How Rakshay Dhariwal built Indian agave spirit Maya Pistola
Maya Pistola’s story nearly ended before it had even begun when a fire tore through its inaugural casks on the cusp of the brand’s launch. What could have been a monumental setback spurred brand founder Rakshay Dhariwal on to launch India’s first aged, 100% agave spirit.
On the first episode of The Spirits Business Podcast this year, Dhariwal shares his journey from bar owner and restaurateur to founding India Cocktail Week and establishing and growing Maya Pistola at home and overseas.
“I’ve always been interested in the hospitality world, and 13 years ago I set up India’s first speakeasy. It’s called PCO [Passcode Hospitality],” Dhariwal told Melita Kiely, editor-in-chief of The Spirits Business.
“In 2020, all my restaurants were on sabbatical, obviously, because of lockdown. What I started to do just to pay rent and salaries was I started selling off all the alcohol for my restaurants.
“And apart from the beer and wine that went first, after that all my high-end agave spirits were the first to sell out. Not rums, not whiskies – in a place like India, it wasn’t the whiskies, the single malts, it was actually all my high-end agave spirits.”
He continues: “That’s when I knew. I’ve been seeing the demand for agave spirits, specifically the premium range, really go up and up ever since 2017/2018.”
Dhariwal explains how agave has been growing in India for more than 200 years. During the reign of Queen Victoria when railroads were being built in India, to keep cows from walking on the tracks or being hit by trains, agave was grown to deter the animals as a natural (and cheaper) fencing option.
Having seen first-hand India’s demand for agave spirits, Dhariwal was inspired to create his own style of agave spirits – and founded Maya Pistola.
The journey from concept to launch was far from smooth, however. On Christmas Eve 2021, he received a call saying “half of our distillery is up in flames”, he recalls.
“It was just the most gut-wrenching feeling,” he says.
As disappointing as the fire was, Dhariwal ultimately was certain “I’m onto something great here. So I rebuilt the rickhouse that went up in flames. I rebuilt that five-and-a-half times larger than what I had before.”
Once the brand launched, its availability was largely focused on Goa. Towards the end of last year, the brand expanded internationally and landed in the UK.
Dhariwal discusses Maya Pistola’s growth in detail and what it’s like to scale up a brand to launch overseas. He also goes into detail about where his Indian agave spirit – ‘agavepura’, as he calls it – fits within the wider agave category and is distinctly different from the better-known Tequila and mezcal categories.
The podcast conversation with Dhariwal is available to listen to on all major streaming platforms, such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music, and for free via the Acast link below.
Previous guests on The Spirits Business Podcast have included Olivier Ward, founder of Everglow Spirits, who featured on the final episode of 2025 when he discussed the findings of the inaugural UK Distilling Census. Other interviewees from 2025 included Emily Harris, founder and director of award-winning PR agency May Fox Communications, and Pedro Mendonça, Bacardi, global senior vice-president for Bacardí and rums.
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