India, Dec. 8 -- Cashew Feni: From GI on paper to GI in the bottle Cashew feni received a Geographical Indication tag back in 2009, making it India's first spirit to be granted such recognition.

A few years later, in 2016, the Goa government formally declared feni the "Heritage Spirit of Goa", lifting it above the anonymous category of Country Liquor. The Feni Policy of 2021 went further, spelling out technical standards and creating the framework for GI-compliant production, including a Conformity Assessment Board (CAB).

For a long time, however, this recognition remained largely theoretical.

Labels could boast, brochures could claim, but there was no institutional mechanism to test whether a bottle of "Goan Cashew Feni" really matche...