Glenmorangie looks to tap growing India market

By: Vernika Awal

There’s a queue at a plush spirits store in Gurugram, Haryana—often known as the hub for finding the rarest brands of alcohol, at the best prices. This queue,
however, is not for beer, or the many local brands of affordable blended whiskies. Each of the first four customers hold shopping carts that have at least one bottle of single-malt whisky—and each of them happen to be Glenmorangie. “Glenmorangie was one of the first names of single-malt whisky that I, since childhood, had developed a fascination for. Over the past decade, as I acquired a taste for single-malts, I was increasingly fascinated by stories of Scotland’s oldest, historic distilleries. By now, I’ve tried most of the iconic brands, but I keep coming back to Glenmorangie as my go-to drink on a bluesy, mellow
Sunday evening at home,” says 31-year-old Shouvik Das, a journalist and amateur whisky enthusiast, who’s among the customers waiting in the queue.

Increase in premiumisation

Das sums up an overall narrative that has, over the past years, marked India as one of the world’s fastest-growing alcoholic beverage markets. The latest 2024 trends report by alco-bev research veteran IWSR Drinks Market Analysis notes India to be one of the world’s biggest growth markets for alcoholic beverages—
outpacing the measly 1% compound growth rate that the rest of the world is primed for due to the ongoing economic and geopolitical pressures globally.
Amid it all, Glenmorangie is looking to tap into an increasingly premiumising market for alcoholic beverages to cement its legacy even further—with twists to the traditional single-malt formula, creative storytelling and colouring, and experiments with its finely balanced taste profile. “India is an incredibly exciting market for Glenmorangie in terms of growth, and also in terms of the potential to introduce more people to our diverse creations. We recently collaborated with fashion and interior designers, Shivan & Narresh, as part of Glenmorangie’s Delicious Design Project in India, which has now come to life,” says Gillian Macdonald, master blender at Glenmorangie—now part of the Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) Group. Macdonald’s life story is relatable in itself especially in terms of the fact that she accidentally stumbled upon whiskey creation as a profession right at the start of her career. After all, how many of us have not done this—be clueless about life, and then chance upon a trial that turns into our professional identity for the rest of our life?

Tradition to innovation

Today, working with Dr Bill Lumsden, the director of distilling and whiskey creation at Glenmorangie, Macdonald is in charge of coming up with more
creativity than the world of single-malt could have even imagined. As an example, she speaks of the brand’s latest Calvados Cask Finish—the fifth release among Glenmorangie’s ‘Barrel Select’ series of small-batch produce. As the name states, Macdonald and her team arrive at such releases by using “unusual” casks in the final years of a whiskey’s maturing phase—this time, they used 20-year old casks that helped mature Calvados Pays d’Auge, a French fruit
brandy based on apples and peaches. “We were really intrigued to see how the soft, orchard notes from the Calvados cask would complement our whiskey’s floral and fruity style. The result entwines scents of baked pears, vanilla and jasmine with tastes of toffee apples, lemon balsam and spice,” describes Macdonald. The brief instantly reminds you of a winter morning picnic from a bygone era—or perhaps, a heady dessert.

Experiments with memory

The act can very well come across as a bold one. Single-malt, after all, enjoys a strong loyalist following, with an ever-increasing market share. Most consumers of the premium form of whiskey are typically happy to meet lofty price tags based on years of maturity and the rarity of the version—but Glenmorangie, with its young, thought-provoking and evocative renditions, is taking an out-of the-box approach. To do this, Macdonald takes a very open approach. “Our ‘A Tale of…’ expressions (of limited-edition whiskies) can be inspired by either a particular flavour that we want to explore, or it could be more experience-led, such as a particular memory or feeling. Sometimes, we experiment with the earlier part of the whiskey-making process, such as malt type—as with Glenmorangie’s A Tale of the Forest. For the cask-focused Barrel Select series, we primarily focus on the flavour impact of the cask type,” she says. So far, cask-based creations at Glenmorangie have included the Malaga Cask Finish, the Cognac Cask Finish, the Palo Cortado Cask Finish, and the Amontillado Cask Finish. In the ‘A tale of…’ series, Glenmorangie has so far made A Tale of Tokyo and A Tale of Cake, apart from what Macdonald mentions above. What lends it all a sense of mystique is the air of whimsical creativity—almost akin to that of Emily Dickinson, or even Samuel Taylor Coleridge. But, it’s not just about the art—after all, you have to make sure that the creations are appealing to buyers, too. This is where India comes in. IWSR’s 2024 research note states that India is a key volume growth market over the next five years, expected to deliver over 10% of global volume growth by 2027. Adding to that is the advent of Indian single-malt whiskies—showing that as a consumer demographic, this vast market is open to experimenting. “Non-traditional whiskey origins including India may lack the heritage of Scotland… but make up for this with a freedom to innovate. This is thanks to a lack of regulatory restrictions, and less weight of tradition—engaging high-end consumers who are eager to experiment and pay a premium for what they perceive as ‘the next big thing’,” the research note adds. True to this, brands such as Amrut, Godawan, Indri, Paul John and Rampur have proved that the market is ripe for established names to appeal to single-malt consumers. This, potentially, leaves Glenmorangie’s Barrel Select and A Tale of ranges to be bestsellers in India’s whiskey-favouring alco-bev market. Could, then, there be a crafted creation that is tailored to India? Unfortunately, Macdonald doesn’t indulge us further at this point. “We’re constantly experimenting and dreaming up delicious new creations—so, whilst there are no immediate plans for the next edition, anything can happen at Glenmorangie!,” she says.