a long journey since that breakthrough. Last year, sales of India-made single malts surpassed imported (also known as bottled-in-origin, or BIO) ones, with brands such as Indri, Amrut, Paul John, Rampur and Godawan emerging as clear winners.

Putting India on the map

Much of the credit for this achievement goes to one man, master distiller Surrinder Kumar, who joined Amrut in 1987, when he was 31 years old. There he birthed the first single malt, Amrut Classic, under the patronage of the company’s then chairman, the late Neelakanta Rao Jagdale, Rakshit’s father.

The much-acclaimed samples that Jagdale distributed in Scotland were born out of Kumar’s hard work. “My father was very clear that the recognition and accolades must come from the home of Scotch,” recalled Jagdale, who is currently the managing director at Amrut. The contribution of Kumar in terms of his knowledge and craft has been immense for the industry, he added.

Indeed, Kumar’s efforts have put Indian single malts on the global whisky map. They now enjoy genuine consumer trust—no longer viewed as substitutes for imports, but as products with their own identity and provenance, said Anant S. Iyer, director general, Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC).

As per CIABC, sales of Indian single malts are estimated to have crossed 410,000 cases in 2025 (till November), far ahead of BIO imports, estimated at less than 250,000 cases (of 9 litres each). In fact, sales of Indian malts have grown over threefold since 2022 compared to a marginal growth in imports.

“Internationally, exports have benefited from a combination of diaspora demand, growing global curiosity around new whisky-making regions (including India, Japan and Taiwan) and international recognition through awards and listings,” Iyer added.

An unmistakable signal of India’s growing stature, Iyer added, is the fact that global spirits companies are now launching and developing Indian single malt whiskies locally (for instance, Godawan by Diageo India). “This reflects confidence in India not just as a market, but as a whisky-producing origin.”

So, how did a former agriculture officer become the most important behind-the-barrel man for India’s single-malt industry? Before you read that story, here’s a pro tip from the master distiller on the correct way to sample a single malt. Do not gulp. Ever. Sip it, neat? You may, slowly. Nose gently. Then, chew.

Early years

After growing up in the apple town of Sopore in Kashmir, Kumar joined the state agriculture extension department as a first-class gazetted officer following a graduate degree in agriculture. A stint of three-and-a-half years was enough time to realize that agriculture was not his true calling. So, in 1976, he left the mundane government job for a degree at the Central Food Technology Research Institute in Mysuru, Karnataka. After finishing his masters, Kumar had to choose between a food company and a distillery.

The late Sharad Dravid, a family friend of Kumar and father of the cricketer Rahul Dravid, who then worked with Kissan (a food brand selling jams and sauces), advised Kumar to join the distillery. At Central Distilleries and Breweries Ltd in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, Kumar was assigned to the distillery section but spent many hours every night at the brewery. He was hooked to the brewing process, which needed more skill (otherwise batches of malt could turn out to be of inconsistent quality) than the more mechanical distillation process.

It was during this time that Kumar made the acquaintance of B.K. Jha, the legendary distillery head at United Breweries (of McDowell’s fame). Impressed by the dedication of the young Kumar, Jha bequeathed to him a lifetime of handwritten notes on whisky blends of popular brands that he created, before hanging his boots. It was Jha who referred Kumar to Neelakanta Rao Jagdale of Amrut Distilleries.

Kumar left Meerut to join Amrut as a production superintendent in 1987 at a monthly salary of ₹2,950. Amrut was then a small and unknown distillery in Bengaluru, and Kumar took the offer because he wanted to live close to his elder brother. This move would change the course of his life, and 17 years later create a new category: Indian single malts.

A single malt is defined as barley malt brewed and distilled in a single distillery, in copper pot stills. The malt has to be matured in oak wood barrels no larger than 700 litres in capacity.

At Amrut, growing stockpiles of malt was a blessing in disguise, recalls Kumar. Usually, a lot of malt was made in the brewery (by fermenting mashed barley and distilling it thereafter), but whisky blends used only a small portion. Amrut’s popular MaQintosh brand, for instance, was made using a quarter of malt and imported Scotch blended with three-quarters of extra-neutral alcohol—the tasteless and odourless base spirit that serves as a blank canvas on which other flavours stand out. This surplus malt provided the raw material to make single malts.

After launching the first single malt in Glasgow in 2004, the going was not easy. The brand was not available for sale within India and it was difficult to convince European buyers to try an Indian single malt. A notable turning point came in 2010 when renowned whisky critic Jim Murray rated Amrut Fusion the third finest whisky in the world in Whisky Bible, his annual tome.

Murray’s words were: it’s a whisky that “commands a big mouthful, a chair with a headrest... and silence. You will chew for seemingly hours and never quite get to the bottom of its mystical complexity…The fact that it is Indian? Irrelevant, from distillation to maturation this is a genius whisky from whichever continent.”

“It was a big deal… sales of Amrut took off after Murray’s review. But all this was a result of Neelakanta Rao’s foresight. He motivated us to make a standout product and create a new category,” Kumar said.

Scripting a best-seller

After working at Amrut for 32 years, Kumar moved to Piccadily Distilleries in Indri, Haryana, in 2019. There, he again had a large stock of malt, nearly 40,000 barrels, at his disposal. It took him one-and-a-half years to evaluate the inventory.

Then, instead of going for a distillery style—a unique fingerprint of flavour and characteristics of a particular distillery shaped by factors such as grains, terrain and distillation cuts (or what is kept or discarded during distillation)—Kumar tried something different. He created a new style, experimenting with triple-wood maturation. The distilled malt was matured in three different casks—imported barrels that once stored bourbon, red wine and sherry, lending Indri-Trini an array of flavours and aroma.

Indri-Trini was launched in 2022, and by 2024, it was the largest-selling single-malt brand in India, with sales zooming to 170,000 cases (of 9 nine litres each), as per the International Wine and Spirits Record. That’s a 47% market share among Indian single-malt brands.

“As our master distiller Surrinder Kumar has played a central and critical role in shaping Indri. His understanding of wood management (to mature the distilled malt), climate-led ageing, terroir and flavour management is critical to creating a whisky like Indri, which is globally benchmarked yet distinctively Indian,” said Shalini Sharma, head of marketing at Piccadily Agro Industries. “He is truly the father, the guru, of Indian single malt.”

In a tropical climate like India, whiskies mature faster, which gives the liquid a distinct character. It’s as if the spirits are cooked in wood, explains Kumar. The angel’s share, the rate at which spirits evaporate as they mature inside a barrel, is high in tropical regions. The exchange between the malt and the wood as it contracts and expands lends it a unique flavour profile. If one compares different whiskies matured in different regions of India—even if they follow the same process—the flavour profile will be different due to differences in temperature and humidity, said Kumar.

In other words, one cannot make an Amrut in Haryana or an Indri in Bengaluru.

According to Kumar, three things have worked for Indri: quality, packaging and (competitive) pricing. In North Indian markets, the price of a bottle of Indri ranges between ₹3,000 and ₹4,200, depending on the state—well below what tipplers shell out for imported scotch or even other Indian brands such as Rampur.

Within months of its launch, Indri earned some bragging rights by winning multiple awards. It won a gold at the International Spirits Challenge 2022, and the Best Asian Whisky at Dom Roskrow’s New Wizards Awards the same year. In 2023, its Diwali Collector’s Edition won ‘Best in show, double gold’ at the Whiskies of the World Awards.

The Piccadily Agro Industries’ stock took off following a premiumization strategy and the launch of Indri, from less than ₹30 in early 2022 to nearly ₹570 by December 2025.

The soft-spoken and reticent Kumar can be mischievous, too. During a tour of the distillery at Indri, he opened the lid of a giant 85,000-litre steel fermenter and asked this reporter to peek in. It was pitch dark inside. But the large amounts of CO2, produced by the yeast converting the sugars in the grain mash into alcohol, hit the nose like a sharp sting. “That is pure carbon dioxide,” Kumar said with a chuckle. Also, the bane of humanity (aka the climate crisis, one may say).

Kumar then continued: “I am often asked what it takes to be a good blender. Three things: you have to nose and taste, you have to nose and taste, you have to nose and taste.”

Indian single-malt makers have been mindful of the palate of domestic consumers, who prefer fruitier and honeyed notes and not peaty flavours, said Nikhil Merchant, a Mumbai-based beverage consultant and writer. Brands are also charting their distinct trajectories, added Merchant. “While Godawan is weaving a story of desert origins, naming its single malt after the endangered great Indian bustard, Indri, with an elevated flavour profile and contrasting notes, has positioned itself as a mass market product.”

Nosy matters

While developing the first single-malt at Amrut, one of the first malts that Kumar tried was the popular Glenlivet from Scotland. But when it comes to his personal favourites beyond his own creations, Kumar is in awe of GlenAllachie and its master distiller, Billy Walker, known for reviving struggling distilleries and turning them around.

“As an emerging single-malt brand, we are not constrained by history. We have the freedom to pursue excellence without the handcuffs of reputation,” Walker once said, explaining GlenAllachie’s philosophy. As the maker of India’s first single malt and now the fastest selling one, Kumar seems to be driven by similar motivations. Which is why, at 69, he is still experimenting with new spirits and flavours (which include an Agricole-style sipping rum made from sugarcane juice and a new vodka made from an heirloom wheat variety—both were launched in recent years by Piccadily).