In the first article, we covered the Master winner and five of the Golds from the World Whisky Masters 2026. This second half brings together the remaining six Indian single malts, and it is the more experimental group of the two.
Between them, they include a whisky finished in vats made more than a century ago for a Rajasthani liqueur, three finished in casks that once held a spirit distilled from flowers, and a Diwali release that took its Gold ahead of going on sale.
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So, let’s take a look at the rest of the best Indian medal winners.
Godawan 173
Award: Gold
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Tasting Notes: Roasted nuts, dried figs, raisins, prunes, oak, leather, vanilla, warm spice, malt, dark chocolate, cinnamon, dried fruit
Find Your Next Bottle: ₹500,000
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Godawan 173 arrived in September 2025 as a collector’s edition limited to 173 bottles, matching the number of Great Indian Bustards recorded that year, up from 100 the year before. Each bottle is priced at around ₹500,000.
It is made from Indian six-row barley, double-distilled in copper pot stills, and matured for more than nine years in American ex-bourbon oak and European oloroso and PX sherry casks. The finish uses Asha casks, Sal wood vats built by Thakur Karni Singh Ji of Mahanser more than a century ago and seasoned with 42 ingredients including fruits, spices, honey, and milk.
Diageo India describes it as the world’s first artisanal liqueur cask-finished Indian single malt. It is bottled at 46% ABV and sold at Bangalore Duty Free and select London outlets.
Godawan 02 Single Malt Fruit and Spice Artisan Whisky
Award: Gold
Tasting Notes: Custard, lime, vanilla, apple, raisins, fudge, vanilla
Find Your Next Bottle: $76 / £61 / ₹3,800
Godawan’s second Gold went to the other half of its core range. Diageo styles the pair as Godawan 01 Rich & Rounded, which took the Master and was covered in the first article, and Godawan 02 Fruit & Spice.
This whisky is aged first in ex-bourbon barrels and then finished in cherry wood casks seasoned with Rasna and Jatamansi, two botanicals with a long history in Ayurvedic medicine. It is made in Alwar in Rajasthan from locally sourced six-row barley and bottled at 46% ABV.
Godawan 02 also picked up a Gold Quality Award at the Monde Selection Quality Awards 2026, alongside 01 and 173, and the brand passed 125 international awards in May, having launched in 2022.
Indri Diwali Collector’s Edition 2026 Ruby Port Cask
Award: Gold
Tasting Notes: Not yet disclosed
Find Your Next Bottle: Not yet disclosed
The Diwali Collector’s Edition is an annual release from Piccadily, made in small quantities with each bottle individually numbered, and every year brings a different cask. The 2026 Ruby Port Cask edition has taken its Gold ahead of Diwali, so the release details are still to come.
Earlier editions give a sense of how the series works. The 2023 release was peated and matured in PX sherry casks, while the 2025 edition used hand-selected Marsala casks from Sicilian wineries at 58.5% ABV, with 180 individually numbered bottles reaching the UK at £250.
All are made in the village of Indri in Haryana, near the foothills of the Himalayas, from indigenous six-row Indian barley, under master blender Surrinder Kumar.
Keep an eye on The Whiskey Wash for information on the upcoming release.
Crazy Cock – The Indian Single Malt Whisky Madhuca I
Award: Gold
Tasting Notes: Fruits, chocolate, spiced berries, cinnamon, vanilla, fresh earth, dried figs, floral, nutmeg, ginger, vanilla, brine, sweet tobacco
Find Your Next Bottle: ₹8,600 to ₹9,540
Madhuca I is one of three Heritage Editions that South Seas unveiled in December 2025, all finished in casks that previously held Mahura, a spirit made from the mahua flower, Madhuca longifolia, which grows in forests across central and western India.
This one was matured in ex-bourbon and ex-brandy casks before the Mahura finish, and it is sold exclusively through duty-free.
The set grew out of Six Brothers Mahura 1922 Resurrection, a 102-bottle release that South Seas describes as the world’s first matured mahua spirit. All three were shown at TFWA Asia Pacific in Singapore in May 2026.
Crazy Cock – The Indian Single Malt Whisky Madhuca II
Award: Gold
Tasting Notes: Vanilla, citrus zest, marzipan, apricot, nutmeg, cinnamon, dark chocolate
Find Your Next Bottle: ₹4,100 to ₹5,600
Madhuca II differs from the first in its earlier maturation, which took place in ex-bourbon and ex-wine casks before the same Mahura finish. It sits in the middle of the three on price, at roughly ₹4,750 to ₹4,850.
The packaging across the set draws on saffron, blue, and green, taken from the colors of the Indian flag. All three sit alongside Rare and Dhua, the two expressions covered in the first article.
Director Hamavand Chinoy has described the Mahura cask finish as an extension of the company’s “relentless pursuit of innovation.”
Crazy Cock – The Indian Single Malt Whisky Madhuca III
Award: Gold
Tasting Notes: Vanilla, toffee, sweet orange, floral, sweet fruits, spices, vanilla, chocolate, apple charred oak
Find Your Next Bottle: ₹5,600 to ₹7,200
Madhuca III has the simplest maturation of the three, aging in ex-bourbon casks before the Mahura finish.
Production takes place at Dahanu on the Maharashtra coast, as with the rest of the range.
All five Crazy Cock whiskies entered at the World Whisky Masters 2026 took Gold, which is more than any other Indian producer managed in the single malt category.
Casks You Will Not Find Elsewhere
The second half of India’s medal winners is the more unusual one. Godawan 173 spent more than nine years across three cask types before a finish in vats built for a Rajasthani liqueur, the three Madhuca releases use a cask type no one had applied to single malt before, and Indri’s 2026 Diwali edition won its Gold before reaching shelves.
Have you tried any of these six? Are there any you would like to get hold of, and what do you make of the awards? Let us know in the comments.
