Welcome in, today is Monday, July twentieth, and we begin in India, where the world's best-selling whisky now carries an Indian name. Royal Stag has taken the title of the world's largest-selling whisky. According to International Wine and Spirits Research rankings, Pernod Ricard's brand recorded thirty-two point six million cases in calendar year twenty twenty-five, unseating Diageo's McDowell's Number One from a perch it had long held. It is a ranking shift that runs through the center of gravity in global whisky, because India is the largest whisky market by volume, and its scale increasingly sets the category's benchmarks. In an interview with Firstpost, Jean Touboul, chief executive of Pernod Ricard India, tied the rise to two tailwinds: a young population reaching legal drinking age in growing numbers, and rising household incomes pulling consumers toward premium brands. Launched in nineteen ninety-five, Royal Stag was among the first major Indian whiskies to blend imported Scotch malts with grain spirit rather than molasses-based spirit. It has grown nearly seventy-five percent over the past five years, and now sells in more than thirty-three countries. Touboul framed the strategy as chasing value first, with volume following. He said selling Imperial Blue let the company refocus resources on the higher end of the portfolio, alongside last year's launch of Exclamation. On what comes next, he pointed to tequila at both the entry level and the luxury end, citing Código and newly imported Altos, and flagged flavoured vodka with local flavour profiles as a category gaining pace. Premiumisation, he said, is now happening at every price point. Also today, in China, an alcohol industry group is calling for tighter regulation of online spirits sales, according to The Drinks Business, saying current rules have failed to keep pace with the rapid growth of e-commerce in the industry's largest market. Separately, American whiskey is bracing for another round of trade uncertainty. Reuters and The Courier-Journal report that the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement is heading into a review and renegotiation process, with a third round of U.S.-Mexico talks scheduled to begin today. The pact does not expire until twenty thirty-six, but the renegotiation lands on a category that depends on long-term planning, and that reads straight through to how distillers finance and age their stock. Canada and Mexico are among the most important export markets for Kentucky bourbon, rye, and Tennessee whiskey. Recent tariff fights and retaliatory measures have already erased millions of dollars in sales, according to the report. Michael Bilello, president and chief executive of the American Whiskey Association, told The Courier-Journal that a distiller cannot turn production on and off with the latest headline, noting that barrels laid down today may not reach consumers for four, six, or eight years. A Brown-Forman spokesperson, whose brands include Jack Daniel's, Woodford Reserve, and Old Forester, said the company wants negotiations to deliver fair, predictable market access and a stable North American marketplace. Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky Distillers' Association, said securing zero-for-zero tariffs is the industry's top priority, describing it as a level playing field. Both said the current agreement gives American spirits duty-free access and protects bourbon and Tennessee whiskey as distinctive products, protections the trade now hopes to preserve as talks move forward. Now, a few more headlines moving the trade today. The Federal Trade Commission and Southern Glazer's are reportedly inching closer to a settlement in the FTC's price-discrimination case, an outcome distributors will watch for its bearing on pricing rules, according to Just Drinks. In Washington, Republican congresswoman Claudia Tenney has introduced the CANADA Act, which The Drinks Business reports could open a Section three-oh-one investigation into Canada's boycott of American alcohol, potentially deepening cross-border trade tensions. In Champagne, a new deal on grape payments is being read as another sign of financial strain, with Just Drinks calling it the region's most difficult trading environment since the two thousand eight financial crisis. And finally, a group of UK drinks trade bodies is urging the Welsh government to drop glass from its deposit-return scheme, according to Just Drinks and The Spirits Business, citing compliance-cost concerns.