We like to say that there's no such thing as bad whisky, but there are rankings, competitions, blind tastings, experts with whisky bibles, and much more, showing us which brands are number one, which are leaders, which are trendy, or where most of our favorite drink is produced.

After the end of each year, the whisky industry sees reviews and rankings, surrounded by interesting figures and not-so-dry statistics.

Sometimes these rankings feature dry figures derived from sales and production, and other times magnificent descriptions written by whisky experts or wild and unexpected facts.

For the past two years – 2019 and 2020 – the whisky dominance from… India continues.

Yes, you read India correctly, and don't be surprised, because for another year, Indian whisky is number one in global sales. In the past year, 13 Indian brands were in the top 25 by sales, and number 1 is the largely unknown McDowell’s whisky with over 30 million 9-liter cases sold.

In a distant 5th place is our well-known red walker Johnnie Walker with "only" over 18 million 9-liter cases, followed by the American giant Jack Daniel’s. The top 25 also includes the popular Jim Beam, Jameson, Crown Royal, Ballantine’s, Chivas Regal, Suntory, Dewar’s, Famous Grouse, all of which are blended whiskies, which is understandable due to their price. To explain the figures coming from the Indian market, we should note that it is huge, as are the markets around it, and the price of the amber drink is incredibly low. We have no insight into the quality of top Indian brands, but we wouldn't refuse a treat from them.

One of our favorite rankings is whisky consumption per capita. Here, our beloved Indians are not first, as they are beaten by the French with 2.1 liters per person, followed by Uruguay with 1.77 liters, then Americans, Spaniards, and Australians. Strange, but true!

Nevertheless, Scotch whisky remains the most popular with the highest exports in the world. Over the past two years, 36 bottles are sent every second to over 166 countries, totaling 1.14 billion bottles. If we lined up the bottles end-to-end, we would cover 90% (342,000 km) of the way to the moon, and for the remaining 10%, we would have to use some of the empty bottles from the previous year. It won't be difficult!

The value of whisky exports from Scotland is £3.8 billion! Who says the world is sober?

Most Scotch was exported to France – over 48 million liters, followed by India and the USA with about 35-36 million liters, while Japan, Spain, and Mexico were in leading positions for 2019.

* Currently, more than 10,000 people work directly in the Scottish whisky industry, and over 40,000 in supporting industries across 134 distilleries.

* Over 2.2 million tourists visit Scotland because of the amber liquid, making the industry second in the country.

* Scotland has a population of about 5.5 million people, and there are over 20 million barrels of whisky maturing!

The distilleries with the largest capacity producing Scotch are Glenlivet with 21 million liters, followed by The Macallan with 15 million, and The Glenfiddich with 13.7 million liters for 2019.

Look forward to an upcoming topic with more of the most curious whisky facts, and while you eagerly wait, you can order an Indian whisky from our website www.vida.bg or visit whisky bar Caldo.