From Business Standard India

The World Whisky Bar Awards held few surprises, but offered lots to sample.

If more people are drinking whisky in India than is being produced in the world, the contradiction is that very few Indians know anything about whisky at all. Most simply drink to get high, and with the European Union claiming that Indian whisky isn’t whisky after all, just rum in fancy packaging, it’s time to get into the spirit of things and find out a little more about Indians’ favourite brew.

The event, Whisky Live, is part of Whisky magazine’s South Asia representative Sandeep Arora’s effort to take whisky drinking to cult status, and if his contention that the very top-end of the market to which he caters numbers no more than 2,500 persons, last evening’s turnout should ideally have included a good part of them. But, of course, since the awards and the event also cater to the trade, who in turn serve this high-end market, it might be said that it was a teaser of the size and scale it might grow into

While the Whisky magazine is to be launched some time later this year, Arora says the Whisky Live Awards event is aimed at identifying “the finest bars in India”, though only accredited bars can apply, which requires a fee of $230 and must conform to its select criteria. There are currently 60 accredited bars in India, and a list of the world’s award-winning Whisky bars is published in a directory annually in the magazine.

Here’s the list:

RAISE A TOAST TO THE WINNERS
BEST WHISKY BAR	Golf Bar, ITC Maurya, New Delhi
HIGHLY COMMENDED	1911, The Imperial, New Delhi
BEST WHISKY HOTEL	Taj Mahal Palace & Towers, Mumbai
HIGHLY COMMENDED	Taj President Mumbai and ITC Windsor Manor, Bangalore
BEST WHISKY RESTAURANT	Dum Pukhat, ITC Maurya, New Delhi
HIGHLY COMMENDED	Wasabi by Morimoto, Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi
BEST WHISKY COMPANY	Pernod Ricard
BEST WHISKY INNOVATOR	Diageo
BEST WHISKY PERSONALITY	S S H Rehman

When is Argentina or even South America’s Whisky Live Awards?