BANGALORE: India's battle with Scotland over whisky supremacy has reached a tipping point with its liquor coming very close to dethroning its highbrow Scottish rivals.

A list of 50 millionaire global whisky brands has 19 Scotch blends, 17 of Indian origin and American bourbon coming up a distant third with six millionaire brands. The portfolios of Canada, Japan and Ireland also figure in the list.

Industry observers said India might have had just 5-6 millionaire Indian whisky brands six years ago. The Millionaires' Club 2013 is a report on the emerging giants in the global spirits industry by Drinks International. It says how Indian whiskys, comprising regional brands manufactured by both domestic and international players, are overtaking their Scotch rivals. At the end of calendar 2012, McDowell's No. 1 from Vijay Mallya 's United Spirits Ltd overtook Johnnie Walker to become the world's largestselling whisky by volume, clocking sales of 19.5 million (of nine-litre cases) and logging 21% growth over the previous year. Of the top five millionaire alcoholic beverage brands in the world, four are regional brands.

South Korea's soju brand Jinro clocked sales volumes of 65.3 million (of nine-litre cases) in calendar 2012. Smirnoff Vodka, manufactured by the world's largest spirits manufacturer Diageo, is the only global brand to feature in the top five millionaire list at No. 3 with volumes of 25.8 million (of nine-litre cases).

Ginebra San Miguel gin and Emperador brandy , both from the Philippines, are in the top five millionaires' list with sales volumes of 23.8 million and 31 million (of nine-litre cases), the largest in their categories.

"The growth of scotch could not catch up with that of Indian whisky. So the number of Indian whisky millionaire brands will definitely overtake scotch in three years, if not earlier," says industry veteran Vijay Rekhi. He adds that besides the domestic demand for Indian whiskeys countries in Africa are now taking to them. In the fiscal 2013, India's spirits market touched sales volumes of 275 million (of nine-litre cases), of which the whisky segment accounted for over 50% with volumes of 150 million clocking annual growth figures of 12% to 14%.

Fuelling the growth is an increasing consumption of whisky in India with more youngsters and women taking to drink whisky tall: from 60ml to 120ml of spirit, shaken or stirred.

"In India, whisky is now positioned as a contemporary and stylish drink; earlier image was that it's a drink consumed by 40-plus men sitting beside a fireplace on a leather armchair," says Sandeep Arora, director of Spiritual Luxury Living, a company that offers whisky experi--ences, apart from dealing in luxury spirits. Last year, in a bid to reach out to the youth Beam Global, makers of the renowned blended Scotch whisky, Teacher's, had launched a ready-to-drink (RTD) whisky product, a first of its kind in the Indian RTD market- Teacher's & Cola and Teacher's & Soda.