For just over 200 people both in China and across the world, there was only one thing that we all wanted for Christmas – our building permit. As everyone knows, at this time of the year, if you really really really want something, it’s time to get a pen, some paper, and write a letter […]
Read MoreFor just over 200 people both in China and across the world, there was only one thing that we all wanted for Christmas – our building permit. As everyone knows, at this time of the year, if you really really really want something, it’s time to get a pen, some paper, and write a letter to Father Christmas. So that’s what we did.
Whether it was the articulate wording, the threats of elves being tortured, or the fear of Rudolf being robbed of his carrots, we’re never be entirely sure. But Father Christmas delivered!
In Chinese it’s actually called “建筑工程施工许可证” but for the sake of simplicity, let’s just call it a Building Permit. Some countries might call it a construction permit, but it essentially all means the same thing. It’s that final piece of paper that gives the authorisation to begin construction.
Here it is in all it’s glory. Issued today, Thursday 15th December 2022.
We weren’t actually expecting the building permit until 25th December, the normal day for Father Christmas to deliver the Christmas wishes of all the boys and girls that have been well behaved all year long. It was a bit of a last minute rush early this morning to get all our Feng Shui sorted out.
The 9RD team went for a “dig a hole in each of the 4 corners of the site, and one in the middle” kinda thing. Our construction partner (Rong Tian) went for the old “fish, chicken, lump of pork, incense sticks, joss paper burning, and lots of loud fireworks”. The plans for the sacrificial “Zou lamb” were temporarily postponed….(we still need him for other things over the next year or so).
First, a big thanks to our Board of Directors. It’s their experience and leadership that has brought us all so far.
Thanks to everyone that has invested in our project. It’s your money that has helped fund our project. It has required a lot of patience from all of you and we really appreciate your dedication.
Thank you to everyone that continues to support our project. There are literally hundreds of you helping to share our story on social media with your friends and your networks.
Finally, thank you to Hayden, Winnie, Joe and especially to Maggie. For those that don’t know, it was the last minute efforts of Maggie, working late on Wednesday 14th, that helped us to finally secure our building permit today.
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[Longyan, China, December 11, 2022] Nine Rivers Distillery today announced that Fujian Rong Tian Construction Company have been appointed as the construction partner for their project to build Nine Rivers Distillery in Da Chi, Longyan, Fujian. “We compared propositions in a formal tender process which involved 8 different construction companies who all bid to build […]
Read More[Longyan, China, December 11, 2022] Nine Rivers Distillery today announced that Fujian Rong Tian Construction Company have been appointed as the construction partner for their project to build Nine Rivers Distillery in Da Chi, Longyan, Fujian.
“We compared propositions in a formal tender process which involved 8 different construction companies who all bid to build Nine Rivers Distillery. The offer from Rong Tian was not only aggressively priced, but it included a much more rounded and complete vision of what we want to achieve with our architecture and construction” said Robertson. “This initial phase of construction is just one of many that we have on our roadmap. We needed to chose a partner that would be with us, side by side, as we grow both here in Longyan and nationally across China”.
Fujian Rong Tian Construction Company is a family owned business, based in Shanghang in Longyan, Fujian. They have successfully delivered construction projects across Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Hunan and Hubei provinces. The company is built on a moral ethos of putting people first and giving back to society, something that has frequently earned Fujian Rong Tian recognition and awards.
“Here at Fujian Rong Tian, we like to choose projects that we think will make a positive difference to China, both locally and Internationally. When we heard about Nine Rivers Distillery and their people-led approach to put China on the International whisky map – we knew we had to win this project” said Huang. “I put the very best of my people to the task of ensuring that our bid was both technically correct and commercially correct. It was a proud day for me and all of my team to win the project to build Nine Rivers Distillery”.
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. n a million years
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Neil Playfoot joins Nine Rivers
Saturday 26th November 2022, a date laser etched into the brain of a lot of whisky lovers across China, the night of The Founders’ Flight Live. 11 cities planned. 11 cities stepped up. 11 event organisers did everything they needed to do. Unfortunately a few of those cities had some restrictions and so were unable […]
Read MoreSaturday 26th November 2022, a date laser etched into the brain of a lot of whisky lovers across China, the night of The Founders’ Flight Live.
11 cities planned. 11 cities stepped up. 11 event organisers did everything they needed to do. Unfortunately a few of those cities had some restrictions and so were unable to have a social gathering. For those that still held their event, it was a fantastic experience for all. For those cities that missed out, there will be a reschedule in the near future.
We’ve put together some highlights from each of the cities and you can link to them from the list
Beijing was organised by our very own Steve G. If you’d like to see some highlights of the Beijing event, then CLICK HERE.
If you want to see some of the highlights of The Founders’ Flight Live Chengdu, then CLICK HERE.
Tim, Daniel and the rest of the Dongguan whisky loving team, took it to the next level once again with their whisky night. If you’d like to see a few highlights then please CLICK HERE.
If you want to see some of the highlights of The Founders’ Flight Live Guangzhou, then CLICK HERE.
Aaron is the person to thank for The Founders’ Flight Live Nanjing. If you want to see some of the highlights then CLICK HERE.
Jason and Navin pulled together something special for The Founders’ Flight Live Shanghai. If you’d like to see some of the highlights then please CLICK HERE.
If you want to see some of the highlights of The Founders’ Flight Live Shenyang, then CLICK HERE.
If you want to see some of the highlights of The Founders’ Flight Live Shenzhen, then CLICK HERE.
If you want to see some of the highlights of The Founders’ Flight Live Shenzhen, then CLICK HERE.
If you want to see some of the highlights of The Founders’ Flight Live Wuhan, then CLICK HERE.
If you want to see some of the highlights of The Founders’ Flight Live Xiamen, then CLICK HERE.
Continuing on from our series of articles about the “feedback” we frequently get from the non-believers, this week we provide a brief overlook regarding our approach to mashing and fermenting and how this will be different from other types of whisky. No One Will Buy Chinese Whisky – It’s Not Going to Taste the Same […]
Read MoreContinuing on from our series of articles about the “feedback” we frequently get from the non-believers, this week we provide a brief overlook regarding our approach to mashing and fermenting and how this will be different from other types of whisky.
One relentless critique that has been lobbed at us more than a few times is the comparison with Scotch; somehow, the fact that our whiskies won’t taste like Scotch is a bad thing.
We actually see the opportunity of creating something distinctly different as an exciting challenge. In fact, the vast majority of time and effort from our research and development sector, that will underpin our project, is to create a whisky in a completely distinct product category. This is similar to the way that Irish whiskey has some clear defining characteristics that make it different from Scotch. American whiskeys are distinct through the globally respected bourbon whiskey style. Wales also has its own character for whisky, led by our friends at Penderyn. English whisky too, now has it’s own style and approach.
We aim to do the same for China. Not only to say “hey look, China can make whisky too”, but to bring something unique to the table of global whisky producers and say “this is how we define it”.
Simply trying to copy what already happens in Scotland and to make a knock-off Scotch would undermine the potential of this project and demote it to more of a national embarrassment as opposed to the flag waving symbol of national pride that we believe Nine Rivers Distillery can be. The 200+ investors, at the time of this writing, did not rally together to make a copy; instead, we are eager to showcase our originality.
There are a few things that all whisky production shares, irrespective of the country it’s made in. There are some things all distilleries need, without exception:
First, good quality grains (remember, only single malt needs to be made from 100% malted barley – but other grains in the mash bill can make some really exciting and interesting whiskies – just look at some of the amazing whiskies coming out of the USA over the last couple of years!).
Second, good quality water. Scotch producers typically prefer to work with “soft water”, while a lot of American whiskies credit some of their quality to the use of “hard water”. Soft water is typically rain water or surface water with little or no dissolved minerals, while hard water typically comes from underground sources with dissolved minerals.
We did an article just over a year ago about barley and how we plan to use barley differently than most of the global whisky producers (if you missed it you can CLICK HERE to go back and read it). We have also announced our intention to build our own cooperage (if you missed that you can CLICK HERE to go back and read all about that).
Grains contribute to creating differences; this is best seen when comparing bourbons, as a different mash bill will create a different whisky, even with all other influences remaining the same.
Casks are believed to be responsible for 40-60% of the final flavour of whisky although, with some heavily seasoned casks, it’s easy to believe that the vast majority of the aromas and flavours derive from the previous use of the cask.
One thing almost no one is talking about in the whisky world, the real elephant in the room, is fermentation.
While no doubt most of the people reading this understand the basic end-to-end process of making whisky (malting grains, milling grains, mashing grains, fermenting, distilling, casking and then blending product before bottling), very few people look deeper at fermentation. The assumption is generally “it’s the bit where beer is made and it’s not important until it gets to the still”.
From a scientific perspective, fermentation is probably the most complex part of the entire process. Sure, a lot of whisky makers can kinda just wing it: Cook the high yielding GM grains, chuck in the yeast and come back when it stops bubbling. A lot of whisky makers aim for the quickest and cheapest fermentation possible. This means logging just 50-60 hours to get as much base alcohol as possible, with a few thousand generations on the same yeast culture purchased 10 years ago, to save money.
That type of logic makes sense if you’re making neutral grain spirit to be turned into vodka. When you’re taking alcohol off a column still at 95 or 96% ABV and the aim is for it to have absolutely no flavour or aromas, then there’s no need to care about fermentation. Cheap and quick is the order of the day.
But when crafting whisky with an intention to cask it at 55%-65% ABV, then the distillation process is actually creating a concentration of aromas and flavours that come from…Yes! You’ve guessed it…FERMENTATION!
While we’re not about to let all the cats out of the bag right now, we can at least reveal how we will do things differently.
Absolutely no 50 to 60 hour fermentations in our distillery. Aromas and flavours take time to develop. Just ask any brewer about the time it takes to make a really good beer; after all, the base of all whisky is essentially a type of beer.
Absolutely none of this mass market, industrial scale distillers yeast that will convert every single milligram of sugars in the mash into insanely high ABV wash. Sure, it’s about 80% cheaper than brewing yeast, but you get what you pay for.
Absolutely no rigid clock-driven fermentation process. Each batch will be ready for the next stage, when our Master Brewer decides it’s ready. Maybe it’s a week. Maybe it’s 2 weeks. Maybe it’s longer. It is what it is and that’s all there is to say.
Yeah, that’s another difference with our approach. While most distilleries build their brand around a “Master Distiller”, we think that’s little more than marketing fluff. It seems to be really popular as a title for startup distilleries. In fact, there’s currently over 5000 Master Distillers on LinkedIn right now (we just counted). We don’t have a Master Distiller and never will have.
Distilling is largely a predictable and routine process. Aside from deciding when to cut the heads and the tails, the rest of it is a case of sitting back on a chair. watching the world outside the window, or playing Candy Crush. Sure, there are highly skilled professionals in the whisky industry, but those skills are mostly science driven. There is science around (and crafting of) casks. There is science around fermentation. There is science around maturation. Then there are the people that normally understand a bit of all of this and have an exceptional sense of smell and taste. These people, we’d call them Master Blenders (although they have other names) and are normally the people that decide what’s going into a bottle.
Well, we have a Master Brewer and it’s likely we’ll introduce them to you all over the next few weeks.
With so many of the Nine Rivers Distillery team introducing themselves to the world, and occasionally even explaining why they became a part of this project, I decided to take an alternative approach. I’m using my 5 minutes of fame to do a bit of myth busting, clear up some misunderstandings and then that will […]
Read MoreWith so many of the Nine Rivers Distillery team introducing themselves to the world, and occasionally even explaining why they became a part of this project, I decided to take an alternative approach. I’m using my 5 minutes of fame to do a bit of myth busting, clear up some misunderstandings and then that will (hopefully) lead me to explain why I’m a part of Nine Rivers Distillery.
Let’s start with the basics. My name is Graham Bannerman and I’m currently based in Guangdong, China. I’ve previously lived in Chengdu and Tianjin since moving here full time in 2008, although my first visits to China go back to 1999.
I’m born and bred in Scotland, specifically Dundee, where my family can be traced back quite a few hundred years to Dovinaldus (Donald) Bannerman, who was apparently the quack to King David II of Scotland*
As a Scotsman, I’m patriotic. As are all Scots. But there is so much confusion created by plastic jocks**, that someone has to set the record straight, debunk the XXX, and clarify a few points. China, it seems, is full of Plastic Jocks, all putting their own spin on what they think it is it to be Scottish.
Let’s start with the definition of the three terms that will help you to pick out a Plastic Jock.
Used to define some things that originates from Scotland. Usually used to define compounds, such as Scotch whisky, Scotch pine, Scotch pie, Scotch egg, or Scotch broth. There’s only three other approved uses IMHO – Scotch Corner at the junction of the A1 and the A66, Scotch Bonnet and Scotch tape.
This is the preferred adjective when you’re referring to literature, characters or the ancestry of people from Scotland.
Is typically used to refer to languages of both Scots English and Scots Gaelic
Alongside bagpipes and whisky, there are few things that make people think of Scotland quicker than a kilt. They have a long historical tradition with Scotland and they are considered to be the national dress. But, the myth (thanks to Hollywood and Braveheart the movie) is that Scottish folk have been wearing them since the times of William Wallace (Mel Gibson’s character in the movie) in the late 13th century. In fact, the kilt didn’t come to be a thing until the end of the 16th century with the oldest written account dating back to 1594.
Where it gets interesting the thing that you often see Plastic Jocks prance around in isn’t Scottish at all. It’s English. The modern outfit, which a real Scotsman would call a “small kilt” or a “walking kilt” was invented in the 1720’s by Thomas Rawlinson, from Lancashire (a county in England), as a lighter and less cumbersome outfit that could be worn for the jobs of manufacturing charcoal and smelting iron ore.
If that wasn’t bad enough, it gets even worse when we look at tartan, the woven cloth that kilts are traditionally made of. While most people assume that styles or patterns of tartan can be traced back to ancient Scottish clans, the only real tartans with any provenance can be traced back to the 1819 Key Pattern Book from William Wilson and Sons of Bannockburn. A catalogue of the 250 different tartans that Wilson’s made at the time, of which only 100 actually had names.
Skip forward to today, and there are about 7000 registered tartans. I wondered how that was possible, to go from 250 tartans to over 7000 in just over 200 years. Then I found a website where pretty much anyone can just randomly invent a tartan and register it for £70.
I was just browsing that site where the “New Tartans” section shows that there’s a tartan for Italian Americans, a tartan for French Freemasons, and a tartan for German people worldwide.
So the kilt isn’t Scottish and tartan is for anyone that can throw down 70 quid.
Now we get to the big one. Scotch whisky. In fact the very reason that so many Scots here in China have needled me for being a part of Nine Rivers Distillery. Apparently, there’s some unwritten rule about Scottish having a moral obligation to only drink Scotch and hell should freeze over before anyone from Scotland touched a drop of a whisky from any other country, let alone be part of a team aiming to make whisky.
I’m told by other jocks (plastic or not, you can make your own judgement) here in China, that whisky is as Scottish as my blood and that Nine Rivers Distillery is akin to blasphemy for me to be involved in.
So let me finally explain why I’m involved with Nine Rivers Distillery.
Scotch whisky is so far removed from being Scottish that it’s embarrassing that there’s an industry association for it that still pretends it is a national treasure. Almost 70% of Scotch whisky distilleries are owned by companies that are not based in Scotland and have nothing to do with Scottish heritage.
As recently as 2021, The Herald (through an article written by Billy Briggs and Joshua Martin) revealed that only 42 whisky distilleries in Scotland were owned by Scottish companies. The rest are owned by companies based in Bermuda, Gibraltar, China, France, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, South Africa, Australia and Switzerland. That’s not even touching on the rather grey area surrounding the Scottish Government department called Business Gateway, wheeling in some rather murky businessmen from a not-so-popular country beginning with the letter R to bankroll a whisky distillery. For the record, they seem to have resigned as directors on 8th March 2022. Just over two weeks after that day.
With all the big conglomerates taking over, it stands to reason that profits and dividends would be the priority for all. That can be demonstrated by the fact that the vast majority of Scotch whisky produced is the vastly inferior bulk blended product. As you can see from the diagram HERE on the Scotch Whisky Association website, only 10% of Scotch is actually Single Malt and while not all of the 90% of the remaining blended Scotch would be bottom shelf product, some simple maths on the diagram released by the Scotch Whisky Association on 11th February 2022 shows that with a total export value or £4.51 billion across 1.38 billion bottles gives an average value of £3.26. Or less than ¥27 a bottle.
The two biggest grain distilleries in Scotland are Cameronbridge and Girvan with Cameronbridge reported to have 140 million LPA of production capacity with Girvan not too far behind on 115 million LPA.
Industry numbers can almost mean nothing. But with a bit of maths, we can work out what 255 million LPA actually means in everyday terms, like bottles.
An LPA (litre of pure alcohol) is a defacto measurement. It means one litre (1000ml) of 100% alcohol equivalent. However, alcohol is rarely distilled to 100% ABV (its too expensive to achieve such purity and not really practical) so at an industrial facility such as Cameronbridge or Girvan, it’s typically 1.05 litres at around 95% ABV.
255 million LPA would be equivalent to 637.5 million litres at 40% ABV (most blended scotch is bottled at 40% ABV – even the legendary Blue Label), or, 910 million bottles at 40% ABV and 700ml. Remember those numbers above – 1.38 billion bottles exported? Just two grain distilleries in Scotland have the capacity to be responsible for 66.42% of that.
Add in the other grain distilleries – North British with 72 million LPA of capacity, Invergordon at 36 million LPA, Strathcludy with 39 million LPA, and Starlaw with 25 million LPA – we have a total of 427 million LPA – 1.06 billion litres at 40% or 1.52 billion bottles of 700ml at 40%.
Not really the beautiful, dreamy image of a XXX generation highlander, hand crafting whisky in a beautiful cottage in Scotland that we’re shovel fed by the marketing experts, is it?
So we finally get to the reason why I knew that Nine Rivers Distillery was something I had to be a part of. Having seen all the things that I grew up with believing that they were part of my national identity, being brushed aside, bastardised, plastified, corrupted and robbed of any soul, the opportunity to be a part of a team that were fanatical about creating a whisky for the people (as opposed to for the greed and profit of some bloated conglomerate) was my opportunity to try and get back some of the things that I’d lost.
I love whisky, in all its forms and varieties. I love the social engagements that it creates (and in fact, originally became a part of Nine Rivers Distillery because I used to host a monthly Whisky Networking event in Tianjin) and the fact it can bring people together from all walks of life to unite in a shared interest.。
But, having been an avid lover of whisky for more than 40 years, I can see how it’s changed. From what used to be a really artisanal industry full of characters that hand crafted some really individual and mostly amazing whiskies – to a well oiled machine that cranks out 1.37 billion bottles equivalence (it’s not all bottled in Scotland, in fact, most of the cheap blend leaves Scotland in 1000 litre IBC containers to be bottled at their destination, or mixed in with other things) and seems to know every single trick going to put profit before consumers. Frankly, it’s heart breaking.
That’s why I’m part of Nine Rivers Distillery.
*My dear old Uncle Alan did all that family tree malarky about 20 years back when genealogy had its 15 minutes of fame, so don’t shoot me down if it’s wrong. It’s not anything I personally lay any claim to as I think it’s all rather silly to leverage ancient history for kudos.
**There are two definitions for the term Plastic Jock. It can either mean someone that pretends to be Scottish or claims some unjustified or invented Scottish ancestry to try and appear to be slightly more interesting than damp cardboard (as most fake Jocks are). Or, it can mean someone that only bothers to acknowledge their Scottish ancestry to support an intoxicated and mindless rant about something that they aren’t qualified to rant about. Typically supported by “I know because I’m Scottish” even when talking total nonsense.
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. n a million years
Alternatively, if you prefer Linked In then you can CLICK HERE to follow us.
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE.