We think are many special things about our project – but right up there at the top of the list is being the catalyst for a wedding between two of our investors…..kinda. Let’s start by introducing the happy couple. Meet Anastasiia from Donetsk in Ukraine and Alessandro from Padova in Italy. Shenzhen Whisky Networking The […]
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We think are many special things about our project – but right up there at the top of the list is being the catalyst for a wedding between two of our investors…..kinda.
Let’s start by introducing the happy couple. Meet Anastasiia from Donetsk in Ukraine and Alessandro from Padova in Italy.
The tie in to Nine Rivers Distillery comes in the form of their first official date, which was on Saturday 6th March 2021 at a Shenzhen Whisky Networking. For those that don’t know, Nine Rivers Distillery was pretty much born out of Shenzhen Whisky Networking (and a few other Whisky Networking events all over China).
Shenzhen was the first whisky event that we all started together, originally hosted by The Grey Haired Monster when it used to be held down some dodgy looking backstreet in Huaxiangbei (华强北), a subdistrict of Futian in Shenzhen.
Skip forward to 2021, the Grey Haired Monster had moved to an on site dormitory in Da Chi, in Longyan to start digging holes and building things, and the night was taken over by the legendary Danny Lyons. Danny tried a few different venues and on the night of Saturday 6th March it was hosted at Champs Bar, in the Shangri-La hotel in Luo Hu district of Shenzhen.
Starting with Anastasiia, in her own words:
I originally came to China in 2015 as a fashion designer. My background was broadly in design in general but fashion is something that interested me the most and the area where I believed there to be much more freedom for creativity.
Graphic design and branding has aspects where one can be creative, but more often than not, you’re still hindered by the opinions and preconceptions of clients. In many scenarios, clients typically have a mental image of where they see their company or their brand, and as a designer, you simply have to take their thoughts and put them into visuals. On the rare occasions you would be given complete creative freedom, it would almost always end up with a design process that completes a full circle and goes back to pretty much what the client thought of in the first place – even if those ideas were complete out of date and trend.
With fashion design it really is a blank canvas and (almost) anything goes. Sure, there are constraints around ensuring that designs are both realistic to create and can fit within a market appealing price point, but that just increases the challenges, which actually make fashion design much more interesting.
Alessandro and I met randomly at a coffee shop in Guangzhou, and then had our first official date over whisky, and the rest is history – we had our wedding in 2021 and here we are now.
I first started coming to China back in 2012, and moved here full time in 2018. My background is mostly within the construction industry and I used to supply high-end construction materials to China. The demand for premium and ultra premium building materials was growing faster than any other market I was involved in, so I decided to move to China and setup my own company with my business partner, to import and distribute sintered stone from Italy.
Looking back on that decision and considering the last few years, it was a huge gamble for me to take at the time. I pretty much invested everything I had, and of course I’ve put in a huge amount of time and effort over the last 6 years. But I think I’ve developed the right relationships and I have some amazing distribution partners all over China. So the future is looking very positive.
It’s now the start of a family business. Anastasiia and I got married on December 6th 2021, and she joined the company in 2022, initially in a design role and as she got to understand the business, this role developed into running the marketing for the business. We had our first baby at the end of 2022 and we were blessed on 28th June 2024 with our second child. No doubt they will both end up joining the business after graduation!
“I got involved in with Nine Rivers Distillery because I’d been introduced to whisky by Alessandro and got really interested in how whisky is crafted and how so many seemingly minor things can make such a massive difference to the final product. Grains, peating (or not), fermentation, types of stills and distillation methods, the cask types, and the length of maturity of the whisky. So many different possible combinations, I found it fascinating“
“I also wanted to be involved in the design aspects and have already been involved in some of the workstreams that go on behind the scenes. It gave me some new challenges to apply my design skills and experiences to a completely different industry. There are a few of us that are involved in Nine Rivers Distillery that have a design related background and we make a really good team. We all come from different design backgrounds so the diversity of experience and opinions really adds something special to the final results.”
“Getting involved in Nine Rivers Distillery just seemed more like a fateful event for us both. With our first date being at one of the events that underpins Nine Rivers Distillery (which was a catalyst for our interest in whisky) and with us both being friends with so many other people that are involved, it just seemed the logical and natural thing to be a part of.”
If you enjoyed reading our article about the first Nine Rivers Distillery wedding, 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.
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.
Last, but as important as all the other points above, you can help us by reading, liking and sharing our content across some of the more popular platforms.
LinkedIn users you can CLICK HERE to follow us. Over 8000 people are following our story on LinkedIn right now.
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE. 2652 followers so far.
YouTube users, you can CLICK HERE. We’re at past 1250 subscribers and growing.
Twitter users, you can CLICK HERE.
Instagram users, you can CLICK HERE.
Or follow us on WeChat using the QR code below.
I’m Michael Schjerbeck Jensen, and I’m taking a different approach to telling my story. I’m like to start with telling everyone about what I gave up to come to China. The thought being simply that if everyone understands what I left behind then they might have a bit of understanding about how much more I […]
Read MoreI’m Michael Schjerbeck Jensen, and I’m taking a different approach to telling my story. I’m like to start with telling everyone about what I gave up to come to China. The thought being simply that if everyone understands what I left behind then they might have a bit of understanding about how much more I would need in my life to leave it all behind to be right here in Guangdong.
I’m from Copenhagen (København in Danish). A city with 1000 years of history with it’s name deriving from Kaupmannahǫfn in old Norse, and Kaupmannahöfn in Icelandic. It means “Merchants’ Harbour”, so dont believe any of that English cognate claiming it comes from “Chapman’s Haven”.
Traditionally and in written records, Copenhagen’s founding is dated to Bishop Absalon in 1167, but most people believe the city dates back to the viking age, founded by Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark from 986 to 1014.
Copenhagen is always ranked very highly in the global rankings for quality of life. It has a stable economy, world class education, a really good public transport infrastructure, and it is recnognised as one of the most environmentally friendly cities in the world. As a city it will be carbon neutral by the end of 2025.
There are parks and open spaces everywhere, from the King’s Garden (which has in excess of 2.5 million visitors every year) through lots of other parks including Fælledparken, Frederiksberg Gardens, Havneparken, Islands Brygge, Copenhagen Harbour Baths, and Amager Strandpark. Since 2015, everyone in Copenhagen is never more than a 15 minute walk away from a park.
Since 2020, Copenhagen has municipal fruit tress where anyone can pick blueberries, blackberries and apples for free! Name any other city in the world where this happens!
Tourism is a huge thing in Copenhagen. Not just for the million people a year that come into Copenhagen via a cruise. But the millions of people that come to visit to soak up the history, the culture, the architecutre, the landmarks, the museums, the concert halls, the art galleries and (this will surprise most of you) the cuisine. There are 24 Michelin stars in Copenhagen, across 14 restaurants with two of them having 3 Michelin stars.
Copenhagen is also one of the most bicycle friendly cities in the world, with more bicycles than people that actually live there. There are over 400 kilometers of cycle paths, that are not shared with cars or pedestrians.
Copenhagen also has the oldest, and the third oldest amusement parks in the world. Dyrehavsbakken, a fair-ground and pleasure-park established in 1583. Additionally there is Tivoli Gardens, which opened in 1843, making it the third-oldest amusement park in the world (the second being Wurstelprater in Vienna).
As for the nightlife. Copenhagen has the highest number of bars and restaurants per capita in the world, with nightclubs typically staying open until 5 or 6 in the morning. Then there are the summer festivals. Copenhagen festival in Fælledparken with 120 live bands, 2,000 dancers and 100,000 attendess.
To give up everything that Copenhagen has to offer wasn’t a decision that I took lightly. It could be really easy for someone to leave a less fortunate country to create a new life in China, but to give up a place as amazing as my home city took a lot of consideration and of course confidence.
But 22 years ago, China, especially in the Pearl River Delta area, seemed to be the most exciting and energised place in the world. Everything was changing, literally by the day. Buildings growing faster than mushrooms after a heavy rain. People coming in from all 4 corners of the world to be a part of a once in a lifetime change in the world. It was addictive, and once you’d been part of it, it was almost impossible to walk away from it.
I’m currently based in Guangzhou where I am the General Manager for F&H Group’s sourcing and quality office. My primary responsibilities involve overseeing all aspects of the company’s procurement and quality assurance operations.
I’m responsible for managing a team of buyers, inspectors, and logistics specialists who work to source quality products from local and international suppliers. A large part of my role is ensuring our products meet rigorous quality standards through comprehensive testing and auditing procedures.
Additionally, I serve as the main liaison between our China-based operations and the company’s global headquarters in Denmark, communicating key updates and coordinating cross-functional initiatives. My goal is to optimize our sourcing and quality processes to deliver world-class products to our customers worldwide.
Better is probably the wrong word because we’re talking about subjective opinions. China is different. But different in a positive way. I will always have a strong connection to my home city, and I go back there at least once a year to visit. But I feel that I can get all of the positives about Copenhagen right here in China, and then more too.
Like every investment that most people would ever make, it’s about making money right? But uniquely, it’s about making money from something I’m interested in, whisky.
Lots of people enjoy whisky, and logically so, as it can be such a diverse spirit that there really can be something for everyone. But as an investor in the project I get to know a lot more about the business and the industry than simply someone that enjoys a glass or two on an evening to wind down.
I’m good friends with one of the board members (as we both serve on the Danish Chamber of Commerce) and we have known each other for a long time. Whenever we caught up together, I’d get to see his face grinning with pride about the latest milestone on the project and eventually I just wanted to share in that kind of happiness.
If you enjoyed reading our article about Michael Schjerbeck Jensen, 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.
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.
Last, but as important as all the other points above, you can help us by reading, liking and sharing our content across some of the more popular platforms.
LinkedIn users you can CLICK HERE to follow us. Over 8000 people are following our story on LinkedIn right now.
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE. 2652 followers so far.
YouTube users, you can CLICK HERE. We’re at past 1000 subscribers and growing.
Twitter users, you can CLICK HERE.
Instagram users, you can CLICK HERE.
Or follow us on WeChat using the QR code below.
I’m Barry Keir and I drew the short straw this week, so it’s down to me to tell you a bit about my life and how I got involved in Nine Rivers Distillery. I’m originally from Auchtermuchty, a town in Fife in Scotland. While Fife isn’t considered as a traditional home of Scotch whisky (although […]
Read MoreI’m Barry Keir and I drew the short straw this week, so it’s down to me to tell you a bit about my life and how I got involved in Nine Rivers Distillery.
I’m originally from Auchtermuchty, a town in Fife in Scotland. While Fife isn’t considered as a traditional home of Scotch whisky (although it did have a whisky distillery from 1829 until 1926 Stratheden Whisky Distillery, but it had to close when Prohibition in the United States drastically reduced the demand for its products). it is the source of 3 really interesting, modern Scotch whisky distilleries – Eden Mill, Lindores Abbey and Kingsbarns.
I’d love to be able to list 1000 amazing facts about Auchtermuchty, but all I can really think of is that is was once the home of a pair of twins called Charlie and Craig Reid who were quite famous pop stars in 1987 with a song called “Letter From America”.
Aside from that, there is the unforgiving aroma of Brussels sprouts that clings to the air during harvest season, that is known to be strong enough to give Geriatric Nurses cold sweats.
I came to China back in 2018, so I’m just over 6 years in. I came here to try something different and to find some better weather than back home, so I used my education experience to come to China to teach English and STEM subjects to early years students.
I live in Ningbo city, in Zhejiang province. One of those many massive cities that few people in the west have ever heard of. I’d never heard of it before I started to apply for jobs in China, and once I started to read a bit about the city, I found it interesting enough to make it my new home.
It’s about 10 million people and has the 12th highest city level GDP in China, out of 293 cities. It ranks 8th in terms of disposible income, has over 100 stock market listed companies (it has the 7th highest number of stock market listed companies in China on a per city basis), and is also one of China’s oldest cities with a history stretching back to about 6300 BC.
As an average whisky enthusiast, I quickly became part of some whisky groups, which then led to getting to know some of the other people involved in the project.
I don’t have any intention to leave China, my wife is Chinese and we recently had our first child. There will no doubt be another little Barry Keir on the roadmap, so to be involved in something whisky related here in China, and have access to liquid therapy is really quite interesting to me.
If you enjoyed reading our article about Barry Keir, 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.
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.
Last, but as important as all the other points above, you can help us by reading, liking and sharing our content across some of the more popular platforms.
LinkedIn users you can CLICK HERE to follow us. Over 8000 people are following our story on LinkedIn right now.
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE. 2652 followers so far.
YouTube users, you can CLICK HERE. We’re at past 1000 subscribers and growing.
Twitter users, you can CLICK HERE.
Instagram users, you can CLICK HERE.
Or follow us on WeChat using the QR code below.
I’m Gary Peckham, son of plumber Bruce (not a Gary) and for the entirety of writing this bit of scribble, I’m a Villa fan. Just to wind up everyone’s favorite Blue Nose (that’s a Birmingham City fan, for the uninitiated), simply because I can. After I finish this, I’ll go back to being a West […]
Read MoreI’m Gary Peckham, son of plumber Bruce (not a Gary) and for the entirety of writing this bit of scribble, I’m a Villa fan. Just to wind up everyone’s favorite Blue Nose (that’s a Birmingham City fan, for the uninitiated), simply because I can. After I finish this, I’ll go back to being a West Ham fan.
Starting from the beginning (which is apparently the best place to start), I popped out in the maternity center of Calverley Park Gardens back in October of 1973. That makes me the ripe old age of 50 as I type this, half a century. 50 is the atomic number of tin, the fifth magic number in nuclear physics, and in milimeters, it’s the focal length of a normal lens in 35mm photography.
I lived in Tunbridge Wells all my life in the UK, and after a decent childhood for a Gary, and something that resembled an education, I started off as a sparky (electrician), then moved into electrical engineering, then up to chief electrical engineer, and eventually project management. Most of my work was on commercial and industrial projects in London and the south of the UK.
It wasn’t a bad life; in many ways, it was quite good. But being a bit adventurous, it quickly became too routine. Boredom set in, and I wanted to escape the envelope of Royal Tunbridge Wells.
Everything changed when I decided to sell the roof over my head and pretty much all that I owned, even my nice Ducati, and took a random one-way ticket to China.
I had no clue what I’d do on my adventures. My first stop was Nanning for a quick visit to see some pals, then I settled for about year in Yangshuo, Guangxi. Amongst magical misty mountains and winding rivers, it was a cracking spot for an adventurous chap like me to explore and make loads of friends!
Along my travels, I met my business partner, and we shared a lot of experiences and opinions on building a successful business, so that’s what we decided to to. We picked Shenzhen in Guangdong and we started a factory to make tools and equipment for the diamond and jewellery industry. We traveled around promoting the business and patenting our tools. After a lot of graft, our brand became well-known for its innovation and quality, which still runs successfully today!
I’ve since expanded to create another business because China has motivated me to work hard and aim at becoming half successful. So I also work on handling projects for overseas companies in Asia. Some of this involves manufacturing and exporting POP illuminated signage for alcohol brands, display lighting for luxury cosmetics, and many other projects. From construction project management to rapid prototyping, CNC milling, injection molding, and 3D printing—pretty much anything that makes that folding stuff and keeps a Gary out of trouble!
Living in China for over 18 years has been an enriching and incredible journey, filled with unforgettable experiences and countless reasons to cherish this vibrant country. From the warm hospitality of the people to the dynamic and driven work environment, China has offered me a sense of belonging and purpose.
Beyond its breathtaking landscapes and rich cultural heritage, China holds a special place in my heart for the opportunity it provided me to meet my wife – the only lady mad enough to marry a Gary. I am immensely grateful for the chance to build a life with her and to call this beautiful country our home. The diversity of the culture, and traditions has broadened my perspective and taught me valuable lessons about adaptability and open-mindedness. Through both challenges and triumphs, I have grown personally and professionally, forging lifelong connections and memories that I will forever hold dear.
I think my story is probably a bit unique in terms of how I got involved in the project. I wasn’t “part of the crowd” and I live too far outside of the city of Shenzhen to get involved in any of the Whisky Networking events.
I actually heard about the project because two of my friends, Dan and Ben, had invested as they also shared another business with one of the board members. I smelt an opportunity to sell some illuminated signage, got the contact for the CEO, and hit him up on the phone to sell him some signs.
I’d jumped the proverbial gun as Nine Rivers Distillery was still a big patch of mud and a couple of years away from producing spirit, let alone having mature whisky to sell.
But I had a really good chat with the CEO, we stayed in touch, chatted occasionally, and as I saw the social media updates of that patch of mud turning into something serious, I just wanted to be a part of it. I’ll definitely be there on site this year (I’ve been trying to make the time literally every weekend for the last year, but something always comes up at the last minute) if not before, then definitely in November when we can all finally start filling casks.
Right, back to being a Gary and a West Ham fan.
If you enjoyed reading our article about Gary Peckham, 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.
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.
Last, but as important as all the other points above, you can help us by reading, liking and sharing our content across some of the more popular platforms.
LinkedIn users you can CLICK HERE to follow us. Over 8000 people are following our story on LinkedIn right now.
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE. 2652 followers so far.
YouTube users, you can CLICK HERE. We’re at past 1000 subscribers and growing.
Twitter users, you can CLICK HERE.
Instagram users, you can CLICK HERE.
Or follow us on WeChat using the QR code below.
It’s my turn it seems, to introduce myself, (Mark Propp) to the world, and ramble on a bit in a mildly amusing tone to fill up a page or two – hopefully without boring anyone to sleep. So here goes nothing. Back in the days of horses and carts, gas lamps and roosters for alarm […]
Read MoreIt’s my turn it seems, to introduce myself, (Mark Propp) to the world, and ramble on a bit in a mildly amusing tone to fill up a page or two – hopefully without boring anyone to sleep. So here goes nothing.
Back in the days of horses and carts, gas lamps and roosters for alarm clocks, near to Colorado Springs in a small town called Green Mountain Falls (see, I knew none of you would have ever heard of it…..not even the 1890 Victorian-style gazebo peering out onto a little lake is enough to make it famous) I was brought into this world and christened Mark Propp.
Propp is actually a name that originates from north Germany and was associated with gardeners and horticulturalists. It’s ranks as the 25,115th most popular name in the USA, and at the last count there were 988 of us living in the USA. How’s that for a bit of onomastic trivia to share with your friends next time you’re sipping whiskey?
Here’s where I really start to show my age. I did 30 years as an engineer and manager in the aerospace and electronics industry. I worked on space telescopes, some that point at the earth (like the kind that generate imagery for Google Earth), and some that point into deep space (like Kepler and James Webb Space Telescope).
My dream was to be an astronaut and go to the moon, but since nobody has been back to the moon since 1972, I had to settle for sending my software to space. If I wasn’t going to be the next Buzz Lightyear and head into infinity and beyond…….well….it would have to be……
About 14 years ago, after a number of business trips to China, I decided I’d had enough of the US of A. I’d like to have some really interesting story with some scandal or some politically infused rant, but to be honest, it was mostly about the opportunities for manufacturing engineers, which clearly is better in China than the USA in recent decades. My first 10 years in China I worked as an engineering manager and director in a few electronics factories.
I’d visited Shenzhen a few times before and fell in love with the energy, the pace of life, the buzz of being around so many people that seemed to be so amazing at pretty much everything. With a technology based background, being in Shenzhen was pretty much like being a kid in a sweet shop. All that and being able to live minutes away from the sea and be able to travel anywhere in just a few hours due to an amazing train network that I absolutely love. As an American, I can tell you first hand how terrible trains are in the USA.
I decided to have a career change too. I’d enjoyed some teaching back in the USA (I taught University Computer Science in the early 90’s) so I started off with doing some teaching here in China, first as a high school math teacher, and more recently teaching computer science and astronomy.
I chopped and changed a few times over the last 12 years, and ran a small software company for a while and even started my own craft beer brew pub, before moving out of the hustle and bustle of downtown, and settled out on Silver Beach in Huizhou where I live about 5 minutes walk from the beach and the sea.
For anyone that hasn’t been to China, get on a plane, fly over here, and see it for yourself! It’s so easy to get dragged into the tabloid style journalism “opinions”. Horror stories get clicks and views, its really that simple, but nothing that I’ve ever read is anywhere near the truth.
It’s a beautiful country, with amazing food, friendly people and a ridiculously low cost of living. It has absolutely everything you could ever want from a modern and developed country, but, even with so many cities being so huge and busy, you’re never more than about an hour away from peace and tranquility.
There are massive country parks everywhere. Mountains to climb. Hiking trails. Mountain biking. Amazing coastlines and as for holidays, you can literally go skiing on one day then fly to a tropical paradise beach and never even leave the country.
I’m actually one of the more recent investors, despite being aware of this project since inception and a close friend of “the man with the plan” for years. Unfortunately, I had kids to fund through school and college so spare cash wasn’t something I had much of when this project started. But I always knew I’d get involved as soon as I’d got rid of the financial burden of the Rugrat and she was working and independent of my wallet.
The opportunity for whisky in China is huge. I saw that while I was running my own craft beer brew pub. Whisky went from a foreigner only thing, to THE most talked about alcohol in just a couple of years. So commercially, it’s a massive opportunity. This is why there are now 40 or 50 whisky distillery projects either operating or under construction.
The question is, how will we stand out in the crowd because the market is going to get very saturated very quickly.
It’s going to come down to two things. Quality and price points. I think we’ll smash it out of the ball park on both points.
If you enjoyed reading our article about Mark Propp, 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.
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.
Last, but as important as all the other points above, you can help us by reading, liking and sharing our content across some of the more popular platforms.
LinkedIn users you can CLICK HERE to follow us. Over 8000 people are following our story on LinkedIn right now.
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE. 2652 followers so far.
YouTube users, you can CLICK HERE. We’re at past 1000 subscribers and growing.
Twitter users, you can CLICK HERE.
Instagram users, you can CLICK HERE.
Or follow us on WeChat using the QR code below.