Blenders Pride is one of India's most well known premium whisky brands and is very much associated with the use of imported Scotch malts. It has long been positioned as a premium whisky and is one of the brands that has successfully captured the market by appealing to the consumer who wants the feel of Scotch whisky in a blend. The fact that it is a combination of Scotch malts has, of course, led to some confusion about what is actually in the bottle.
So is Blenders Pride a Scotch whisky or an Indian whisky made with Scottish ingredients? It uses imported Scotch malts but is not a Scotch whisky. The answer is in its ingredients, the way it's made and the fact that it's an Indian whisky. Here's a bit more on what makes Blenders Pride different from a traditional Scotch.
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Blenders Pride is an Indian blended whisky, not a Scotch whisky. It's made in India and is owned by Pernod Ricard. It's a mixture of imported Scotch malts and Indian grain neutral spirit. The Scotch malt is sourced via Chivas Brothers, Pernod Ricard's Scotch whisky business, so it has a link to Scotland.
However, the presence of Scotch malt doesn't in itself make a whisky a Scotch. Scotch whisky is a geographically protected product and must meet a number of strict requirements as to both production and maturation in order to be classed as such. Blenders Pride is an Indian whisky as its finished blend contains Indian grain spirit and it is not produced in Scotland.
This is of course the whole point really as the consumer can at times equate the use of imported Scotch ingredients with the product being a blended Scotch. Blenders Pride do use genuine Scotch malt, the finished product is not a blended Scotch whisky in any sense of the word.
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As per official product information, Blenders Pride contains demineralized water, grain neutral spirit and Scotch malts concentrate. That's the basis of the Blenders Pride Rare Premium Whisky which is one of the brand's more well known expressions.
The imported Scotch malt brings the whisky characteristics and aromas to the blend and forms part of the alcoholic base of the spirit. The grain neutral spirit is a different beast to grain whisky in that it's distilled to a much higher degree of neutrality and so has very little of the flavor of the natural grain. It's the combination of the two which enables the blender to create a particular flavor rather than just using matured malt and grain whisky.
Any assertion that the whisky contains a certain percentage of imported Scotch should be treated with caution. There is no doubt that it is a Scottish whisky, just the exact make up is not something the parent company is prepared to announce.
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Blenders Pride originated in 1995 when Seagram launched the brand in India. Seagram was of course a Canadian spirits company with a broad international portfolio of alcoholic beverages. When Seagram's spirits businesses were acquired, Blenders Pride became part of the Pernod Ricard Indian portfolio in 2001.
Since then the brand has established itself as a major player in the Indian premium whisky market. The range comprises Blenders Pride Rare Premium Whisky and the Blenders Pride Reserve Collection. The Reserve Collection, launched in 2011 was positioned as the more premium offering in the range.
Although Scotch malt whisky is used in the blend it is not made in Scotland. The finished Blenders Pride is made in India. The Scottish connection is purely down to the origin of the malt. This is what makes Blenders Pride different from a whisky which is distilled, matured and made entirely in Scotland and then exported to India. It's an Indian whisky whose identity is in the blending of imported Scotch malt with Indian grain spirit.
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The difference between Scotch and Blenders Pride is essentially one of production rules, ingredients and provenance. Under the Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009, Scotch whisky must be made in Scotland from water, malted barley, it must also be matured in oak casks in Scotland for a minimum of three years and bottled at a minimum ABV of 40%.
Blended Scotch is made by blending one or more single malts with one or more single grains. Each of the constituent whiskies must in itself be Scotch. Blended Scotch therefore cannot contain Indian grain neutral spirit or any other spirit which would not qualify as Scotch.
Blenders Pride is a mixture of imported Scotch malt and Indian grain neutral spirit which makes it an Indian blended whisky rather than a blended Scotch. It doesn't necessarily follow that one is superior to the other, but it does explain the difference in the way they're made and the way they're legally classified.
Blenders Pride Rare Premium Whisky is listed at 42.8% ABV by Pernod Ricard. That's more than the minimum 40% ABV required for Scotch whisky, but ABV alone doesn't qualify a whisky as Scotch. The ingredients and the fact that it's made in Scotland are equally important.
All the information in this article has come from Pernod Ricard's official Blenders Pride brand page, the UK Government's Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 and the Scotch Whisky Association's guidance. That's how we know about the Indian origins of Blenders Pride, the ingredients used, the use of imported Scotch malts and the legal requirements that differentiate Scotch whisky from Indian blended whisky.
Blenders Pride isn't a Scotch whisky despite the fact that it does contain imported Scotch malts. It was launched in India in 1995 and is now owned by Pernod Ricard. It's a mixture of Scotch malt and Indian grain neutral spirit. The 'Scotch' in the name is purely due to the use of Scotch malts in the blend.
For the consumer who is wondering whether Blenders Pride is Scotch or Indian whisky the answer is simple: it's an Indian blended whisky with a Scotch malt in it. That distinction is important in terms of knowing whether a whisky contains imported Scotch and whether it qualifies as Scotch whisky.
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