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.
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My name is Vinay Dayaram and I’m a Canadian national with permanent residence in Hong Kong. I work in the clothing industry and produce “fast fashion” for western clothing brands. My involvement in the Nine Rivers Distillery Project goes right back to the earliest of the Shenzhen whisky nights. I know others have mentioned this, […]
Read MoreMy name is Vinay Dayaram and I’m a Canadian national with permanent residence in Hong Kong. I work in the clothing industry and produce “fast fashion” for western clothing brands.
My involvement in the Nine Rivers Distillery Project goes right back to the earliest of the Shenzhen whisky nights. I know others have mentioned this, but we really are a group of whisky lovers who, at the end of every whisky night, went down the rabbit hole talking about “what if we made our own whisky.” Well, as our friendships got stronger, the “what if” finally became “let’s do this” and of course I was in. After all, what whisky lover wouldn’t want to be part of a distillery project?
Unfortunately, liking whisky isn’t enough to get the distillery built. It needs a lot of of cash and a wide range of skills. But, when you have a large enough community all putting up money and all wielding different skill sets, you can see how the problem solves itself. This community-funded approach and using what we know to make a name for ourselves is a modern-day fairytale for the whisky lover in all of us.
However, it’s not just about the “dream” of being involved in a whisky distillery project. It’s also because I really believe in the vision that we have as a team, and I think the approach that we are taking, building on a grass roots foundation of whisky lovers and improving on every process involved in the crafting of good whisky, is what whisky lovers are looking for in modern times. With the leadership we have from our board, and the input of so many passionate whisky lovers, I know we can do something really special.
This is why I’m so thankful to Jay. He’s the one that really pushed us to get this project going, and while he prefers to keep his name out of the limelight and wants to ensure that everyone sees the sum value of the entire team, he’s undoubtedly the leader and has been bringing this all together for years now. It amazes us all how broad his knowledge and skills are – from the obvious sales and marketing side of the business (which is how most of us got to know Jay in the first place) right through to the architecture, corporate law, finance, fund raising, and the detailed science around making good whisky. He might be upset for naming him and might ask our social media editor to take his mention out, but someone had to do it and I’m proud of the fact that it was me. He’s become a close personal friend over the years as he has to all of us. Every decision in this project has his involvement, big or small, so he has won over our complete trust.
Unfortunately, due to the current state of the world, I’m unable to travel between Guangzhou and Hong Kong as I used to. My work requires me to have offices in both locations, so I would time my travel to attend Shenzhen whisky nights to catch up with Jay and the rest of the whisky crew. I’ve been here in Hong Kong since Christmas 2019 and unable to travel back since then. It also meant that I missed out on the groundbreaking ceremony on February 18th, 2022, which was hugely disappointing for me on a personal level.
Despite the inability to travel, I continue to be involved in the project on an almost daily basis. We have multiple groups dedicated to different specialties, and I’m on a team that covers the social media side of the project. We create the content for all of the platforms that we are working with, telling the story of Nine Rivers Distillery to anyone curious enough to read about us.
I just hope (as many of us do) that travel challenges will be gone soon enough for us all to be able to move around again. My first travel destination will, of course, be the distillery site in Longyan, Fujian. I might have missed the groundbreaking, but I’ll be there. I’m going to dig a shovel full of earth and I’ll fill a 9RD bottle to have as my own special memento for the project!
I’m looking forward to it all being built and enjoying a visit there with the rest of the team, cheering as the very first spirit runs off a Nine Rivers Distillery still. Fun fact, the 14th cask to be filled will be mine, all mine! I’m happy to say I was one of the first people to reserve my own cask of whisky; in case your curious, I’m choosing a first fill ex-bourbon cask which I then intend to give a light sherry cask finish to. Sherry casks create my favorite flavor profiles for whisky. If we tour the distillery together, maybe I’ll pour a little bit for you to try, too.
Editor’s note: Sorry Jay, I’m leaving that bit in. You deserve some extra credit here!
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.
[Longyan, China, March 11, 2022] Nine Rivers Distillery today announced that Joy Tan, former President of Global Media and Communications at Huawei Technologies, has been appointed to its board of directors. Tan brings more than 20 years of leadership experience in marketing and communications for Fortune 100 brands and will be responsible for helping the […]
Read More[Longyan, China, March 11, 2022] Nine Rivers Distillery today announced that Joy Tan, former President of Global Media and Communications at Huawei Technologies, has been appointed to its board of directors. Tan brings more than 20 years of leadership experience in marketing and communications for Fortune 100 brands and will be responsible for helping the distillery set and execute its branding strategy.
“It’s rare that you get the opportunity to help lay the groundwork for something big,” said Tan. “And not only is Nine Rivers going to be huge – it’s going to be different.” Nine Rivers Distillery officially broke ground in February 2022. It’s a fully crowdfunded, grassroots project with a 17,000 square-meter site in the mountains of Longyan, scheduled to begin producing spirits in the second quarter of 2023.
“Nine Rivers represents the perfect combination of age-old western traditions with modern advances in technology in the distilling industry.” continued Tan. “We’ve got a group of over 100 whisky lovers from all over the world, each bringing passion for the industry and a unique set of skills to this project. It’s a great honor to be a part of this team.”
Jay Robertson, CEO of Nine Rivers Distillery, said: “Joy’s immense depth of experience in marketing and cross-cultural communications will be critical for putting Nine Rivers – and China – on the international whisky map. She has a brilliant mind for navigating complex business environments and will help us tell our story in a way that truly resonates with whisky lovers around the world in this digital age. We’re lucky to have her.”
Before starting her own consulting firm in 2021, Joy Tan spent 14 years in various senior marketing and communications roles at Huawei Technologies. Prior to serving as the VP of Public Affairs for Huawei USA, she was the President of Global Media and Communications at Huawei’s headquarters in Shenzhen, where she led the company’s communications efforts in over 100 countries and regions. She was instrumental in building the company’s internal communications capabilities and elevating Huawei to one of the top 100 brands in the world. Prior to Huawei, she worked with a number of large US companies in marketing and branding functions.
Joy Tan is passionate about the environment and women in tech, and regularly speaks on these topics with groups like the World Economic Forum, Women in Tech International, and the UN Science, Technology and Innovation Forum.
Tan studied Biology at Tsinghua University in Beijing and holds a Master’s Degree in Neuroscience from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where she was a PhD candidate before shifting gears to pursue an MBA in Marketing from the University of Texas at Dallas.
——- Ends ——-
We are a group of whisky enthusiasts who came together in 2017 to craft better whiskies by marrying tradition with technology to improve on the largely generic and industrial approach that has taken over the world’s whisky industry.
On February 18, 2022, we broke ground on our 17,238 square-meter site in the mountains of Longyan, Fujian Province, and will begin production in Q2 2023.
Nine Rivers Distillery is entirely crowdfunded by whisky enthusiasts, with nearly 200 founders from 19 different countries, and we are currently in the process of broader Series A funding.
For more information, check out: http://www.nineriversdistillery.com
Ground Breaking for China’s Biggest Single Malt Distillery FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Da Chi, Xin Luo, Longyan, Fujian, China – ground breaking on the biggest single malt whisky distillery in China. At 3am on Friday, 18th February 2022, ground was broken and a foundation stone was laid in Da Chi village, Xin Luo district, Longyan, Fujian […]
Read MoreGround Breaking for China’s Biggest Single Malt Distillery
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Da Chi, Xin Luo, Longyan, Fujian, China – ground breaking on the biggest single malt whisky distillery in China.
At 3am on Friday, 18th February 2022, ground was broken and a foundation stone was laid in Da Chi village, Xin Luo district, Longyan, Fujian Province. The significance of the time being a once in 60 years event in traditional Feng Shui, the hour of the Four Black Water Tigers. The significance of the foundation stone being that upon it will be built the biggest single malt whisky distillery in China.
Nine Rivers Distillery is a project born out of a growing whisky culture in China and a network of monthly whisky events across the country. Whisky lovers who wanted to take their passion for whisky to the next level – to craft whiskies on a motivation of perfection over profit.
The project is built on a foundation of thousands of hours of research and development into all the processes that contribute to the aromas and flavors of whisky while concurrently minimizing energy usage through creating efficiencies. This has included the design and patenting of a unique still design, that complies with standards necessary to define single malt whisky (a batch distillation using a pot still made from copper) but uses less than 20% of the energy of the pot stills used in the production of Scotch whisky.
With 112 people from 19 different countries involved as Founders of the Nine Rivers Project, all united through a love of whisky, this project is a demonstration of how differences in nationality, religion and race have little relevance when synergies can be created through a shared interest. It’s also a testament to how China (despite various International narratives) welcomes International business initiatives.
On behalf of the entire Nine Rivers Distillery team, we would like to give our thanks to Dr Harley Seyedin and the American Chamber of Commerce, South China – a non-partisan, non-government, non-profit business association that exists to provide support for its members companies. It is with that strong support and introductions that enabled the Nine Rivers Distillery to reach this important milestone.
Contact Jay Robertson for supporting photographs of the architecture and the event.
We finally broke ground on our project on Friday 18th February 2022, in a double ceremony event. The first event being in the small hours between 2am and 3am. The second, more formal ceremony, was at a much more sociable 8am. We have the FULL STORY HERE so click if you’d like to know more.
Read MoreWe finally broke ground on our project on Friday 18th February 2022, in a double ceremony event. The first event being in the small hours between 2am and 3am. The second, more formal ceremony, was at a much more sociable 8am.
We have the FULL STORY HERE so click if you’d like to know more.