Today we have the pleasure of introducing another member of our growing family at Nine Rivers Distillery, Mitchie Perrine. Here’s the transcript of the interview by our resident scribbler, Phill Stout. mitchie perrine
Give us your 60 second introduction then Mitchie:
I guess I don’t need to repeat my name, so I’ll dive in. I’m from the south east (armpit) of Washington State in the USA. I grew up on rock and grunge music (hence the haircut and the crusty wardrobe) and I came to China about 11 years ago to escape the army of groupies that were hounding me, since one of my “friends” leaked the fact that I was the stunt double for Mini Me in the Austin Powers movies.
Originally, I ended up in Hangzhou but the stories of the “atmosphere” in Dongguan created enough of a calling for me to head down South and see what all the stories were about.
So, what do you do in Dongguan, apart from the *cough* normal things that go on there?
Ha ha, well, none of THAT malarky. By profession I’m a graphic designer and I’ve spent most of my time here in China designing packaging for a company I used to work for here in Dongguan.
I also opened a bar back in 2015, called Ziggy’s. It’s lovingly referred to as a dive bar by Westerners but I kinda see it as my lounge which happens to sell booze at decent prices. I relocated the bar to a bigger place in 2017, and turned the original bar into a 1950’s style American diner. I’m currently opening a new bistro (the lady of my life wanted something a bit more classy – she thinks I’m a bit of a tramp) so I guess I’ll have to go out and buy some smarter clothes in a week or two. Mitchie Perrine
With F&B taking up so much of my time now, I moved on from a full time day job and now have my own design studio during the day.
How long have you been involved in Nine Rivers Distillery and how did you get involved?
Pretty much since it was nothing more than an idea being bounced around at whisky nights and in one of the Oak and Barley whisky groups on WeChat. Like most of the people involved, Jay is the connection. He’s the one that brought us all together and the reason that we all had enough confidence in this project to pony up our money.
Although – confession time…it’s only since being involved in Nine Rivers Distillery that I’ve actually started to explore whisky. Prior to the whole 9RD thing I was a beer and gin guy. Yes, yes, I know, totally shameful, but whisky is one of those things that you typically have a bad first experience with and then avoid like the plague.
My first experience (in my teens so not quite legal) was a cheap bottle of bottom shelf stuff with my older brother while fishing for trout in Montana. A combination of cheap liquor, way too much sun, and a badly cooked trout on a makeshift barbecue left me ill for almost a week. Subconsciously, I blamed the whisky, and never touched another drop until a few years back when Jay told me to get my sh*t together and grow a pair. Since then I’ve been enjoying some really good bourbons. I think bourbon is just one of those things that as an American, we are drawn to it – like moths to a flame.
Since you brought him up… spill the beans on Jay! How do you two know each other? Mitchie Perrine
He’s my dealer. Ha ha. Excuse the crap jokes. He’s actually my alcohol supplier.
Back when I first started Ziggy’s Bar in 2015, I knew I didn’t want to fall into that murky world of dodgy booze. I asked a few friends about who was on the level with supplying legit stuff and we had a mutual friend in the form of a guy called Jake (who’s also part of 9RD now).
I gave Jay a call, got over the fact he’s a grumpy, impatient ass on the phone, and invited him to come see Ziggy’s. He swung by a few days later when driving between Guangzhou and Shenzhen. We had a few coffees, chewed the fat about expat life in China, got along well, and the rest is history. He’s been our supplier of booze ever since.
What are you looking forward to most about the Nine Rivers Distillery project? Mitchie Perrine
(Am I allowed to say this?) – I’m looking forward to the first bottles of…GIN! Sure, the whiskey will be cool, but that’s going to be a few years away as it’s going to take at least 3 years to mature right? Gin, well that can happen a lot faster so I’m all over that when it’s available. In fact, I plan to be there at the site for the week when the first batch is made.
I won’t pretend I’m a gin expert, but I’ve got a few ideas that I’d like to explore for things that I think would work really well. There are some fickle rules about gin here in China that most people aren’t really aware of – but for example, there are a number of traditional botanicals that are used in gin (angelica root and oris root for example – two botanicals that underpin pretty much every gin in the world) that aren’t allowed to be used in China.
They fall under a classification of medicine, and because they are used in traditional Chinese medicine, they can’t be offered for human consumption without a doctors prescription. Therefore, you just can’t use them to make gin in China. mitchie perrine
This is a real challenge for gin, because angelica root and oris root act as a “fixative” (it helps the flavours and aromas from other botanicals to bind with the alcohol molecules in gin.) In other words, making gin without these two botanicals results in a really flat gin. The aromas are extremely faint and the flavours are just kinda boring.
I’ve got some good ideas for how to solve these problems with alternative botanicals.
Wow – so much for not being a gin expert! How do you know all this?
Should I give you three guesses? Definitely not needed. That’s Jay. He’s a total nerd on all of this stuff. It’s the reason why I knew he’d be the perfect booze supplier back in 2015, and no doubt the reason why so many of us have piled into this project. He knows his stuff and he’s always happy to share his knowledge and bring us all along with him on the journey.
Okay, time for you to plug your bar – as we know you’re going to be selling 9RD products when they are ready to sell.
Nah, no need to plug anything. We’re not the biggest bar or the busiest bar. As I mentioned before it’s kinda like my lounge where I get to hang out with some amazing friends, that just happens to sell booze. So instead, I’ll do something else. Mitchie Perrine
Nine Rivers Distillery is important to me, as it is to everyone involved. So to support the spread of our story on social media, I’ll throw down a 10% discount on absolutely anything we sell (none of those dodgy deals where only junk gets a discount – this is across the board) on any Monday, to anyone following the Nine Rivers Distillery WeChat official account.
Mondays are typically quieter, so it gives me a chance to talk a bit more and get to know anyone that is interested in our project.
Here’s Mitchie Perrine’s WeChat QR code if you’d like to get in touch with him:
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