The Story Behind the Dram

Devon Drams was founded by Johann Malawana — entrepreneur, leader, and whisky enthusiast — whose fascination with whisky runs far deeper than the liquid itself.

Johann's passion for whisky is rooted in something deeply human: the way a shared dram has the power to dissolve barriers, spark conversation, and build lasting bonds between people. For Johann, the ritual of pouring and tasting has always been a lens through which to understand one of the most fundamental questions in human experience — how do we truly connect with one another?

That question has shaped his career. As the founder of The Healthcare Leadership Academy, Johann has spent years exploring how social connection underpins effective leadership — how trust is built, how belonging is created, and how the conditions for real collaboration are established. The whisky world, with its centuries-old culture of conviviality and shared ceremony, became both a personal pleasure and a living case study in what genuine human connection looks like.

His credentials in that world are serious. Johann chairs the Whisky Interest Group at the **Athenaeum** — the great intellectual club on Pall Mall, founded in 1824 for those who have attained distinction in science, literature, the arts, and public life, and long known as "the club of the mind". Its roll call runs from Charles Darwin and Charles Dickens to Seamus Heaney and Michael Palin. The Athenaeum was conceived not as a place of politics or privilege, but as a place where ideas could cross-pollinate, where, as the violinist Yehudi Menuhin once wrote, "productive leisure" and genuine conversation between people of different disciplines could flourish. To chair a whisky circle in such a setting is to understand whisky not as a commodity but as a catalyst — for thought, for encounter, for the kind of conversation that actually goes somewhere.

He also leads the Whisky Circle at the **National Liberal Club** on Whitehall — founded by Gladstone in 1882 as a more open and inclusive vision of what a London club could be. With its magnificent Alfred Waterhouse building overlooking the Thames, the NLC has always prided itself on its diverse, eclectic membership and its thriving network of member-led circles and communities. Past members have included H.G. Wells, Dylan Thomas, Bram Stoker, and Winston Churchill. It was one of the first London clubs to admit women as full members, and that spirit of inclusion remains central to its character. Running a whisky circle here is, in its own way, a statement of intent: this is a drink for curious, open-minded people who believe that good things — ideas, friendships, evenings — are better when shared.

Beyond London's clubland, Johann is a member of the **Worshipful Company of Distillers** — one of the ancient Livery Companies of the City of London, granted its Royal Charter by King Charles I in 1638. Founded to regulate and celebrate the art of distilling, with the motto *Drop as Rain, Distil as Dew*, the Company remains closely bound to the distilling trade and counts among its membership executives and experts from across the spirits world. Membership is a mark of genuine standing in the craft of distillation, connecting its liverymen to a tradition stretching back four centuries.

And in a detail that speaks volumes about Johann's particular combination of intellectual seriousness and sheer enthusiasm, he is a Cadet of the **London Squadron of the Company of Musketeers of Armagnac** — a worldwide confraternity that celebrates the culture of Gascony and the great French eau-de-vie through its annual Chapters, its strict codes of conviviality, and its unflinching devotion to fine spirits. The Company traces its lineage to the real d'Artagnan — Charles de Batz de Castelmore, the Gascon soldier who served Louis XIV and, legend has it, introduced Armagnac to the French court. Revived in 1951, the Company now counts princes, heads of state, and distinguished enthusiasts among its members worldwide. To be inducted as a Cadet is to enter a world where passion for distilled spirits is taken seriously as a cultural vocation, not merely a hobby.

What emerges from all of this is a portrait of someone who has earned his place at the table — not simply as a drinker of fine whisky, but as a thinker about what the gathering around fine spirits means. The Athenaeum's tradition of intellectual exchange, the NLC's commitment to open and diverse community, the Distillers' deep craft heritage, the Musketeers' theatrical devotion to the art of convivial life: all of these threads run directly into Devon Drams.