Making and selling single malt whisky is a long game that requires nerves of steel. But that hasn't deterred Bengaluru businessman Paul John from going up against the world's best and creating his own whisky that's selling in 28 countries. Now, he's on an expansion drive, putting more of the precious liquid into casks where it'll stay for the next half-dozen years before being ready to drink.

Says John: “I've now doubled my capacity in expectation that in six-to-seven years, it will be ready to drink. I'm already sitting with about ₹40 crore worth of stock so that means I’ll have another ₹40 crore of stock in the next four years if I double it."

It's a nail-bitingly risky, capital-intensive business, says John, who began making his eponymous Paul John whisky a short 12 years ago and has collected a string of international awards along the way. “I'll be sitting with ₹80-crore worth of stuff not knowing whether I'll be able to sell or if I'll have too much demand,” says John, who describes himself as someone who’s on the job “24x7, not because I am forced into it – I enjoy what I do.”

But for John, who describes himself as a “24X7” person, risk is a crucial part of the game if you're in business. “As businessmen, we always feel very confident nothing will go wrong," he says and adds that anyway, “I believe very strongly that not taking a risk is a bigger risk than taking a risk."

Other ventures

Besides whisky, he’s also made ambitious forays into hospitality and high-quality wines. Right now, he’s just poured ₹25 crore into building a new winery outside Bengaluru and he's hoping to turn his Big Banyan Wines into a major player in Karnataka. On another front, he’s started constructing a 100-cottage resort in Coorg. The ₹150-crore resort, slated to open in 2019, is set on a coffee estate.

He already owns the Kumarakom Lake Resort in Kerala where Prince Charles spent his 65th birthday.

Still, the bets he’s taken haven’t all turned out well. “I’ve had a few experiences of real disasters,” he freely concedes. As a young man, backed by his father, he took over a friend's biscuit factory but that venture quickly failed. “I lost all the money I had and I owed money to a lot of people, it taught me a lot,” he says with a rueful smile.

It took two years to repay the money, and then he took out a distillery licence and launched John Distilleries in 1992 which is when his whisky-making story began. He already had links with the liquor business as his father was in wholesale and retail liquor trading. That distillery business went well and his Original Choice whisky became a big hit (it's now India's sixth-largest selling brand).

Then, in 1999, in a change of scene and business model, he shifted gears, moved to Florida with his family and opened up a business selling costly silk furnishing fabrics.

He quickly built up a $2.5-million business. But disaster struck in the form of the 2008 recession and the housing market crashed along with his turnover that slid to around $100,000. “That crash was a real crash," he says. He moved back to India almost immediately with his wife and two daughters.

All that time in Florida, though, John kept running the distillery business in Bengaluru, and he insists it was almost easier running his Bengaluru business from Florida. He says: "The Internet was around. And since I wasn't here, I had time to focus on business and decision-making was better."

Living abroad, meanwhile, turned his attention to wine and single malt whisky which he makes at his Goa distillery. "After I moved to the US, I got introduced to more wine and single malt drinking. So my experience of living there got me started on these two," he says.

String of awards

For an Indian whisky to earn its place in the bar cabinets of connoisseurs globally it's crucial to be make a splash at whisky fairs and be noticed by the industry's star tastemakers. And the Paul John brand has pulled that off in spades. It has won a string of awards including the Wizards of Whisky Gold Award earlier this year. Also, Paul John single malts topped the Best Other Category at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2017.

Besides that, the Icons of Whisky Global Chapter has named Paul John the World Whisky Ambassador for 2017.

“Whisky-wise it is absolutely superb. They have lots of aged liquid and have high expectations," says whisky specialist Sukhinder Singh, owner of the online retailer The Whisky Exchange, in the UK.

John is now spending a large part of his time globe-trotting and promoting the brand, taking part in whisky fairs and Meet the Maker events around the world. Particularly in the last 18 months, he’s been constantly on the move, heading from one country to another.

He says: "The distributors hold events where I take people for a journey, telling them about myself, the company’s history and the process of manufacturing. It ends with a tasting of all the variants I have."

His dedication to the single malt business goes even deeper. From Day One, he’s been intensely involved in every aspect. He started out by spending several years extensively researching all aspects of whisky-making and he waxes lyrical on the finer points of Indian barley which he believes is superior to Scottish barley.

“Our barley has more husk so that when you crush it, it gives a lot of oils, it’s more fruity, it has more fatty acids – and these are all qualities that enhance taste,” he says.

“I did several trips to Scotland. I went into the waters and I went to the rivers. I went to all the distilleries. And finally, he says: "After all this travelling and researching I was convinced we had the ability to do it in India."' In fact, he adds a heretical note and says that the age statements so prized by whisky lovers are all over-rated. "People say it's the age statement that matters. Or it’s the water quality that matters. But I found it was all just marketing."

He stayed in hands-on mode in 2005 when work on the factory began and would inspect each and every cask that was bought in Scotland before it was filled with the future Paul John whisky. Today, Paul John offers several different variants, three of which -- Brilliance, Edited and Peated -- are on sale in India.

Two others sell abroad and the company also produces many special editions like the Oloroso, which was matured in Oloroso (sherry) casks. Some 252 bottles of the Oloroso special were bottled and all sold out rapidly.

Ambitious target

What's next in the whisky business? John says sales are shooting up and last year the company sold 20,000 six-bottle cases of whisky.

He aims to more than double that figure to 50,000 cases this year. It's also selling in 17 US states and has just launched in Canada.

He loves the game of selling malt whisky, though he’d like also to spend more time on R&D. “It’s becoming extremely interesting,” he says.

“The other business, it’s more volume, more mass market… more the discount you give. There’s no finesse. This is something I really enjoy."

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