Every startup business has a backstory – this is Our Story.
How It All Began
When a group of friends share a love of socialising over a glass of whisky, the topic of discussion inevitably becomes one about favorite whiskies.
It then sometimes rolls on to what might be the perfect whisky. How to make it. How to shape it. How to craft it. How to create subtle improvements on some of the well-known legacy brands.
Occasionally these conversations evolve into something real.
Ours became Nine Rivers Distillery.
March 2016
Shenzhen Whisky Networking kicked off back in 2016 where a bunch of whisky enthusiasts were supported by the kind hospitality of Tino with his restaurant and bar in Futian – the only bar in Shenzhen that was willing to host whisky lovers and to fix all prices on whisky at a reasonable 50RMB for a 50ml serving!
This event ran for more than 3 years and served as the foundation to other locations in Shenzhen, including Chestnut 1984, Monkey Bar, Expats and at Tino’s second venue in Nanshan.
It was the whisky fueled conversations right here that started the Nine Rivers Distillery dream.
April 2017
Whisky Networking had a calling from other cities in Guangdong and Beijing so Vince answered the call. Vince hosted whisky nights at Morgan’s Bar in Zhujiang New Town in Guangzhou, Whispers Whisky Bar and German Beer Garden in Panyu, Guangzhou and Side Street in Beijing.
May 2018
Wuhan whisky fever was huge, so we needed a big personality to join the team and lead the crusade. Lucas gave Wuhan what it needed. Regular whisky themed events with sometimes as many as two events each month. A mixture of structured and educational whisky flights and whisky networking events.
While The Toucan being the spiritual home of our whisky family in Wuhan, there were also whisky themed events hosted by Lucas at Paddy fields, The Devil’s Brewery and Smokehouse and a collaboration event with the American Chamber of Commerce in Wuhan.
Lucas won an award in December 2019 in recognition of bringing something new and interesting to the Wuhan social scene.
June 2018
The whisky trail headed almost 1000 kilometers north from Wuhan and came to Tianjin. With Graham, a Scot and a lover of all whiskies, bringing his own unique style and wardrobe to whisky events at 2 different venues in Tianjin.
O’Mahony’s Bar, owned and managed by our good friend Jason was the spiritual home of our whisky family in Tianjin, although there were events at Cozy Cafe and As Always bar.
July 2018
Even further north the whisky trail traveled, this time all the way to Shenyang. Mudy was our guy on the ground up in the north east and he didn’t fail in bringing whisky tastings, whisky flights and general whisky education to an audience keen to know more.
While Taverna Vigna Italian Restaurant was the home for Shenyang’s whisky lovers, there were also events hosted at Sophie’s World, Mailo’s, Suerte and Mikey’s Diner.
August 2018
With a whisky culture really starting to take shape in China and a constant recurring theme of conversation being “could we ever make whisky in China”, it was time to reach out to one of the most respected and influential foreigners in China – the one person who we all know would tell us all if our distillery could happen or if it was simply a pipe dream. Dr. Harley Seyedin, President of The American Chamber of Commerce in South China.
With more than 20 years experience as a businessman in China, and more than a decade leading AMCHAM South China, Dr Seyedin has been instrumental in many interesting and exciting businesses that have made success from the international collaborations of both foreign businesses investing in China, and Chinese businesses investing in the USA.
Dr. Seyedin liked our idea. He could see our passion to put China on the international whisky map. He and his team started to reach out across China through their extensive AMCHAM South China network.
February 2019
With support from Dr. Seyedin and the extensive AMCHAM South China network, we were overwhelmed with commercially viable options – no fewer than 11 sites in southern China, with every one of them having unique selling points. One part of China just felt right to us. Xin Luo District of Longyan City, in Fujian Province.
Situated more than 600 meters above sea level in an area of nationally recognized natural beauty, our new home had everything we were looking for. A cooler climate (allowing us to potentially age whisky for longer), an untapped ancient underground aquifer, an abundance of local smallholder farmers to help recycle our spent grains as animal feed and, most importantly, an amazing team of local government professionals that were energized and enthusiastic to make our project come to realization.
March 2019
It was time to get in touch with a real expert to sanity check our vision for creating Nine Rivers Distilery – so we went to someone who had essentially done everything that we were hoping to do. Stephen Davies of The Welsh Whisky Company who took a similar ambition (to bring distilling back to Wales after more than 100 years absence) and to put Wales firmly on the international whisky map.
Penderyn single malt whiskies were a huge favorite with our whisky community in China and with a modern and innovative approach to crafting whiskies, there are a lot of synergies between what Stephen and his team have achieved and where we would like to be with Nine Rivers Distillery.
We knew that Stephen had to be on our team.
June 2019
The first step in creating our legal structure was to setup and register our Hong Kong Holding Company. On 14th June 2019, with the support of Robbert and Katy from Sovereign Group, we were officially incorporated as Nine Rivers Distillery Company Hong Kong.
We continue to work with Robbert and Katy at Sovereign Group as they provide not only our Company Secretary Services, but are an active part in the management of our corporate structure and our investors.
September 2019
As part of the AMCHAM South China delegation to the 2019 CIFIT (China International Fair for Investment and Trade) we officially signed an Investment Agreement with the government of Longyan City in the official signing ceremony.
It was at the CIFIT Conference that we also got to appreciate the depth and breath of Dr. Seyedin’s reputation, as we were able to meet with the Deputy Governor of Fujian Province, leaders of Xiamen City and the senior leaders of Longyan City – Dr. Seyedin has close professional relationships with them.
November 2019
Nine Rivers Distillery Longyan City or 久溪（福建龙岩）酒业有限公司 as it is officially known as in Chinese, was officially registered on 28th November 2019, thanks to the legal support of Kevin, Lynn and Nelson at the Guangdong Guanhe Law Firm.
Guangdong Guanghe have been our China Mainland legal partners on the Nine Rivers Distillery Project since inception and in addition to facilitating the registration of the China Mainland company, have also crafted all of our legal contracts for our unique ownership structure.
January 2020
Our initial conversations with the Long Chi Food Industrial Park where we intended to buy a land parcel on which to build our distillery.
Our conversations were for an area of 25.8 MU – which equates to 17’182 square meters. We believe that this is more than enough space to host our distillery for at least the next 10 years.
June 2020
Halfway through the year of 2020, we had 45 investors (27 of whom were the original founders of this project) and we closed our Seed Investment Round. This investment round provided enough capital to take us through to our next round of investment.
Here are just a few of the people involved so far.
August 2020
After building a fantastic relationship with the leaders of the Long Chi project, the leaders of Da Chi Town and the leaders of Xin Luo district in Longyan City, we signed an agreement to purchase the land and to build our distillery.
The signing ceremony was hosted by Mr Guan Lian Chen, Governor of Da Chi Town – with Communist Party Secretary for Xin Luo District, Mr Jin Long Chen and the Mayor of Xin Luo District, Mr Zhao Yang Zhang.
September 2020
As further leverage to our growing network of whisky lovers, we reached out to find some whisky loving architects that would care as much about our project as we would.
SOG Design, a boutique architecture and design studio with a focus on China and South East Asia, were an obvious choice for us. With an extensive portfolio of commercial, retail, residential and mixed used developments in China and a natural creative ability to combine both eastern and western influences with modern interpretations, we are excited and confident with this appointment.
March 2021
With our third and fourth funding rounds completed, the number of people involved in our project has grown to 98, coming from 23 different countries.
December 2022
Stuart MacPherson, former Master of Wood at The Macallan, joins our team to lead our wood strategy and our cooperage project.
January 2023
We contract with Rong Tian as our partner for construction and get straight to work!
May 2023
Open Day at Nine Rivers Distillery – welcoming some of our investors to see what they are a part of.
September 2023
Another Open Day – this time to lay the names on bricks into The Plenum Wall
November 2023
We launch The Founders’ Casks Expression
December 2023
Our first three still arrive from Forsyths in Scotland.
September 2024
We’ll start installing all of our equipment
November 2024
Fingers crossed – this is when we will be producing spirit!
Well if you’ve made it this far reading Our Story, then you must be interested to learn more right?
