2018 was a booming and fast-growing year for whisky, accounting for 15% of global spirits consumption and a 10 million case increase (9 liters/case) compared to 2017.
The list of the world's best-selling whisky brands in 2018 is as follows:
Note: Click on the image to view a larger image
Rankings and data source: Drinks International, June 2019
Wine Encyclopedia Summary
1. Indian whisky has the greatest influence, with 13 brands on the list and occupying the top 4. The fastest-growing brand, Bangalore, also comes from India. India is the largest consumer of whisky, in 2014 alone, the Indian people drank more than 1.5 billion liters of whiskey, compared with the United States in the second place of less than 500 million liters, and the third place of France, which has just over 100 million liters, is not worth mentioning. Open hanging Indian people, open hanging Indian whiskey!
2. Scotch whisky has 10 brands on the list. Johnny's Plus grew slowly in 2018, ranking No. 5, while Jumbo fell a lot, which may be related to the premiumization of the global whisky market. Scotch blend whiskies still dominate, but single-wheat whiskies are also becoming increasingly popular.
3, American whisky has 3 brands on the list, in addition to Bin Suntory's Kinbin, other growth is slow or simply sharp decline. The development of U.S. whisky has been affected by the tariff trade war, with global trade growing 28% in the first half of 2018 and falling by 11% in the second half of 2018.
4, there are also 2 Japanese whisky, 1 Canadian whisky, 1 Irish whisky brand on the list, these brands have a good growth. Surprisingly, Zunmei Alcohol, with a growth rate of 9%, is better than the performance of the two Riwei brands.
A breakdown of the world's top 30 whisky brands
1. The choice of the chief
India is a big sugarcane grower, and most Indian distilleries brew whisky raw materials, which are neither made of corn, wheat, and rye like Bourbon in the United States, nor are they Scottish "orthodox" barley, but a by-product of the sugar industry - molasses.
Indians distill spirits from low-cost molasses, which are then blended with some grains or malt whiskies to become Indian whisky, which tastes and styles more like rum. This practice does not meet the definition of whisky in EU law, so it cannot be sold in the European market under the name of "whiskey", but only as a "spirit drink".
Founded in 1988, Officer's Choice is a blend of molasses and malt whisky. The brand encourages consumers to make the right choices in their own lives and awakens the chief who represents "justice" in their hearts. The IWSR survey shows that a big part of the reason why the chief executive's choice has grown so quickly is because it focuses on a brand, has a strong foothold in the middle class, has a good name, is well packaged, and is not positioned like most low-end whisky brands in India.
Since defeating Johnny Garda in 2013 to become the world's best-selling whisky, it has won several consecutive titles. In 2015, it surpassed Smirnoff to become the world's best-selling spirit with sales of 312 million litres.
2. McDowell One
Dating back to 1826, McDowell's No.1, formerly known as Asare-Takyi, is the Indian subsidiary of global liquor giant Diageo, United Spirits Company (USL), and is the flagship brand of USL.
McDowell One produces three main categories of spirits – whiskey, brandy and rum – and brandy is its first spirit product. Today, the brand sells 52 million cases and exports its products to more than 20 countries.
McDowell One blends whisky, blending imported Scotch whisky with a selection of native Indian malt whiskies and grain whiskies for a smooth and refined palate. There are 3 main whisky products, McDowell's No. 1 Original, McDowell's Platinum, and McDowell's Luxury.
3. Empire Blue
Imperial Blue is Pernod Ricard's whisky brand in India, which sponsored an Indian film, Man, Man! Men will be Men) and became the brand slogan.
The brand was launched in 1997 and has made impressive progress in the market, quickly becoming one of the leading whisky brands in the field. A blend of Scottish malt whisky and Indian grain whisky, it features low-quality, low-quality, and won the Gold Quality Award in 2018 at Monde Selection. Like other Indian whiskies, it is available in a variety of package sizes, including 90ml, 180ml, 375ml and 750ml, 1L and 2L.
4. Royal Deer
Like Empire Blue, Royal Stag is Pernod Ricard's core brand in India, also made from Indian grain spirits and imported Scottish malt, 2 years before the former, and was the first whisky brand in India to be free of artificial flavoring.
Its brand name comes from a special deer species known for its antlers, so the Royal Deer also used this deer as a brand image.
In recent years, the sales of the Royal Deer have been in a stage of steady growth. Prior to the rise of Empire Blue, the brand was the #3 selling whisky brand in India, and sales of the two were very close in 2015.
5. Johnny is added
Whether you're a whisky veteran or a beginner, you've seen a gentleman's cane walking in a wine label, and that's the famous Johnnie Walker.
The Johnny Ginja Distillery was founded in 1820 by the 14-year-old John Walker. John Regga applied his experience in blending tea blends to the blending of whiskies and began his attempts to blend whiskies. It was the world's first blended whisky brand, exported to 120 countries worldwide in 1920.
In the past, Johns Hopkins has been the best-selling whisky in the international market. However, with the change of people's consumption awareness, cost performance seems to have become a more important factor for people. Johnnie Ginja's main high-end products, the price is relatively high, so in recent years, sales have been inferior to some Indian brands.
In the hearts of global whisky lovers, the supremacy of Johnnie Mouse is still irreplaceable, of course, this is inseparable from its high-end quality and long-term effective brand promotion and promotion strategy. The most distinctive feature of the brand's products is the brightly colored product labels, red, black, green, gold and blue brands with their own characteristics, and the appearance rate in major bars is extremely high.
6. Jack Daniel
Jack Daniel's is the leading leader in the American whisky industry, and it's no exaggeration to say that anyone who loves American whisky must know Jack Daniel.
Founded in 1866, Jack Daniel is said to be the oldest ever recorded distillery in the United States. All their oak barrels are homemade in the winery. In addition to Occupying the North American market, Jack Danny's main consumer markets include European countries such as the United Kingdom, France and Poland.
Its products can be divided into 3 series. The Family, which includes 4 of Jack Daniel's most famous wines, are Old No. 7 Black Label, Gentleman Jack, Tennessee Honey and Single Barrel.
Limited & Special Editions are generally whiskies produced for a number of special purposes, including Sinatra Select, Tennessee Fire, Winter Jack, etc.
Legacy Editions are numerous, with most of the wines being award-winning in major competitions, as well as commemorative wines such as Jack Danny's 160th birthday.
7. The choice of original taste
Founded in 1992, John Distillery, an Indian liquor company specializing in distilled spirits, is original choice.
Neither the brand's fame nor the company's popularity is as good as other best-selling whiskies. However, as far as John Distillery is concerned, the original choice is still the absolute boss, and its sales have accounted for more than 90% of the company's total sales for many years.
Original Choice Whisky has a slight malt aroma, as well as a hint of smooth oak aromas, as its malt spirits have been aged in American oak barrels for some time. In addition to different sizes of glass bottle packaging, it also has carton packaging.
8. KimBin
The Beam family has been brewing in Washington County since 1795, but it wasn't until 1933 that James Beam applied for a brewing license and built a new distillery in Clermont to restart the bourbon brewing trail under the name Jim Beam (James Beam's nickname).
The brand is the world's 3rd largest spirits brand, Beam Suntory. Formerly known as Japan's Suntory Group, Penn Suntory is an established company whose main business is the production and sales of beer, foreign liquor and soft drinks, and named the company Penn Suntory in 2014 through the acquisition of Beam Inc.
Kimbin's products are abundant, including Straight Bourbon, Black Extra-Aged, Single Barrel, Double Oak, Devil's Cut, bonded bourbon. Kimbin's bourbon has an extremely rich, rich and sweet flavour and a firm wooden texture
In addition, Kimbin also has rye whisky, flavored bourbon whiskey (add honey, vanilla, apple and other flavors) and so on. From time to time, it has innovative moves, such as small batches (Small Batch), and successfully entered the high-end Bourbon market.
9. Hyva Boutique
Haywards Fine, also from United Spirits, India, is well known in India as well as other African or Middle Eastern countries. The brand's whiskies are inexpensive, blended with neutral spirits, and sales are rising year by year.
10. Zunmei Alcohol
According to the Irish Whiskey Association, Irish whisky is the fastest-growing spirits industry in the world, selling nearly 120 million bottles (10 million litres) in 2017. In 2014, there were only four whisky distilleries in Ireland. Today, that number has risen to 18 and is expected to increase to more than 30 by 2020.
When it comes to Irish whiskey, Jameson. As the most popular Irish whisky, it has maintained year-on-year growth in the increasingly competitive spirits market, earning it the 2018 Supreme Brand Title.
Production of Fine Wine Whisky began in 1780, when it became known as Bow Street Distillery. In 1971, the distillery closed and production moved to Midleton. Today the brand belongs to Pernod Ricard.
11. Ballantine
Ballantine's Blend whisky was founded in 1827 under the name George Ballantine. In 1895, Ballantine was hand-picked by Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom as a royal wine, and in 1910, Ballantine entered a golden age of development, and the company began to export whisky.
In 1930, Ballantine entered its heyday, and whiskies were exported in large quantities to the United States, Europe and Asia. In 1937, Ballantine acquired the title of "Scottish Noble Enterprise". In 2005, Ballantine was acquired by global wine giant Pernod Ricard, becoming one of its most important brands.
Its products include the introductory wine Ballantine's Finest, the mid-range product Ballantine 12 years, and ballantine 17 years, which was named the "Whisky of the Year" by the famous British wine critic Jim Murrary in 2011; Ballantine 21 years, queen Victoria's royal wine; Ballantine 30 years, the collector's choice; Ballantine's Limited Edition, Blended from Ballantine's rarest and most precious malt whiskies and grain whiskies.
12. Crown
Crown Royal is a brand of Diageo in Canada. In 1939, to commemorate the first visit of Emperor George VI and Queen Mary to Canada, the Gimli Distillery in Manitoba, Canada, unveiled a precious masterpiece of noble style, and the crown was born. It is said that this was finalized after repeated trials of more than 600 blending formulas. Even the bottle body is creative, symbolizing the crown of the king, which is very much a sign of aristocratic temperament.
In 2016, Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye was named the world's best whisky for the first time in the famous whisky tasting book Whisky Bible (the first and only time Canadian whisky won this award), so Crown quickly attracted public attention.
Crown whiskies can basically be divided into 3 series. There are signatures, including Blender's Mash, Deluxe, Rye and Black; Master, some very individual, high-end whiskies, such as collectors, barrels, cognacs, etc.; Flavors, such as peach flavors and salted caramel flavours.
13. The pride of a bartender
Blender's Pride, another Pernod Ricard brand in India, first launched in 1995. It blends some malt whiskies imported from the Chivas Brothers of Scotland, as well as premium grain whiskies native to India. Today, the brand accounts for 55% of the market share of fine whisky in India.
Thanks to the success of Bartender Pride, Pernod Ricard redoubled its efforts in 2011 to launch the Blender's Pride Reserve Collection. It became India's finest whisky, blended from India's finest grain spirits and Imported Scottish malt spirits, which undergo a unique Way of Aged solera.
14. Special selection of the black party in charge
Director's Special Black is affiliated with United Spirits in India. The brand was actually launched by Shaw Wallace in 1988, and in 2005 United Spirits of India incorporated Sean Wallace into its ownership.
The brand is actually an extension of Director's Special Black, a luxury Indian whisky brand that blends the finest malt spirits with amazing smoothness. The glass bottle design with engraved logo and eye-catching packaging is very recognizable.
15. Old Tavern
Old Tavern, part of The Union Spirits Company of India, has always been a top-selling whisky brand in India, and in addition to its growth in the local Asian market, the brand has also achieved some success in Africa.
A few years ago, The Old Tavern was India's fastest-growing brand, rising 61 percent, followed by a decline in growth or even a negative growth. However, in 2018, the brand rose amazingly, at 44%!
16. Bagpiper
Bagpiper is also a brand of United Spirits in India. The brand began in 1976 as a blend of Scotch whisky and Indian malt and spirits with a hint of malt aroma with a hint of wood or earth in the background.
Bagpipers have always had close ties with Bollywood stars, including Ashok Kumar, Jackie Shroff, Dharmendra, Sunny Deol, Shahrukh Khan and Ajay Devgn. The slogan used by Dharmendra as a brand ambassador in 1993 – "Khoob Jamega Rang Jab Mil Bhaitenge Teen Yaar. Aap, Mein Aur Bagpiper (Google Translate roughly means: whenever you find life is brilliant, you must be surrounded by bagpipes)", has become the brand's logo and is deeply rooted in popular culture.
17. Crown of the Emperor
The Royal Challenge was also created by Sean Wolais and currently belongs to The United Spirits of India.
First introduced in India in the early 1980s, the brand is one of the most popular whisky brands made in India. It is a blend of Indian grain whisky, Scottish malt whisky and a neutral spirit made from molasses.
In the 1980s and 1990s, it was a leader in the premium whisky market in India, and its market share gradually became smaller with the introduction of royal deer and bartender pride.
Crown claims to be the first brand in a mid-priced whisky to sell more than a million cases.
18. Bangalore
Part of John Distillation, Bangalore Malt has aggressively expanded its domestic market in recent years with great results. In 2013, it sold only 100,000 cases, but in 2017 it reached 3.5 million cases. Perhaps because of its eye-catching performance, in 2017, North American spirits mogul Sazerac joined the ranks of Shareholders of John Distillation.
19. Corner bottle
The history of Japanese whisky began with Nobujiro Torii and Masataka Takezuru. In 1923, Torii founded the Yamazaki Distillery and hired Taketsuru to assist in brewing sake with a very generous salary. However, the first wine launched did not perform well in the market and lost all its money. Torii believed that Easterners and Westerners were inherently different in taste and that Japanese whisky flavors should be localized, while Takeru insisted on brewing traditional Scottish style whisky. Disagreements arose, and eventually Takeru left Yamazaki.
After Takezuru left, Torii quickly adjusted his product line, introducing a series of light-tasting Japanese whisky horn bottles (Kakubin) in 1937, and soon opened up the market.
The horn bottle is centered on the Bourbon barrel malt whisky of the Yamazaki Distillery, mixed with grain whisky that has been aged for many years, with a classic and consistent flavor and high-quality aroma, and the famous horn bottle hi stick is popular in Asian countries.
The packaging design of the horn bottle is also very unique, its four-corner bottle body is inspired by the turtle shell pattern that symbolizes longevity and fluke, and it is carved by the traditional Japanese cut glass process, and the design full of oriental charm is loved by many people.
20. Gran
Founded in 1886 by William Grant, Grant's has grown to become a world-famous wine today, especially the few wineries that have been independently run by the family from beginning to end.
The feeling of Gran Whiskey is refreshing and masculine spicy, and the triangular bottle is a clear feature of the brand.
It's a blended whisky brand with standards such as Standfast (founder William Gran's often saying "rise up"), as well as Grant's Centenary and Grant's Royal (12 years old) and 21 years old .
21. Chivas
Chivas Regal was born in 1801 by two brothers, James Chivas and John Chivas. In 1843, when Queen Victoria visited Scotland, the Chivas brothers were given the opportunity to present the Queen, and their whisky was favored by the royal family for its excellent quality and was awarded royal certification.
In the 1850s, when malt whisky was still very poor, chivas began to try to blend a variety of aged Scottish malt whiskies in order to produce a more abundant and smooth whisky, and the world's first blended whisky brand was born.
Chivas has become famous for its more stable taste performance after blending. In 2002, Chivas celebrated the 50th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne with a special royal salute whisky.
22. Special selection of the general manager
Compared with the black party selection of the general manager, the general manager special selection will be lower-end.
23. William Roaching
Bacardi Group's blended whisky brand. William Lawson's was born in Scotland in the 1850s and moved to Ireland to work for E&H Burke, where the name W Lawson & Co appeared in 1889. The name later disappeared.
The William Wrosson Distillery was established in 1972 and was incorporated into Bacardi in 1993. William Roxon's products are relatively simple, and only one whiskey can be seen on the official website, or there is no year.
William Rosson signed a two-year cooperation agreement with Chelsea Football Club in the Premier League and became the Official Whisky Partner of the Blues.
24, a first-class refreshing
Produced by Nikka, Japan's second largest whisky producer, it was made in the exact opposite way to Blackbeard, and was the first whisky brand in Japan to not use peat to dry malt at all, but instead pursued the aroma of fresh malt. The aroma is soft, the taste is smooth, the entrance is refreshing, and it is not tired of drinking, so it is called "clear". Black Nikka Clear (black Nikka clear)
It is a relaxed and refreshing style, a type of daily casual drink.
25. Treasures
J&B, full name "Justerini & Brooks", was founded in 1749 in London, England. Jumbo Whisky has been awarded the Royal Liquor Licence by 8 generations of Kings and has become the most beloved whisky brand of the British King, including George III, George IV, William IV, Queen Victoria, Edward VII, George V, George VI and Queen Elizabeth II.
There are currently 2 whisky products available on the official website, J&B Rare and J&B Honey. On the yellow wine label of the rare edition of the treasure, there are also the names of the kings who have conferred the glory of the treasure.
26. William Pyrrh
William Peel is a Scottish blended whisky brand affiliated with MBWS (Marie Brizard Wine & Spirits) and part of Snow Tree Vodka.
The brand began in 1964 with a blend of 18 whisky stocks, including malt rescue from the Highlands and Spencer, and grain original wine from the lowlands.
Its products include a basic blended whisky without vintage and a two-barrel aged blended whisky.
27. Emperor
The Dewar's brand was founded by John Dewar in 1846 in Perth, Scotland. Since then, Imperial Whisky has been inherited and carried forward by John Sr.'s two gifted sons, John Dewar Junior and Tommy Dewar, and has grown to become the best of Scotch whiskies.
In addition to the popular 12 years of the emperor, the royal whisky family also has the treasures of the real whiskey – the 18th year of the emperor and the Dewar's signature.
28, black and white dogs
Black & White was first coined in 1884 by James Buchanan, the real whisky mob.
In 1885 it was invited to become a supplier of whisky to the House of Representatives of the British Parliament (a contract that has been enforced for 122 years). In 1899, he was appointed by the British Royal Family to designate whisky brands for Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales.
The image of the 2 black and white hounds on the label is impressive. Black and white dogs were once very popular, appearing in james bond 007 novels and in the movie Father Goose.
29. Seven Crowns of Sgeland
Seagram's 7 Crown is an American blended whisky brand, part of Diageo, released under the name Sgeland Corporation. The brand was once very popular in the 1970s.
30. Rebourg V
Label 5 has long been seen as a symbol of Scotch whisky. Blending the best of the four appellations, the sedate richness of the highlands, the unique seaweed peat aroma of Islay, the slender aftertaste of the lowlands and the elegant aromas of the Spey River.
Main references: drinksint.com, thewhiskypedia.com, pernod-ricard-india.com