Many years ago, when Vijay Mallya was still the “King of Good Times”, his United Spirits embarked on a whisky experiment. Rice from Punjab was dispatched to a distillery in Goa, where the grains were polished, steamed and mashed into unsavoury sludge. Yeast and mould were added, and the sludge was thinned out, poured into casks and put away to ferment.
And then trouble brewed. Mallya went broke and was forced to sell off United Spirits to the British giant Diageo. By the time the new management discovered the rice-alcohol casks, three years had passed.
Diageo owned such labels as Johnnie Walker and Buchanan’s, so it had no need for a Goan craft whisky. But it stuck with the experiment. The alcohol was allowed to mature in ex-bourbon casks (discarded barrels which were used to mature American bourbon, a highly sought-after commodity in the whisky industry), and its master blender flavoured and ‘finished’ it. The spirit was then distilled into 2,000 bottles and labelled the Epitome Reserve—“India’s first artisanal, small-batch, craft whisky”. The bottles flew off the shelves in no time.
The year was 2021—a special one for Indian whisky. It was the same year that Mithuna by Paul John (from the Goa-based Paul John Distilleries) was rated as the world’s third finest whisky by Jim Murray, the formidable critic who publishes the annual Whisky Bible. Murray said Mithuna was “the feeling after you have just made love”.
Bu hikaye THE WEEK India dergisinin April 16, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye THE WEEK India dergisinin April 16, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
William Dalrymple goes further back
Indian readers have long known William Dalrymple as the chronicler nonpareil of India in the early years of the British raj. His latest book, The Golden Road, is a striking departure, since it takes him to a period from about the third century BC to the 12th-13th centuries CE.
The bleat from the street
What with all the apps delivering straight to one’s doorstep, the supermarkets, the food halls and even the occasional (super-expensive) pop-up thela (cart) offering the woke from field-to-fork option, the good old veggie-market/mandi has fallen off my regular beat.
Courage and conviction
Justice A.M. Ahmadi's biography by his granddaughter brings out behind-the-scenes tension in the Supreme Court as it dealt with the Babri Masjid demolition case
EPIC ENTERPRISE
Gowri Ramnarayan's translation of Ponniyin Selvan brings a fresh perspective to her grandfather's magnum opus
Upgrade your jeans
If you don’t live in the top four-five northern states of India, winter means little else than a pair of jeans. I live in Mumbai, where only mad people wear jeans throughout the year. High temperatures and extreme levels of humidity ensure we go to work in mulmul salwars, cotton pants, or, if you are lucky like me, wear shorts every day.
Garden by the sea
When Kozhikode beach became a fertile ground for ideas with Manorama Hortus
RECRUITERS SPEAK
Industry requirements and selection criteria of management graduates
MORAL COMPASS
The need to infuse ethics into India's MBA landscape
B-SCHOOLS SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT INDIAN ECONOMY IS GOING TO WITNESS A TREMENDOUS GROWTH
INTERVIEW - Prof DEBASHIS CHATTERJEE, director, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
COURSE CORRECTION
India's best b-schools are navigating tumultuous times. Hurdles include lower salaries offered to their graduates and students misusing AI