Following on from our series of articles introducing some of the people who have got involved in the Nine Rivers Distillery project, it’s time for me to step up and introduce myself. I’m Steve Alexander and I (along with my wife, Aoife) am one of the two original founders. Also, just accept the fact that […]
Read MoreFollowing on from our series of articles introducing some of the people who have got involved in the Nine Rivers Distillery project, it’s time for me to step up and introduce myself. I’m Steve Alexander and I (along with my wife, Aoife) am one of the two original founders. Also, just accept the fact that I’m going to be spelling it WHISKEY with an “e”, because that’s how we do it in Ireland! Here’s my story.
I was originally born in Dublin, Ireland but currently I live just down the road in Bray, County Wicklow. More specifically, it’s about 20 kilometers south of Dublin and is known as the “Gateway to the Garden of Ireland.” It’s a seaside town with cliff walks and beaches, so it naturally attracts a lot of tourists. Even though it’s near Dublin, it’s got a wonderful balance of both tranquility and vibrancy.
Throughout my youth, whiskey was seen as an “old man’s drink,” something my grandfather would be seen sipping during family gatherings. I accepted it was just one of those adult indulgements that were beyond my understanding (that, and my grandfather’s laughter directed at my grimacing face when I tried it). I also looked at the other adults around me drinking what would put Ireland on the world map of alcohol: Guinness. I wasn’t ever tempted to try that one as a kid, though.
From a young age, I was fascinated with aeroplanes and flight, so aviation became my passion and career. I could travel the world, fly some amazing aeroplanes, and meet lots of interesting people.
Back in 2005, at the age of 22, I packed a suitcase, booked a flight to the USA, and enrolled in flight school at Flight Safety International in Florida. It was here that I was introduced to bourbon by some of my housemates. It then became a bit of house tradition to celebrate each milestone along the quest to become a qualified pilot. Throughout the two years it took me to qualify and pass all the exams, it’s fair to say I have sampled quite a wide range of different bourbons!
Being a Pilot can be tough. There’s a huge amount of travel involved (obviously!) but the upside is that almost every single airport in the world has a travel retail section, where a lot of rare, limited edition, or specialty whiskey is available. A lot of it will only be available in travel retail, so I would take the unique whiskies back home to share with friends and family. Whiskey became something that sparked amazing conversations and debates over the years.
In 2015, I relocated to China with my wife and our (at the time) two children (yes, I’ve been a little busy). I took a job as a Captain, flying for Hainan airlines.
China had been on our bucket list for a long time and it was an opportunity we were both keen to take. After consulting some friends and colleagues, we settled on moving to Shenzhen.
Living in a largely expat dominated community in Nanshan, it didn’t take long before I was connected to one of the Oak and Barley whiskey groups. Through Oak and Barley I got to know Jay, the group leader. He would frequently chip in with opinions on whiskies, tasting notes, random trivia about distilleries, and the occasional slam to anyone that got a bit out of line. It was his knowledge that made me confident that Nine Rivers was going to be not only a success, but a landmark achievement for whiskey in China. I grabbed a bottle of whiskey and headed up to Jay’s office to meet him, chew the fat, understand a bit more about the project, and get involved.
Initially, I was just a background investor. Flying can be an unsociable career at times, so it’s challenging to have structured downtime from work to be able to get seriously involved in other things. But, thanks to COVID, and the massive downturn in international travel, I ended up relocating back to Ireland with Aoife and the kids, which gave me more time to roll up my sleeves and get involved. Unfortunately, it also meant a move home and a move further from the physical project which in some ways is disappointing for me.
I’ve been part of The Think Tank since the pandemic and that’s given me the opportunity to really get my teeth into a few things. Most importantly, I’ve learned more about whiskey from a production point of view. I’ve had a lot of time to read and learn and this has helped me to make useful contributions to the operational layout and processes that will eventually underpin our whiskey production.
I’ve also taken over leading the Social Media Team, so all the content that goes out, across all the platforms, I’ve had my fingers and thumbs on it in some way, shape of form. It’s hard work, but it’s great seeing these pieces go out so people like you can read them.
Many people ask me why I got involved and immediately jump to the assumption that it was purely about seeing the potential for whiskey in China, and the money that can be made from it.
Of course making money is at least some of the motivation. No one wants to lose money, and China has probably the most potential for whiskey than any other market. But, from a sincere point of view, it was more about the opportunity to really get involved in something like this that interested me.
I love whiskey. Almost as much as flying. So the thought of actually being able to say I helped bring amazing whiskey to the world is really exciting. To be able to sit in my local bar in Bray, in a few years time, crack open a bottle with some of my oldest friends from my school days and say “that’s my whiskey – I’m a founder and shareholder in the distillery and I’ve contributed to the mammoth task of bringing this idea to life in the real world” – that’s a day I’m looking forward to.
If you enjoyed reading this, and you would like to catch up with some of our past articles, then please CLICK HERE and go to our News Section, where most of our other content is published.
If you have enjoyed reading this and want to learn more about Nine Rivers Distillery, then use the QR Code below to follow our WeChat Official Account.
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To be considered serious in the world of whisky, and if you want to be a true contender for making the world’s best whisky, then you need roll up your sleeves, do your research, and collaborate with the most respected leaders of the industry. Specifically, we are talking about the champion of whisky pot stills, […]
Read MoreTo be considered serious in the world of whisky, and if you want to be a true contender for making the world’s best whisky, then you need roll up your sleeves, do your research, and collaborate with the most respected leaders of the industry. Specifically, we are talking about the champion of whisky pot stills, Forsyths of Scotland.
Forsyths is a name steeped in a rich history of crafting stills for the global whisky industry. Remarkably, Forsyths continues to be a family owned business, now in its 4th generation being led by Richard Forsyth. Forsyths still uses the artisanal technique of hammering (by hand!) copper sheets into the elaborate shapes needed to create the best opportunity for reflux, a process of interaction between spirit and copper that gives whisky a lot of its smoother qualities, and allows unique aromas and flavours of new make whisky to carry through the distillation process.
These handcrafting skills are married with modern technologies during the design process, showing that a company can both produce that old-fashioned excellence while still taking advantage of modernisation where it does not affect final quality.
There are very few leading distilleries in the world that Forsyths have not been involved in; you can find their stills installed all over world – including right here in China.
We engaged with Forsyths way back at the end of 2018, with our first meeting in January 2019, when we were 100% confident that Nine Rivers Distillery was “really going to be a thing.” The project had broken past the boundaries of whisky fuelled gossip and reveries. After a couple of years researching and getting more and more serious, we carved out something that resembled a real plan and were actively looking for a site for our distillery.
Forsyths started back in 1933 by seizing an opportunity. Former coppersmith Alexander Forsyth bought out his former employer, Robert Wilson, to create Forsyth and Son. With more than 40 years experience as a coppersmith who had climbed the ranks from apprentice to tradesman to foreman, his vision took that company and elevated it to the gold standard that most whisky lovers know today.
The Asia Pacific headquarters for Forsyths is based in Hong Kong. This HQ houses Darren Hosie, business development leader, alongside Neale Boag who leads the engineering team in the region.
Our early engagements with Forsyths were based on a very different concept than where we are today. Originally, Nine Rivers Distillery was more of a “proof of concept” project. This means a much smaller scale approach which is not too dissimilar to most distillery startups. We planned 2 small stills, a mash tun, some fermentors and a lot of crossed fingers. In fact, the stills from Nine Rivers Distillery Version 1.0 were less than half of the size of the smallest stills we have in our current setup: 10 stills capable of 7 million LPA.
“I’ve personally enjoyed watching this project grow and develop from a pilot plant to what will now be the biggest single malt whisky distillery in China. They will be well placed within the world rankings in terms of raw production capacity.
It’s interesting to be involved in the project as a solutions provider. The dynamics of so many people involved should be a burden to the project, but it works really well.”
As we all know, the global pandemic presented the world with some challenges, not least around business meetings. Just as we were ready to start workshops around still designs and still house layouts, most of us (the Nine Rivers team and, of course, Darren and Neale from Forsyths) ended up in some form of lockdown. Just like the rest of the world, we all got into the new reality of work by video conference call.
Love it or hate it, we made do. The point of the workshops was to include as many opinions and perspectives as we could with respect to how we shape our stills and the type of new make spirit we want to be crafting. As you probably saw from our last article, we had a LOT of ideas regarding what this should look like. We had some pretty amazing ideas, but our engineering wizards kept us grounded in what was possible, safe, and environmentally friendly.
We didn’t include the entire team in those workshops – let’s be fair, all that engineering stuff can get a little bit too boring (no offense, Neale). In fact, even Hayden fell asleep during most of the calls. It must have been all the running around he does…
At the end of our workshops, we reached some agreements on what we needed from our stills. We’ll share some of those things with you all now, but we have to keep a few things under wraps at this stage – top secret and all that 007 type stuff. What we can share is this:
Diversity is key for us. From virgin oak matured whiskies all the way through to sherry cask matured whiskies. This means we need a range of different new make whiskies therefore at least three different types of spirit stills are an absolute must.
We’ll spare you the technical details, but are going to have huge wash stills. Gigantic. Not just because they look amazing, and not just because we’ll be able to say we have the largest stills in China, but ultimately because our approach to energy efficiency works better with bigger stills.
Our goal became figuring out how to arrange them in a configuration that was not only efficient for production processes, but also would look as awe-inspiring as Gaudi’s Basilica in Barcelona. While that might seem a touch arrogant, we feel confident this will become a popular photo opportunity that gets shared on social media by anyone walking through our doors.
This is possible thanks to the expert guidance of Neale Boag.
“There were some interesting challenges in working with the Nine Rivers Distillery team – they really did want to have their cake and eat it too – not just in terms of the diversity of stills and whisky styles but their absolute commitment to minimising energy consumption and their environmental impact. All of this, PLUS the need for a visual “wow factor” to the entire project.
Thankfully I wasn’t alone on this; I had access to the vast experience and skills of a huge team of engineers to back me up from the Forsyths HQ in Scotland. There were not too many sleepless nights planning this project and I’m personally proud of what we are creating with the Nine Rivers Distillery team. The challenge of making it all work and the passion they had made everything feel rewarding.”
Skip ahead a couple of years. 4 major workshops, 37 phone calls, 213 emails, and 5 company team-buildings later… we have shaken hands (virtually) and a deal is made. As these words are being typed, the manufacturing has already started at Forsyths on our first 3 of 10 stills. Soon, we will be proud parents of a 15’000 litre wash still and two 5’400 litre spirit stills.
We expect them to be arriving in China next year, in 2023, so now we have to get digging holes, pouring concrete, and laying bricks – to make sure we have a still house ready to install them in.
If you enjoyed reading this, and you would like to catch up with some of our past articles, then please CLICK HERE and go to our News Section, where most of our other content is published.
If you have enjoyed reading this and want to learn more about Nine Rivers Distillery, then use the QR Code below to follow our WeChat Official Account.
Alternatively, if you prefer Linked In then you can CLICK HERE to follow us.
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE.
For those of you that have been following the story of our distillery layout, you’ll be pleased to know that if you want to view paradise, you simply need to scroll down and view it. So, let’s look at the stillroom layout and announce who won the “5” Golden Tickets which allow their holders (and […]
Read MoreFor those of you that have been following the story of our distillery layout, you’ll be pleased to know that if you want to view paradise, you simply need to scroll down and view it. So, let’s look at the stillroom layout and announce who won the “5” Golden Tickets which allow their holders (and one guest) a VIP Day with Whisky Wonka!
Let’s first review the prize; each Golden Ticket allows the ticket holder and their guest a VIP Day out at Nine Rivers Distillery. The day includes:
Due to the overwhelming response that we had across our social media platforms, we decided to increase the number of Golden Tickets to 9. Our whisky arithmetic led us to expect 500 or so entries, and 1% winning a Golden Ticket seemed like it made sense. But, with just over 900 entries, it only felt right to increase the tickets awarded to 9. Plus, 9 tickets, 9 Rivers, you get it. Sometimes we get too focused on making references and we forget ourselves. Anyway, let’s talk more about us now.
We were admittedly not surprised when more than half of you voted for this layout. The layout configuration we called “The Choir” well outshone all the others across all platforms.
And not just for our readers either; this 10 still configuration was the preferred choice of the entire Nine Rivers Distillery team. Learning that it was the favourite of our audience reinforces our original decision. Validation is a nice feeling, isn’t it?
As a brief recap on the key highlights, this configuration utilises:
All are equipped with state-of-the-art Wonka Dramdicators which help indicate which cask type the new make spirit is best suited for!
We believe this will give us about 7 million LPA (liters of pure alcohol) of production capacity and allow us to make three distinct styles of new make spirit. This will lead to us being able to make some profoundly interesting whiskies for all whisky lovers to enjoy.
And, if you are a winner (or their guest), we’d like to take a moment and echo the words of the legendary Gene Wilder, “Don’t forget what happened to those who suddenly got everything they wanted… they lived happily ever after.”
Oompa doompa doopity do~
I’ve got a golden ticket for you~
Oompa doompa doopity dink~
To see who won please click on this link~
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE LIST OF WINNERS.
If you didn’t win this time, keep reading our updates. We have more splendid competitions planned and more Golden Tickets to give away!
If you enjoyed reading this, and you would like to catch up with some of our past articles, then please CLICK HERE and go to our News Section, where most of our other content is published.
If you have enjoyed reading this and want to learn more about Nine Rivers Distillery, then use the QR Code below to follow our WeChat Official Account.
Alternatively, if you prefer Linked In then you can CLICK HERE to follow us.
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE.
Welcome back, whisky lovers, to the continuation of the previous article (you can link to that here in case you missed it) With more than 200 people now invested (at the time of writing) in the Nine Rivers Distillery project, and hundreds more supporting us through reading and sharing our social media content, we feel […]
Read MoreWelcome back, whisky lovers, to the continuation of the previous article (you can link to that here in case you missed it)
With more than 200 people now invested (at the time of writing) in the Nine Rivers Distillery project, and hundreds more supporting us through reading and sharing our social media content, we feel the time is right to also involve the larger community in one of our major upcoming decisions.
Even if you are just learning about us (no hard feelings), we’re giving you an opportunity to not only contribute your opinion to the future of Nine Rivers Distillery, but also a chance to win something really special by simply choosing your favorite layout from our short list of 4.
Let’s start with the prize, since our social media editor thinks you all need to be excited enough to read on and vote. The prize is a GOLDEN TICKET which allows the winner and one guest to come and spend a day at the distillery making single malt whisky. There are 5 of them up for grabs which increases everyone chance of getting an amazing VIP day at Nine Rivers Distillery!
First, take some time to read about the 4 proposed layouts that we have for the distillery. Then, choose which one you think would be the best for us to implement. We want to know which layout you think has the best “wow factor”.
Everyone that chooses the winning layout (chosen by the most votes) will then be entered into a lucky draw. Every popular vote will be assigned a number (based on the order in which they participated) and then five winners will be determined by an online random number generator.
Let’s get straight into the options!
The first option is a 10 still setup, that creates a central aisle that draws the visitors attention straight through the centre of the still house floor.
The north wall has 4 x 10’800 litre spirit stills and 1 x 15’000 litre wash still. The south wall has 5 x 15’000 litre wash stills. The visitors viewing deck is highlighted with the red line on the right of the image.
We would expect it to look a little like this to a visitor from the viewing deck.
The second option is a 15 stills setup, arranged in a circular formation.
The layout is made up of 5 x 15’000 litre wash stills and 10 x 5’400 litre spirit stills. Again, the visitor viewing deck is highlighted within the red line.
We would expect the layout to look something like this from the visitor viewing deck.
The third option is a semi-circle configuration of 9 stills.
The layout would consist of 3 x 15’000 litre stills and 6 x 10’800 litre stills.
We would expect it to look something like this from, the visitors viewing deck.
A 10 still configuration that combines elements of both Layout 1 – The Nave and Layout 3 The Cupola, using 3 different sizes of stills, that would enable us to create 3 different types of new make spirit.
This layout utilises 2 x 30’000 litre wash stills feeding 2 x 20’000 litre spirit stills. It then has 2 x 15’000 litre wash stills feeding 4 x 5’400 litre spirit stills. The smaller spirit stills would be configured in pairs, with variations on the neck height and style.
We would expect the visual impact of the stills to look something like the image above.
Voting is as simple as pouring a dram. Choose your favorite layout from the 4 options, then provide your name, email address, WeChat ID if you’re a WeChat user or your phone number.
If you’re one of the lucky 5, then make sure you read our next update because that’s when it will be announced!
If you enjoyed reading this, and you would like to catch up with some of our past articles, then please CLICK HERE and go to our News Section, where most of our other content is published.
If you have enjoyed reading this and want to learn more about Nine Rivers Distillery, then use the QR Code below to follow our WeChat Official Account.
Alternatively, if you prefer Linked In then you can CLICK HERE to follow us.
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE.
We’ve been unconventional in our approach to almost everything in our project, which you have probably noticed from our other updates and articles. It then shouldn’t come as a surprise that our distillery layout workshops were far from conventional boardroom meetings. What we lacked in corporate thinking and experience, we more than made up with […]
Read MoreWe’ve been unconventional in our approach to almost everything in our project, which you have probably noticed from our other updates and articles. It then shouldn’t come as a surprise that our distillery layout workshops were far from conventional boardroom meetings. What we lacked in corporate thinking and experience, we more than made up with enthusiasm and creativity. After all, many of us (The Founders) simply appreciate whisky for what it is (and could be!) and have a blissful ignorance of the industry which allows us the freedom to create our masterpiece through the methods the title of this article references. We now want to invite you to look at our vision, method, and finally a few results that might one day be considered works of copper artistry.
Why are we taking the time to share this story? Simply because we want to create something a little bit more than just a whisky factory. We want to build the destination that every whisky lover in the world would want to visit on a whisky pilgrimage. A cathedral dedicated to the holy spirits. A place where Whisky Cat would be proud to call home.
Ensuring our still house is large enough to function properly as well as be aesthetically pleasing is harder than it sounds. We are a Type A facility (no, this isn’t the grade we gave ourselves; rather, it’s the mark for the highest standards possible regarding construction quality and operational safety) which means a lot of boxes to tick and a lot of red tape. As you might imagine, distilling involves working with high temperatures, processes that can cause fires and explosions and of course the fact that alcohol is highly flammable: all of this must be housed in a Type A facility.
The end result is of course the 4 building image that so many of you are already familiar with: the still house on the right (the north side); the dunnage on the left, where we mature whisky in casks, (the south side); the two larger, middle buildings, which will be for milling, mashing, fermenting, and storage.
But that doesn’t really help anyone to understand what’s really going on in the still house, nor does it distinguish us as being a tipple above the rest, so let’s take a closer look starting with the Visitor Viewing Deck.
We wanted to build in the ability for whisky enthusiasts to be able to see everything that happens in the whisky production process. After all, transparency and provenance about everything that goes into making whisky are some of the key reasons why we started this project. Because a working and operating distillery is a dangerous environment, but we have a serious responsibility to keep you safe when you visit! Even though some distilleries will let visitors get up close enough to touch stills, we don’t plan to stop cranking out good quality whisky long enough to make it safe to touch, so you’ll have to be content to just watch the action from the best view in the whole distillery. More on this a bit later.
With the architecture agreed on and an 852 square meter open space to play around with, it was time to take everything to the next level. It was time to roll up our sleeves, bring out the big guns, get cracking, and so on. You get it.
The now legendary 9RD Think Tank are the elite, special forces within Nine Rivers Distillery. (I know. We just mentioned how unconventional we are and yet have a super cliché name like The Think Tank. Oh well.) They are all at the very top of their (drinking) game. They show no fear. They will accept any challenge put in front of them. They laugh at death in the face and if all else fails, they pour another dram.
It’s “A-ha” moments like the subterranean water cavern to appease the fire safety regulations that frequently happen in our “The Think Tank” group. It’s not all smooth, though. Starting with a dozen or so sessions in The Think Tank WeChat group, we managed to collate some scribbles, brain farts, and a lot of random anecdotes about irrelevant nonsense. We were lucky enough to get some workshops scheduled between travel restrictions and lock downs.
Dumping a dozen people in a room and tasking them with solving a problem that has absolutely nothing to do with their skills or experience is already a challenge. Throwing a few bottles of whisky into the mix spells out ‘herding cats’ in big neon letters. Needless to say, the first few workshops turned into parties and very little was achieved – unless we count hangovers as achievements.
With our groundbreaking scheduled for February 18th, 2022, we knew we had to get our act together. Luckily, a leader emerged in our time of need, and we were blessed with Whisky Cat’s nemesis – Muffin the miniature poodle – who stepped up to lead our distillery layout workshops.
Under Muffin’s authoritarian approach, and with the support of his baseball bat wielding, thuggish enforcer, the rules were laid down. No whisky and no scoff (food) until there were 4 distillery layout options worthy of presenting to the whisky loving audience that read our updates. That’s you, right?
Hunger and thirst soon kicked in. Motivation was achieved. 4 layouts were scribbled with all 4 of them being suitable contenders for our distillery layout. In our next update, you will all have a chance to see them, vote for your favourite, AND have a chance to win something so amaaaaazing that it’s top secret. You’ll have to read our next update to know what it is.
If you enjoyed reading this, and you would like to catch up with some of our past articles, then please CLICK HERE and go to our News Section, where most of our other content is published.
If you have enjoyed reading this and want to learn more about Nine Rivers Distillery, then use the QR Code below to follow our WeChat Official Account.
Alternatively, if you prefer Linked In then you can CLICK HERE to follow us.
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE.