One fine day in Ooty, Bangalore-based businessman Neelakanta Rao Jagdale mixed single malt whisky with peated whisky, both crafted in his family-owned distillery. This blend would put Amrut on the world map, succeeding beyond Jagdale’s wildest dreams. He had crafted nectar fit for the gods, much like the one that rose out of the great churn of the Puranas, a whisky that would captivate connoisseurs worldwide—Amrut Fusion.
India is a land of whisky-drinkers—of the sort made from molasses, yes, but also premium Scotch. For the latter lot, anything Indian was anathema. Jagdale, a visionary, dared to dream beyond the molasses-based whiskies that India was known for. His strategy was clear: for Indian whisky to be acceptable to Indians, it would first have to be accepted by the Scots. And thus began the journey of Amrut Whisky and its many expressions, the most popular of which remains the Amrut Fusion.
Business storyteller Sriram Devatha follows this exhilarating story, from Newcastle bars, where Rakshit Jagdale conducted blind whisky tastings, to UK sales head and chief distiller Ashok Chokalingam’s travels across the UK trying to sell Amrut. The book covers a lot of ground—Amrut’s branding strategies, alcohol regulation in India, the dynamics of a family business, the Western bias against Indian whisky in the early days, the economic imperative towards premiumisation and, most importantly, the science and creativity that goes into distilling world-class whisky.
Amrut—the Great Churn: The Global Story of India’s First Single Malt is the tale of how a home-grown brand attained international cult status. But it is also more than that: the story of an India that not just consumes global products, but makes for the world—a tale of resilience, innovation and the pursuit of excellence.