Indian spirits are making their mark at The Speciality Spirits Masters 2026, and we're rather pleased about it.
1 November 2026 | By Adam Jacob
There are few things more satisfying in our line of work than discovering an extraordinary drink, meeting the people who make it, bringing it back to the UK and then watching the rest of the world discover what we were getting so excited about in the first place.
Well, we've just had four very good reasons to open something special.
The results of The Speciality Spirits Masters 2026, organised by The Spirits Business, are in, and four drinks in the Maharaja Drinks collection have received medals. Better still, one has been awarded a Master, the competition's highest distinction.
The honours go to:
- Goenchi Coconut Feni - MASTER
- Ouro De Goa - GOLD
- Davana Vermouth Bianco - GOLD
- Davana Vermouth Rosso - GOLD
Four medals, three producers, all from Goa. Not a whisky in sight.
For a business founded on the belief that India's drinks deserve a much bigger place on the world's drinks shelves, this is enormously gratifying. But the real congratulations belong to the remarkable people who actually make these drinks.
Goenchi: A Master from the coconut palms of Goa
Let's start with the big one.
Goenchi Coconut Feni has won a Master, the highest accolade in the competition. And if ever there were an award to challenge some preconceptions about Indian spirits, this is it.
Goenchi is the creation of siblings Yash and Tulika, whose family roots in Goa run extraordinarily deep. Their family home, which we were privileged to visit, is a magnificent 115-room mansion, reputed to be the oldest building in Goa. Not exactly your average distillery visit.
Their feni is a wonderful example of what happens when respect for tradition meets an uncompromising determination to make something exceptional.
Coconut feni begins with toddy tapping, the ancient skill of collecting sap from coconut palms. The sap ferments naturally before being double-distilled in copper pot stills. No industrial shortcuts, no attempt to disguise its origins. Just generations of knowledge, considerable skill and a very distinctive raw material.
The result is a spirit with notes of creamy coconut, sea salt and a little green chilli warmth, finishing surprisingly smoothly.
Feni has occasionally suffered from a reputation that does it no favours. My father still delights in recounting his first encounter with it, aged about fourteen, while perched on the back of his uncle's Royal Enfield. The experience was apparently memorable for all the wrong reasons.
Happily, things have moved on.
Yash and Tulika are among a new generation of producers demonstrating just how sophisticated this quintessentially Goan spirit can be. A Master award is magnificent recognition of their work, and we couldn't be happier for them.
Ouro De Goa: Gold from the plantation
Our second Gold takes us into the lush hills of Goa, to the beautiful Dudhsagar Plantation, where Ashok and his family are custodians of a remarkable piece of Goan heritage.
Visiting the plantation and meeting Ashok was one of those experiences that reminds us why we insist on meeting our suppliers in person. There is something rather special about walking through the landscape that produces a spirit, listening to someone whose family has worked that land for generations, and understanding why they do things the way they do.
Ashok's passion for the plantation, its traditions and its produce is infectious. And the results are rather good too.
Ouro — Portuguese for 'gold', rather appropriately, takes traditional cashew feni in a fascinating direction.
Matured for at least six months and infused with a carefully guarded blend of spices, it is rich, amber-coloured and wonderfully aromatic, with warming notes of cinnamon, clove and nutmeg.
It manages to be both unmistakably Goan and quite unlike what most British drinkers would expect from feni. A delicious digestif, incidentally, and one that deserves to be sipped rather than hurried.
What impressed us most at Dudhsagar was the determination to preserve traditional production methods while creating a spirit that would appeal to discerning drinkers anywhere in the world. The process uses no additives or preservatives, and the finished drink speaks eloquently for itself.
A Gold medal for Ouro is a thoroughly deserved reward for that ambition, and we're delighted for Ashok and everyone involved.
Davana: Two vermouths, two Golds
And then there is Adarsh at Naveen Distilleries, who has managed the rather pleasing trick of collecting two Gold medals in one competition.
Both Davana Indica Bianco and Davana Indica Rosso have been recognised, which is particularly satisfying because these are not simply Indian interpretations of familiar European drinks. They have a character and identity all their own.
Vermouth may not be the first thing that comes to mind when somebody mentions Indian drinks. Indeed, it probably doesn't feature in the first twenty things that come to mind.
But why shouldn't India make outstanding vermouth?
Adarsh and his team at Naveen Distilleries have embraced that question with considerable enthusiasm, producing vermouths that celebrate Indian ingredients while respecting the traditions of the category.
Starting with wine from Nashik, India's principal wine-growing region, they build their distinctive flavours around locally sourced davana, or Indian wormwood, together with a carefully chosen collection of botanicals.
The Bianco offers a lighter, aromatic expression, with botanicals including chamomile. The Rosso heads in a richer direction, combining davana with 23 botanicals to create a beautifully balanced interplay of sweetness, bitterness, fruit and spice.
Both are excellent aperitifs, both work beautifully in cocktails, and both demonstrate that Indian ingredients can bring something genuinely new to a category with a long-established European heritage.
We are particularly fond of the Rosso in a Negroni. The Bianco, meanwhile, is well worth trying simply chilled, allowing its botanicals to do the talking.
Adarsh's achievement is especially pleasing because he is helping establish an entirely new proposition for Indian drinks in international markets. Two Golds are a wonderful endorsement of that ambition, and we offer him and his team our warmest congratulations.
Why these awards matter to us
When we started Maharaja Drinks, we knew that India was producing some extraordinary drinks. What we didn't know was quite how many fascinating people, places and stories we would encounter along the way.
Our recent travels through India reinforced that conviction. There is a remarkable combination of inherited craftsmanship, entrepreneurial energy and sheer determination among the producers we meet.
And nowhere is that more apparent than in Goa.
What makes these particular awards so exciting is that they recognise drinks which many people in Britain have barely heard of, let alone tasted. Coconut feni, spiced cashew feni and Indian vermouth are hardly established fixtures of the British drinks cabinet.
Yet here they are, collecting international accolades alongside products from much better-known categories.
That's precisely the point we've been trying to make.
India's drinks story is much bigger than whisky, however excellent its whiskies may be. It encompasses centuries-old indigenous spirits, inventive new expressions of familiar drinks, and producers who are increasingly confident about celebrating their own ingredients and heritage rather than imitating somebody else's.
These medals won't magically make feni a household name in Britain. We still have plenty of explaining, tasting and occasional arm-twisting to do.
But they provide independent confirmation of something we've believed since we first tasted these drinks: the quality is there, the originality is there, and the people behind them deserve to be celebrated.
A toast to our friends in Goa
So, to Yash and Tulika at Goenchi, Ashok at Dudhsagar Plantation, and Adarsh at Naveen Distilleries: congratulations from all of us at Maharaja Drinks.
It has been a pleasure getting to know you, visiting your homes, plantations and distilleries, hearing your stories and, naturally, sampling the fruits of your considerable labours.
We are immensely proud to represent your drinks in the UK.
And for anyone curious to discover what all the fuss is about, there's an excellent opportunity coming up almost immediately.
On Tuesday 3 November, I'll be hosting our Spirits of Goa: A Diwali Celebration tasting at Cinnamon Bazaar in London. As luck would have it, three of our newly decorated drinks — Goenchi Coconut Feni, Ouro De Goa and Davana Indica Bianco — are already on the tasting menu.
I promise to explain what makes them special. I may even manage to do so without mentioning the medals more than a dozen times.
In the meantime, congratulations once again to our friends in Goa.
Four medals. Three producers. One very good reason to raise a glass.
Cheers!
Adam Jacob
Co-founder, Maharaja Drinks
Discover the award-winning drinks: Goenchi Coconut Feni · Ouro De Goa · Davana Vermouth Collection
Join our tasting: Spirits of Goa — 3 November, Cinnamon Bazaar, London
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