The company launched its first craft spirit Godawan single malt whisky three years ago, which entered the UK market in December 2024.
“If we truly want to put Indian craft spirits on the map, it’s not enough to just build one brand, we need to build a portfolio that will give consumers multiple offerings,” Vikram Damodaran, chief innovation officer at Diageo India, told Drinks International.
“India has a distillation history that’s thousands of years old. There are stories to be told, narratives to be played out and processes that you can bring to life from the past. This is what got us started with Godawan.”
The brand is available in seven markets globally and across India, and Damodaran suggested the trade can expect more products in the near future.
“Diageo in India has one of the widest portfolios of spirits, in terms of category”, Damodaran continued. “When it comes to Diageo our strengths lie in our distilleries and in our maturation capacity, if things go to plan, you shouldn’t be surprised to see a brandy or rum coming out as well.
“For Godawan we haven’t chased volumes, we’ve chased advocacy and listings in bespoke bars,” added Damodaran. “We’re constantly looking at opportunities to export. One point is GTR, the second is going after markets that have a high consumption of single malts, such as France. It might not be a big market in terms of volume but it’s a great market in terms of advocacy. Singapore is another market with a lot of collectors, along with Japan.”
Under the Diageo India umbrella comes The Good Craft Co, with the aim to highlight craft distilling in the country.
“We created The Good Craft Co to bring the story of craft to life, with a flavour lab in Bangalore (pictured), operating as an R&D lab five days a week, and on Saturdays it opens as a consumer space,” Damodaran added.
“It provides the flavours, ingredients and organic processes to expose consumers and the community to the art of creating a great spirit. It’s a platform to storytell the narrative of India’s history while being progressive about how you use science to bring those flavours to life while working with the community. We partnered with India Bartender Week to start integrating ourselves more with the community that uses these spirits.
“We also have a craft distillery in Goa and we’re creating a flavour market, which will launch by April next year, and that’s going to be a craft experience with a micro-distillery where startups can come and create their spirits, as well as use a bottling line to bottle the spirits,” Damodaran continued.
