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, 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!
Would You Like To Read More?
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.
Follow Us
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.