News

Jan 12 2024

THE WITCH AND THE MAYOR

The poll is officially closed. The votes are counted. The result is in. The winning choice, as voted for by YOU is, drum roll, The Witch and The Mayor.

The backstory to the suggestion of these names is as follows:

The genius behind this nomination was of course Tim Shaver. Who has decided in his generosity to donate his prize to the nominator of the second most popular vote, Obi-Wan Stillobi and Luke Stillwalker, which was suggested by Tyler Nickerson.

Tyler Nickerson

Originally from Canada, Tyler now lives in Shenzhen in Guangdong.

“I’ve been watching the Nine Rivers Distillery project develop over the last few years, having first learned about it through one of those many crazy whisky groups that underpin the project. I try and follow most of the updates on social media and it’s been really interesting to finally see it all come to live over the last year.

I enjoyed one of the articles last year where one of the investors, Kevin Skraban, stepped up and admitted his love of Star Wars to the global audience. It just made sense to me to try and tie that in with the naming of the stills.

Who doesn’t love Star Wars right?”

We’ll be interviewing The Witch and The Mayor next week, to hear their feedback on their new found fame in our still house, right here at Nine Rivers Distillery, in Longyan.

Would You Like To Read More?

If you enjoyed reading our article about our stills being named The Witch and The Mayor, 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.

Would You like To Know More About Helping Nine Rivers Distillery?

One of the easiest ways to help our project succeed is to take an interest in anything we have for sale. You can find out what we have if you CLICK HERE and go to our shop. We’ll make a few percentage points (after sales tax) and this goes directly to our project.

The Results

So lets start with the results from last week’s vote.

There was a total of 1079 votes and although we’re pretty sure that Mischa made 120 of those to get his nomination into The Final Vote, we’ll run with it as it is.

The 5 most popular suggestions The Final Vote were:

The Witch and The Mayor
Dengshan and Daniel
Jiulong and Ting
Bertha and Genevieve
Obi-Wan Stillobi and Luke Stillwalker

The Backstories and Nominators for The Final Vote

Some of these suggestions were nominated multiple times. In fact, one of them was nominated 23 times. But, we can’t share a prize between 23 people, so we’re taking the first person to nominate each idea, as the potential winner in this vote off.

Nominated by Tim Shaver for The Final Vote

Dengshan and Daniel

Nominated by Chris Policari for The Final Vote

Jiulong and Ting

Nominator – Pritesh Desai

Bertha and Genevieve

Nominated by Mischa Veenhuysen for The Final Vote

Obi-Wan Stillobi and Luke Stillwalker

Nominated by Tyler Nickerson for The Final Vote

The Final Vote

The final vote off from the short list of 5.

Name名字(Required)

First名 Last姓

Email邮箱(Required)

Enter Email输入邮箱 Confirm Email确认邮箱

WeChat ID微信号(Required)

Enter your WeChat ID here if you have one, alternatively, add your phone number请在这里输入你的微信号，或者添加你的电话号码

What shall we name these stills?应该选择哪个建议？(Required)

Here’s where you can cast your vote for your preferred names for our still. Please don’t choose more than one option, or your vote will be flagged for spam and automatically deleted.在这里，您可以为我们的蒸馏器投票选出您喜欢的名字。请不要选择多个选项，否则您的投票将被标记为垃圾邮件并自动删除。

The Witch and The Mayor

Dengshan and Daniel

Jiulong and Ting

Bertha and Genevieve

Obi-Wan Stillobi and Luke Stillwalker

Would You Like To Read More?

If you enjoyed reading our article and being part of The Final Vote to name our stills, 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.

Would You like To Know More About Helping Nine Rivers Distillery?

One of the easiest ways to help our project succeed is to take an interest in anything we have for sale. You can find out what we have if you CLICK HERE and go to our shop. We’ll make a few percentage points (after sales tax) and this goes directly to our project.

Let’s start with the introduction to the public vote and to explain why at this stage, there is no identification of anyone who has made any of the suggestions. We want to keep this vote as fair as possible and for everyone to pick the names that they think best suit our stills (as opposed to just voting because they are supporting a friend).

Next we have all the names that have made the short list for you to pick from. Then finally we have a list of those suggestions that didn’t make the cut for the vote.

If all you want to do is vote for your favourites, then just pile in and make your vote.

We will do a second vote off for the top 5 next week.

UPDATE on Friday 29th December 2023

The voting is now closed. The results are below.

The top 5 will go into a second round vote off.

Sorry, the voting for this is now closed. But thanks for being a part of it.

Thanks for trying:

These are all copied directly from the entires. Some just aren’t names. Some just don’t work. Some are a bit stupid. Some just don’t make any sense at all.

Jim Murray and Becky Paskin – the perfect couple in the world of whisky
The Dragon
Copper and Jingley
Spiritual Angels
Still Life Still Of The Night Still
想到两个名字：第一个，蒸馏器——谐音名字：（真牛🐮气）意思就是这个东西特别厉害特别牛逼，它又那么大个，老牛逼了😜 第二个，蒸馏器——蒸蒸日上意思是久溪未来会越来越好🥳🥳
The Alba The Rabbie Burns Braveheart Celtic Hebrides Highland Skye
The name: 栖溪 The reason : 1.“栖”字取自“良禽择木而栖”，蒸馏器不远万里，为酿臻品栖息于久溪，长存于龙岩； 2. 同时与中国情人节“七夕”同音，愿品尝久溪臻品的人们都能醉心于美酒，醉美于爱情！
1) pretty in pink (Rosie) thought it sounded nice and always liked the movie. 2) the Red Queen. ( obviously for Red wine) we’ll always like Alice in wonderland and resident evil could be a nod to both movies) 3) the white stuff ( a play in words for the song from the 90’s the right stuff and a nods to the nose candy one might slide to it.)
Feng 风and Shui水 cuz we know a chaozhou master came there with a bagua and a jujubulle to bless our distillery.
‘The innkeepers wife’ I could use a brunch of decriptions, warm, fullbodied, made of stronger stuff etc but really I just like the name
Easty and Westy Both from an orientation within the building perspective. If their alignment is north south even better. But more importantly the distillery is completely reliant on the cooperation of Western and Eastern skills and philosophy.
They say the word “Whisky‘’ is originated from the old Latin phrase Aqua Vitae.. meaning water of life. So call the two still AQUA and VITAE. It will be good to have something to talk about while on a tour of the distillery..
Peter, Paul, and Mary for obvious reasons. It just sounds right.
Cortado Amber Oloroso Mahogany Tawny I have chosen these names as they are the colors of whiskey 🥃 and i think it will be suitable for whiskey still and also to 9 RD group
Demeter – Greek God of grain Poseidon – Greek God of water Dionysus – Greek god of fertility. Later, he came to be known chiefly as the god of wine and pleasure
These are just for fun: Hopty Dumpty- I think it’s funny, and is technically accurate. Blue Stihl- Pop culture references, etc etc etc
The Dealer The Gambler Two roles that fill society’s vices. Just like our spirit. Also, just sounds cool.
WHITE – Symbolizing Purity, Simplicity and above all Peace. BLACK – Symbolizing Elegance, Wealth, Power and above all Dynamism Together they Smbolize unity, fusion, co-existence.
Tic and Tac cuz you know
The snidget 2. The phoenix imaginary birds from Harry Potter, Hogwarts Legacy
Zhang he : legendary Chinese explorer. Confucius : most influential chinese philosopher Marco Polo: bridged the gap between East and west which is what we are trying to do. Our company should be representing the people and culture we wish to supply. Directed at those we wish to pass through our door that will create local and cultural connection.
Lorel and Hardy the fat and the short, ya know the lyrics
StillWise – I just think it’s an awesome name for a still. 2. Noble Spirit – It’s a bit of a lofty name and I needed a second . But I mostly just like my first one.
The Copper Witch Obvious 2. Hooch Another name for. liquor and sounds like a pet name. 3. Mingly Jingly i giggle saying it.
I have 2 suggestions. Boily, Stills & Mash Or just David, Stephen & Graham (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
pliosaur 上龙 “Because the shape of the distillation column resembles the snout of the Jurassic Pliosaurus, Pliosaurus was reportedly the largest animal in the sea in history. As Nine Rivers is the first whiskey manufacturer , might also is the largest distillation column in China, the name Pliosaurus is used to convey a good omen, signifying that the distillation column, like the Pliosaurus, will continuously produce high-quality liquor.”
Cat of Nine Stills Sassy spirit Seductive stream Forbidden city ferment The flavor furnace
Distill my heart Pour decisions Liquid courage Still Rivers run deep
Stihl Haven’t Met You Yet- lazy, I know Be Stihl My Beating Heart- Even lazier, I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel.
1.Bacchus (or in ancient Roman: Dionysus) 2.Pan (or in ancient Roman: Faunus) 3. Poseidon. As Fujian lies on mountains and sea, in ancient Greek (and Roman) mythology Pan is the god of wild mountains and forests, Poseidon of seas and water, whereas Bacchus is the god of alcohol, wine, leisure, etc. So like like between mountains and water our whiskey will flow between mountains and sea, Bacchus will stand between Pan and Poseidon
Spirit Still (Tall): ASTUTE : These pot stills remind me of submarines. Astute class submarines are currently the most advanced compact nuclear powered attack submarines in service for the British royal navy. Compact, agile, but yet powerful, hence the name. Wash Still: DREADNOUGHT: Dreadnought class submarines are currently the largest and most advanced nuclear powered submarines capable of launching ballistic missiles in service for the British Royal Navy, name befitting for this behemoth of pot still! Spirit Still (Short): TRAFALGAR: Trafalgar class submarines are currently the smallest of the attack grade nuclear powered submarines. Slightly smaller than the Astute class submarines. They pack near the same punch but comes in a smaller package. Name befitting for this super compact pot still (compared to the other 2)
Stihl don’t know what I’m looking for-All credit to David Tait. His brilliant idea, but he’s uncomfy giving out his WeChat Stihl Trap-I dunno, I’m drunk.
Poppa Still and Momma Still Because they the head of the Stills Family.
‘Still Nursing A Hangover’ – as are some of the folks admiring it no doubt. ‘Not For Hotpot’ – since it is essentially a big copper pot and Jingley’s might want to make soup in it.
Whisky and music are always found together, so this suggested a musical theme to me. There also needed to be a reference to their differences in height. I’ll let the taller still do the introductions. “Hi, welcome to the 9 Rivers Distillery Still House. I’m Still Standing and this is my colleague Sitting Still” (no apologies to Elton John and REM). So Still Standing and Sitting Still
Hank, Bertha, and Stilly McGillicuddy The only reason I chose them is because they popped into my mind as good names for the stills no special reason or meaning. They just seem like fitting names.
Stilly McStillface – 27 submissions with this suggestion……yawn.
Qilin, Qi refers to male ones, and Lin refers to female ones, is always considered one of the luckiest, happiest, and most legendary creatures in Chinese The Loong: The Loong is a powerful mythical creature in Chinese culture that symbolizes strength, power, and good luck. It is often represents prosperity, success, and good fortune.
Dreadnought: Heavy, huge and fears nothing. It’s a legend like the boss
I like to name the Tall Head still “Big Jim”, the washer still “Slim”, and the Short Head “Tiny Tim”
Another one : Bullet ride Because they looks like bullets
// Orchestra – a fluid dynamics composition is taking place.. distillery is not static // LongCop- Longyan and ‘police copper’ to capture the ‘essence’ and process control every drop in the copper stills // Longstil – play on Longyan, the size // Rivershine – instead of moonshine, 9RD, ‘proof is in the stil’ // Instillerger (Art of Instillergy) play on the root latin word ‘instillare’ and ‘synergy’ – in terms of introducing fluid dynamics – ‘drop by drop’ and team intelligence ‘drop by drop’

Those That Can’t Be Printed

As is the jovial nature, there were of course a number of suggestions that just can’t be listed, so if you can’t see your suggestion here, then you know why. Let’s just say there were 123 suggestions that were a bit naughty.

Would You Like To Read More?

If you enjoyed reading our article and being part of the public vote to name our stills, 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.

Would You like To Know More About Helping Nine Rivers Distillery?

One of the easiest ways to help our project succeed is to take an interest in anything we have for sale. You can find out what we have if you CLICK HERE and go to our shop. We’ll make a few percentage points (after sales tax) and this goes directly to our project.

Our Stills

Let’s start with a big shout out to Forsyths who are the company that have crafted our stills, and especially to Darren Hosie and Neale Boag (we’d link to Neale too, but he doesn’t seem to be on LinkedIn), who have both been supporting our project since way back in 2019 when we were still nothing more than a slide deck and a lot of big hopes and dreams.

The Arrival

***The pot section of one of the two 5,400 litre spirit stills.***

Our first three stills finally arrived on Tuesday 5th December 2023. We have a 15,000 litre wash still. We also have two spirit stills that are 5,400 litres each.

They have a different shape, to help us create two different styles of spirit as part of our longer term plan to create some really unique styles of whisky. But what they both desperately need are names.

The wash still already has a name (we’ll talk more about that in a future article) but the two spirit stills don’t. So that’s the point of today’s article. For everyone to send in their ideas for what we should call these two spirit stills.

***Winnie and Olive having their pictures taken with the three new members of our family – NOTE, neither Winnie or Olive are short. The stills really ARE that big!***

What To Do

Complete the form below, and make your best suggestions for what we should call these two stills AND WHY. There needs to be a reason for suggesting these names. It can be absolutely any reason. Perhaps something to connect the two stills? Maybe some names that you think connect them to our project. Maybe you just want to name them after your two favourite dogs. Whatever it is, please share the reason too, and it will be taken into consideration.

***Some of the goodies in one of the trucks.***

The Short List

We are going to go through a list of every single entry submitted, and everyone that is invested in our project will get to pick their favourites. The suggestions that are chosen the most as favourites will go on to be part of a short list that we will ask the world to vote on.

***The pot section of one of the two smaller spirit stills being lifted into place at its new temporary home.***

Why Bother?

Aside from the obvious bragging rights about being the person that won the right to name our stills, you’ll also get:

Your name on a brick on The Plenum Wall (we still have some space for a few special people)
A life long free entry pass for you and a +1 to visit our distillery whenever you want to.
An VIP invitation to our big opening jamboree next year when we will start filling casks (we’ll pay for your travel and accommodation).
All the booze you can drink while you’re with us.

A bottle of the very first whisky we mature, which you can either come and collect when it’s ready, or we’ll send it to you in the post.

Name Our Stills – 蒸馏器命名活动

Reaching out for the input from the global whisky community, to help us to name our stills – 征求全球威士忌群体的意见，帮助我们为自己的蒸馏器命名。

Name – 姓名(Required)

Real names only please – 请填写真实姓名

First Name – 名 Last Name – 姓

WeChat ID – 微信号

(if you use WeChat, its easier for us to contact you this way) – （如果您使用微信，我们更容易通过这种方式与您联系）

Email – 邮箱(Required)

We have to have a backup to contact you. Even if you have provided your WeChat ID, we still need your email address. – 为了确保能与您取得联系，我们必须有一个备份联系方式。即使您已提供微信号，我们仍然需要您的电子邮件地址。

Your suggested names and why – 您建议的蒸馏器名称及命名原因（必填）(Required)

Tell us what ideas you have for the names of our stills, and equally important, why you have chosen these names – 分享一下你对我们的蒸馏器的名字有什么想法，以及命名原因

***A rare sighting of the almost mythical Grey Haired Nong, attempting to force squatters rights on our stills. He was swiftly chased off with a shotgun.***

Would You Like To Read More?

If you enjoyed reading our article and being given the chance to Name Our Stills, 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.

Would You like To Know More About Helping Nine Rivers Distillery?

One of the easiest ways to help our project succeed is to take an interest in anything we have for sale. You can find out what we have if you CLICK HERE and go to our shop. We’ll make a few percentage points (after sales tax) and this goes directly to our project.

Building 1

As a quick refresh on your memory, Building 1 is the first of our cask maturation warehouses. It’s where we’ll be putting all our filled casks, and leaving them to let the magic happen.

This building is almost 1500 square meters in footprint. It’s a single storey building with an internal ceiling height of 13 meters.

The steel and concrete frame for Building 1 is already complete. We are currently installing the roof steels and the external brick work is about 40% completed.

***Building 1 viewing from the north east corner***

We will be putting the first 6000 casks of whisky into this building, starting early next year. If you look closely, you can see someone on the roof in a yellow helmet. This helps to frame a perspective on how big this building really is.

Building 3

Just to recap. This building has almost 2000 square meters of footprint, but unlike Building 1 and Building 4, this is a multi-storey building, with 4 floors plus a mezzanine and a vast basement area. The total usable space is over 8000 square meters, not counting the roof.

***Building 3, looking across over the south east corner of the building***

This was the first building that we started on, because it is the biggest of this first phase of construction and it’s also the building under which we have our massive 1.8 million litre reservoir of water for fire suppression.

Building 3 is literally complete now. All of the steel and concrete has been finished for a few months. About 90% of the external and internal brick work is also complete. Fire suppression pumps are in the basement, and all of the fire suppression pipework is in place across all 4 floors of the building.

***The south face of Building 3, looking north.***

We’ll be using this building for malting, milling, mashing, fermenting and storage. It will eventually host 4 x 1000 square meter malting floors, a 30 ton mashtun, 18 x 30,000 litre fermenters (washbacks) and a grain mill.

Any rumours about there being a secret hidden whisky bar will neither be confirmed nor denied.

Building 4

Building 4 is of course our still house. Similar to Building 1 (they both look the same from the outside) it is just under 1500 square meters in footprint. Again, this building has a mezzanine floor but this time looking into a 1000 square meter open plan area which will house our 10 stills.

***Building 4, the still house, taken from the north east corner, looking south west.***

This was the last of the three buildings to start construction on, so logically it has the least progress. All of the concrete and steel frame is in place, and the 40 tons of roof steel girders are almost complete. But as of writing this November update, there is currently no brickwork completed on this building.

***A peek in through the recently installed roof steels on Building 4.***

One of the fascinating points about this building, which can be seen in the first picture in the top right hand corner of the open plan area, is the underground tunnel we have connecting the still house to Building 3.

Measuring 4 meters wide and 3 meters high, it’s big enough to drive two cars through side by side. It was necessary to create the tunnel to connect the buildings as the alternative options would have spoiled the visual aesthetics of our buildings.

Let’s hope you enjoyed this November update.

Would You Like To Read More?

If you enjoyed reading our November Update, 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.

Would You like To Know More About Helping Nine Rivers Distillery?

One of the easiest ways to help our project succeed is to take an interest in anything we have for sale. You can find out what we have if you CLICK HERE and go to our shop. We’ll make a few percentage points (after sales tax) and this goes directly to our project.

THE WITCH AND THE MAYOR

Tyler Nickerson

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THE FINAL VOTE

The Results

The Backstories and Nominators for The Final Vote

Dengshan and Daniel

Jiulong and Ting

Bertha and Genevieve

Obi-Wan Stillobi and Luke Stillwalker

The Final Vote

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THE PUBLIC VOTE (TO NAME OUR STILLS)

UPDATE on Friday 29th December 2023

Thanks for trying:

Those That Can’t Be Printed

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NAME OUR STILLS

Our Stills

The Arrival

What To Do

The Short List

Why Bother?

Name Our Stills – 蒸馏器命名活动

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NOVEMBER UPDATE FROM NINE RIVERS DISTILLERY

Building 1

Building 3

Building 4

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