Q&A With Michael D’Souza, Master Distiller at India’s Paul John

By Richard Thomas

Even though Japan is routinely listed as one of the five traditional whisky-making regions/countries (along with Ireland, Scotland, Canada and the USA), the sheer quality of its whiskies remained under the popular radar for decades. That came to an end in the mid-2010s, but something interesting came hand-in-hand with the craze for Japanese whiskies: a stronger interest in the category of “world whiskey” generally.

Prognostication is never a rewarding pursuit, but one prediction I am always willing to make is that insofar as world whiskey goes, always pay close attention to what is going on in India. If you loosen up what you call whiskey, India makes and consumes more of the stuff than any other country in the world. Whiskey is one of those cultural hand-me-downs from the British Raj, and during the last decade India has steadily built up its reputation for quality single malts. One of the distilleries contributing to that renown is Paul John, and we were lucky enough to ask their Master Distiller Michael D’Souza some questions recently:

RT: I’ve heard you got your start in alcohol-making with the larger parent company of Paul John, John Distilleries. I’ve traveled in India quite a bit, so I know John Distilleries makes Original Choice and are based in Bangalore, but not much past that and our typical reader will know nada. So, can you first tell us a bit about what all John Distilleries does, and then what you were doing for them before they started up Paul John?

MD: John Distilleries Pvt Ltd was established in 1996 in Bangalore, South India and soon became one of the leading liquor producers in the country with its mass segment brand – Original Choice, growing to be one of the top selling whiskies in the world. We now have several whisky, brandy and wine brands including the Paul John Single Malts.

I started my career in John Distilleries in 1996 as a production supervisor and later I became the production head. Thereafter, in 1999 I was given the opportunity to work in a distillery owned by Mr. Paul John where I got the chance to learn brewing and distilling. I continued distilling extra-neutral alcohol until 2006. In 2008, Mr. Paul John started work on establishing his own single malt distillery, and ever since, I have been making single malts.

RT: So, about you! Tell us about your education, training and coming up in the Indian drinks industry. How did you arrive as Master Distiller at Paul John?

MD: Purely because of a passion for creating alcohol! After I graduated with a degree in Science and started my career with John Distilleries, one thing led to the other and I’ve now been able to realise my dream of creating great whiskies!

RT: What makes a brand like Paul John so exciting for fans of world whisky is that, as a single malt, it is indisputably a whisky. The big brands in India, like Original Choice, have some molasses-based spirit blended into them, and for this reason are scoffed at by whisky nerds. So let’s start with Original Choice and Grand Duke: if I were traveling in India or saw them at a whisky show, why should I try these?

MD: India is one of the leading alcohol-consuming countries in the world. In India you get different types of alcohol and IMFL, or Indian-made foreign liquor, is one of them. Original Choice and Grand Duke both fall under IMFL category, which as per regulations adding permissible color and flavor is permitted. Both Original Choice and Grand Duke are blended with a small amount of single malt as well, which gives these whiskies an exclusivity above other brands in the same segment.

RT: Onto Paul John’s malts. One of the most exciting parts of whisky being made just about everywhere nowadays is how regional climates produce a distinctive maturation processes from familiar Scotland or Kentucky. So where do you age your whiskies and how does that work compared to Scotland?

MD: Whisky matures differently in Goa. As the climate is warm and humid, the interaction between the cask and the liquid is rapid, so lot of flavor is extracted from the cask in a very short period of time. Compared to colder regions, the extraction is 4 times higher is Goa.

RT: Most of India has a well-justified reputation for its hot climate. How do you recommend drinking a malt like Nirvana or Brilliance? Or perhaps more importantly, how shouldn’t we drink it, because some whiskies are subtle and marvelous neat, but lose their character in a cocktail and so on.

MD: There is no right or wrong way to consume whisky. With India being hot, consumers generally prefer to have their drinks with ice or chilled soda. As a whisky producer, we always recommend that whiskies be enjoyed neat. This allows consumers to enjoy the true character of the liquid.