How Goa, India’s favourite party state, is redefining the spirits game

Sun, sand and susegad. That's the image of Goa as India's premier tourist destination. But beyond this, the state holds a not-so-secret appeal. It's where for decades, India has gone to get sozzled, and to carry home liquor bottles at prices lower than most other places. And in keeping with this demand, the state's spirits distillation industry has kept expanding, of late with a focus on premiumisation. It's exciting times ahead for India's tipplers.

Since the Covid-induced lockdowns, the headlines have been grabbed by youngsters from outside Goa who have left corporate jobs to sell boutique gins and rums out of the state. Favourite among new-age rums for tourists to carry home are the coffee-flavoured Segredo Aldeia, the spiced Earth that is reminiscent of a famous international brand named after a mythical sea monster, the oak-matured MakaZai and the port-cask matured Pipa. Among those riding the global spurt in ‘white’ spirits — which youngsters prefer as a base for cocktail experimentation — are the spice-infused Terry Sent Me! hemp-infused Satiwa, tea-flavoured Tamras, and the pink-hued, citrusy Samsara.

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Across the state, no bar counter — at private parties or beach-side shacks — is complete without some (or all) of the above.

The story behind the story is one of intrepid adventurers taking advantage of fallow seasons for the many distilleries in Goa — whose liquor and business laws are easy, society permissive about liquor, and which offers a readymade, evolved tourist market to try out new products — to distil small batches of their upmarket beverages. They take a neutral base spirit made from grain or molasses and let their imagination run wild, infusing it with fruity, spicy or floral notes, distil it a second time, mature it in different casks, before adding design and marketing pizzaz to the final product.

But the real exciting news is happening elsewhere.

A barley legal story

Leading the trend by both volume and branding is John Distilleries Private Limited (JDPL), the makers of Paul John Indian single malt whisky. Although the volumes and bottom-line of the Bengaluru-based distiller is driven by its IMFL brands — it is John's premium offerings, from the 12 expressions of its single malt, to its foray into winery resulting in its Big Banyan wines and the PJ XO grape brandy among other offerings — that caught the eye of America’s second largest alcobev company Sazerac to invest in the Indian firm, allowing the former to scale up rapidly over the last decade. The New Orleans-based MNC has, since 2017, continued to raise its stakes in JDPL, resulting in its holding 60 per cent of the Indian company by 2024.

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A pleasant drive south from Panjim along NH 66 leads to the quiet, secluded white sand beaches of Cuncolim, a haunt of upmarket Western tourists. Tucked away inside the Veroda industrial estate on the other side of the highway that runs north-south through the tiny state, is JDPL’s Goa factory (it has 12 units across eight states, some of which are on lease) that is exclusively dedicated to the company’s premium products. The facility is fronted by the Paul John Visitor Centre, offering India’s only whisky appreciation and distillery tour.

John Distilleries, the makers of Paul John Indian single malt whisky, offers India’s only whisky appreciation and distillery tour.

Inside the stunning neo-Portuguese building, whose air is redolent with the yeasty whiff of fermenting malts, master distiller and blender Michael John D’Souza recounts the journey of the company so far.

“I joined JDPL in Bangalore when it launched its first IMFL whisky brand, Original Choice, in 1996. When the promoter (Paul P John) decided to set up a distillery in Goa to manufacture single malts, I was asked to take over,” D’Souza said.

The idea was always to create a uniquely Indian whisky, hence the adoption of the six-row barley that is easier to grow in Indian conditions than its two-row European cousin, which is widely used in Scotland.

“Two-row barley has a larger grain, containing a lot more carbohydrates that yield higher quantities of alcohol. But we found that the smaller-grained, six-row Indian barley produces more complex flavours in the distillate. That, in essence, is what distinguishes Indian single malt as a category from Scotch,” the affable master distiller explained.

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“With its many rivers and streams, the easy availability of potable water gives Goa an added advantage in spirits distillation. And for whisky production, the salty sea breeze adds a layer of minerally complexity during maturation in oak casks,” he added.

Each litre of distillate requires anywhere between 16 litres and 18 litres of water to produce — from soaking the barley to germinate into the malt, making the ‘mash’ by boiling the crushed malt, and lastly, cleaning the stills after every round of distillation.

“As a socially responsible company, we have a system of recycling a lot of the waste water,” D’Souza quickly added.

Regarding the various expressions of the Paul John single malt brand, he admitted that they were facing a shortfall of the Islay-style peaty and smoky PJ Bold, because the peat required to smoke-dry the malt — which gives it the characteristic aroma and palate — is in short supply. The only peat — a low carbon, early-stage coal variety — that can be used in this process, is available in Scotland, and has to be shipped from there.

“But our other top-of-the-line variant — Brilliance — is in production. Besides, we are producing the non-peated Nirvana in large quantities, and have, over the past six years, doubled, and recently quadrupled our capacity here.”

Blossom of the alchemist

To the northeast of Veroda, along a narrow unmetalled road through a cashew and sal forest, you arrive at Aveden, site of the family-run Adinco Distilleries, whose business model couldn’t be more different from that of JDPL.

Solomon Diniz, the second-generation owner, explained: “We produce IMFL liquors, for which we buy distilled spirits from all over. At our distillery, we produce concentrated essences of various items — spices, fruits, etc. — in small batches, and add these to the alcohol to produce a range of liqueurs. Sometimes, we distil the mix a second time.”

Solomon Diniz in his laboratory. Diniz produces IMFL liquors, for which he buys distilled spirits from all over. 

Adinco is perhaps most well-known for its coconut-flavoured Cabo rum, which has displaced a more famous (and expensive) international brand from the shelves across Goa, and increasingly, elsewhere. Now, under the brand name Ti Connie, its coffee, peach, anise and citrus liqueurs have also begun to wean customers away from the signature imported brands that are unofficial national beverages of their countries of origin.

Diniz — who doubles up as the resident alchemist — has recently launched an IMFL whisky, Cotombi Reserve, whose woody, smoky nose is achieved by infusing the base spirit with charred coconut shells, before a second distillation. Armed with an international award, Diniz has already been invited to the British Parliament to present his product, and is justifiably ecstatic talking about the experience.

Tequilana Sunrise

Further north, among the sylvan surroundings of Panjim’s upmarket Altinho neighbourhood, lives another maverick. And Desmond Nazareth looks the part. With a shaggy mane, beard and glasses, he looks part hippie — which he is in spirit, part techie — which he was in his earlier life.

Having wound-up his IT firm in the US and returned to India in the early years of this century, he ended up becoming perhaps India’s most left-field distiller in the most serendipitous way.

“I was in Mumbai in the year 2000, after an 18-year stint in the US, with the aim of working on a few projects with which I had returned to India. One night, I wanted to make margaritas to entertain some guests, but couldn’t find the tequila to make it in any shop across town. On a whim, I decided to find out what goes into the making of tequila,” said the founder of DesmondJi, India’s first and only agave distiller.

The product is called agave not only to bypass tequila’s geographic IPR as a Mexican product, but also because it is manufactured from a different plant. “Tequila is made from the piña (heart) of the blue agave (agave tequilana) plant, which is unique to Mexico. I recalled having seen a similar plant growing somewhere in the Deccan Plateau, while travelling with my family in my childhood. After some quick and dirty research, I found that a cousin of the blue agave came to India via the Columbian Exchange and the similarity of climate and geology allowed the plant to naturalise on India’s Deccan Plateau. During the late-19th century, the British Raj used it to fence railway tracks. Now it grows semi-wild across parts of southern India,” said Nazareth with a twinkle in his eyes.

Pina harvest for DesmondJis agave production. Photo: On arrangement

“This plant, agave americana, also has a piña that contains sugars, though it takes a longer time to grow. I experimented with it. Like the blue agave, its piña can be cooked, crushed to extract the sugary liquid, fermented and distilled to yield a liquor that is similar to tequila, but distinct. This was the beginning of our journey,” he added.

He went on to set up a small pot-still distillery at Kandukuru, Andhra Pradesh, near the villages he had contracted to cultivate the plant. The bottling and marketing, though, happens in Goa.

Sitting next to him, his right-hand man Conrad Braganza expanded, “To avoid air pollution, instead of roasting the piñas in open pits like in making mezcal, the progenitor of tequila, we cook it in an autoclave. It’s faster and also gives our product another point of departure from the Mexican spirit.”

Wary of losing control over his business in trying to expand too fast, Nazareth has taken things slow. Though, like the other Goan pioneers, his company is also expanding. While production capacity has doubled after the Covid shock, he has ventured into other liquors as well. His Mahua, inspired by the spirit distilled from the eponymous flower that is found all over central India’s forests, and is a favourite of the various tribes populating the regions, blends pot-still refinement with mystical tradition.

Also part of his bouquet are an orange liqueur, for which he distils essence from Nagpuri oranges to blend with spirits sourced from elsewhere, and a cane spirit on the lines of the Brazilian cachaςa and French West Indian rhum agricole. Unlike Caribbean rums, which are distilled from molasses — a byproduct of the cane sugar industry — cane spirits are distilled directly from fresh sugarcane juice, in this case the purple sugarcane that grows exclusively in the Deccan region (in keeping with Nazareth’s local sourcing mantra), and thus carry an aroma and mouthfeel that is distinct from molasses rums.

Together, these three distillers who are championing alternative ideas of indigeneity, are carving a path for India’s alcobev biggies to follow.