Black Dog (whisky)

Black Dog is a brand of blended Scotch whisky produced by the Indian beverage company United Spirits Limited (USL), a subsidiary of Diageo.
The Black Dog was first blended and bottled in Scotland in 1883 by James MacKinlay but since 1992 is bottled and marketed in India. The whiskies used in the blend come from Scotland.
In 2013, Black Dog was reported to be the world's fastest growing Scotch whisky by volume, according to International Wine and Spirits Research (IWSR).
Black Dog is bottled in Parmori District Nasik in Maharashtra, by importing the undiluted spirits from Scotland, a strategy that avoids the import duties imposed on liquor imports to India that are bottled prior to import. (Import duties may be as high as 150% for liquor bottled prior to import, but only about 30% when bottled in India.).
The brand's main competitors in India outside of the United Spirits family are 100 Pipers Blended Scotch owned by Pernod Ricard and an expression from the Teachers' family, Teacher's 50, a premium 12-year-old Scotch whisky, blended and matured in Scotland but bottled in India starting August 1997 to celebrate India's 50 years of independence, owned by Suntory Global Spirits.
The Black Dog brand was first blended and bottled in Scotland in 1883 by James MacKinlay, a second-generation blender of the Leith-based family of Scotland to meet an order placed by Herbert Musgrave Phipson, owner of Phipson & Co. Wine Merchants from Bombay (now Mumbai), India. He was assisted in this task by Walter Samuel Millard (1864–1952), a 19-year-old British employee of Phipson- who was responsible for dispatching the consignment back to India- arriving in 1884. The brand was named Millard Black Dog and legend has it that he named it after his favourite salmon fishing fly, known as the Black Dog. There is no proof or evidence to this effect, or that Millard, a 19-year-old employee of Herbert Phipson had a brand of Scotch Whisky named after him.
McDowell & Co (now known as USL) and United Distillers formed United Distillers India Limited in 1992, creating India's first joint venture in the alcoholic beverages industry. It began bottling operations in Nashik to produce Black Dog for the Indian market.
In April 2004, it was reported in the media that USL (then named McDowell & Co) was planning to sell Black Dog in Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Black Dog had been sold in Pakistan during the British Raj, prior to the Partition of India. In October the same year, it was reported that McDowell & Co was negotiating with a company in Pakistan to manufacture Black Dog. According to Vijay Rekhi, then managing director of McDowell & Co, and then President of the UB Group's spirits division, "It will only be a small set-up as just three per cent of the Pakistani population is permitted alcohol consumption. But we are looking at the opportunity as we are trying to widen our footprints in the SAARC region." Rekhi also stated that bottling was already underway in Sri Lanka and the company was looking to expand to Bangladesh, Malaysia and Myanmar. Even that small percentage (mainly tourists, expatriates, Parsees, Christians and non-Muslims), is discouraged from consuming alcohol during the Muslim month of Ramadan. Consumption of liquor by Muslims was banned by the Bhutto Govt in Pakistan in the mid-70s.
2006, McDowell & Co Limited, Herbertsons Limited, Triumph Distillers and Vintners Private Limited, Baramati Grape Industries India Limited, Shaw Wallace Distilleries Limited and four other companies are merged to form United Spirits Limited.
Black Dog is available in five variations:
The Black Dog range of Scotch Whiskies have won gold medals at several spirits competitions including The Monde Selection in 2006 and the World Spirits Awards in 2011 for the Black Dog Aged 12 Years and the Monde Selection, World Spirits Awards, and the International Wine and Spirit Competition in 2011 for the Black Dog Aged 18 Years. The Black Dog Reserve Aged 18 Years and the Black Dog Quintessence Aged 21 Years also won gold at Internationaler Spirituosen Wettbewerb 2013.
USL has used jazz events as a platform to promote Black Dog in India. A Black Dog "Jazz Incident" was held in Mumbai on 22 February 2008. A concert featuring The Curtis King Band, was part of "The Black Dog Jazz Series", a series of jazz concerts in India. The band also performed at Black Dog "Jazz Incident" held in Gurgaon, Haryana on 28 February 2008.
In 2008, as part of the 125th anniversary celebrations of Black Dog, the company held a 10-city concert tour by Stephen Kabakos, beginning in Delhi on 8 May. The concert also included shows in Kolkata, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Mysore, Bangalore, Goa and Pune. The Westin Gurgaon, New Delhi threw a celebration dinner to celebrate Black Dog's 130th anniversary in 2013.