It’s the day that many of us have been waiting for. The Founders’ Casks Expression 1, is landed and will be shipping to whisky lovers all over China next week! But before we get onto talking about The Founders Casks Expression 1, let’s make something really clear to everyone first. Expression 1 is SOLD OUT. […]
Read MoreIt’s the day that many of us have been waiting for. The Founders’ Casks Expression 1, is landed and will be shipping to whisky lovers all over China next week!
But before we get onto talking about The Founders Casks Expression 1, let’s make something really clear to everyone first. Expression 1 is SOLD OUT. It was reserved and deposits were paid some months ago. There are none left for sale. Not even a secret stash hidden away somewhere. It was a 100% sellout and we probably could have sold 3000 bottles if we had them.
Therefore, for Expression 2 (which will be released in about 6 weeks time) we are changing the way that people can secure a bottle – details at the bottom of this page.
Expression 1 is the first of a series of 6 bottlings that were conceptualised back in 2017 as a demonstration of the types of whisky that we want to craft here at Nine Rivers Distillery. We published some articles about it, and you can read Part One HERE and then follow up with Part Two HERE and Part Three HERE.
Bringing these bottlings to life has been a huge learning experience for us all and one of the many successful collaborations between all of the people involved in the Nine Rivers Distillery adventure. From designing bespoke glass, to the branding and packaging, under the creative leadership of Darryl Swanepoel and Fabien Dupont, the end result is something we’re all proud of.
Expression 1 of the Founders’ Casks is finished in carefully hand-picked wine barrels from the island of Madeira. Bottled at cask strength (53.4% ABV) and non-chill filtered for purity of flavour, this whisky derives its unique palate from the thick and velvety Portuguese wine.
The nose is fruity, laced with raisins and sultanas on a bed of vanilla and cream fudge. A final hint of citrus peel makes way for a smooth and honey-rich palate, complete with green apples, peaches and a viscous underflow of caramel, cream and malted milk biscuits.
The finish is light and quick – a tropical flourish that gives way to dried stone fruits.
Priority for all bottlings goes to those people that are investors in our project. As most of you know, Nine Rivers Distillery only exists because of almost 200 whisky lovers coming together to invest their time and money in turning our shared dream into reality. Logically, they take priority in allocation of bottles.
Of the 600 bottles of Expression 2 that were created, we expect there to be about 100 bottles available for purchase by people who are not investors. To make it fair for everyone we are taking applications from whisky lovers to have a chance to be allocated one of these bottles.
Names and contact details just aren’t enough. We want to hear from YOU and hear WHY you think you deserve to be allocated an opportunity to purchase one of the 100 or so bottles that are available.
Some of you out there are familiar with some of the characters and personalities that underpin Nine Rivers Distillery and could be perceived to have something of an unfair advantage in your application. So we’re going to level the playing field and make everyone aware of what is likely to influence the review of all the applications.
Whisky Lovers
If you’re not a whisky lover, you won’t even get a foot in the door. So make sure you detail your love of whisky.
Sharing is Caring
Details about how you intend to share this bottle with friends is really going to help your application. As all whisky lovers know, whisky is a social drink and is always best enjoyed with friends. A decent pour, a comfy chair and great conversation is something we all believe in at Nine Rivers Distillery.
Laughs, giggles and sharp wit
Humour is something that is part of the very fabric of our DNA. Business really can be serious, professional AND fun – all concurrently. We don’t do stuffy and boring. Jokes and banter really will help you and we promise to publish the funniest applications over the coming weeks.
请告诉我们为什么您值得获得一瓶创始人系列2威士忌 – Tell us why you think you deserve an allocation of Expression 2
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An entire article without any Hayden baiting. Either this is the start of a new chapter in our articles……or we have something really big coming up.
As a follow up to last week’s bit of fun, it’s time to put on the suits and the polished shoes and be a tad more formal in describing what really happened on Wednesday 7th September 2022 and what exactly is Red Rock Mountain Cooperage. If you missed last week’s article, then CLICK HERE to […]
Read MoreAs a follow up to last week’s bit of fun, it’s time to put on the suits and the polished shoes and be a tad more formal in describing what really happened on Wednesday 7th September 2022 and what exactly is Red Rock Mountain Cooperage. If you missed last week’s article, then CLICK HERE to catch up before you read on.
The short summary is: we signed a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding – basically a fancy way of saying a business deal) as the lead partner and lead investor in the Red Rock Mountain Cooperage at the CIFIT (China International Fair for Investment & Trade) conference in Xiamen, Fujian Province.
Before we get into the nitty gritty, we’d like to give a shout out to Dr. Harley Seyedin and his team at AMCHAM South China for (once again) doing anything and everything to help us make this happen.
Whisky enthusiasts will likely know what a cooperage is, but bear with us while we let everyone in on this. Feel free to skip to the next section if you’re already in the know.
Whisky needs a few things to turn into the drink that we all love to relax with. Malted barley, yeast, water, a bit of magic to ferment everything, and then a still to distill the fermented wash into new make (or “raw”) whisky. But that’s not where the transition ends. The new make whisky needs to go and swish around in an oak barrel for a few years to tame it. By that, we mean the barrel needs to pass on some colour, additional aromas, and flavours from the both the barrel itself and whatever former use the barrel might have had. The point is that barrels have an enormous influence on the whisky’s final profile.
These barrels are made by highly skilled craftspeople called coopers, and their magical factory is called a cooperage. Magic truly isn’t far from the truth. It takes an incredible amount of skill, talent, and experience to craft barrels, especially when you consider that they only use oak wood, a few steel hoops, fire, and water. Absolutely no glue is used (as this would taint the whisky) yet coopers still manage to create something that is watertight.
It’s true, we could make whisky without a cooperage; most distilleries in the world don’t have their own cooperage. A few of the bigger group producers with many different whisky or whiskey brands in their portfolio still have at least some cooperage functions. It makes sense when there are economies of scale. But most of the smaller brands don’t bother and startups certainly don’t explore the route of making their own barrels.
But, well, that’s them, and this is us. We never started our project to just be “another one of those.” We promised from the start we would do more than just say different, we would be different. Quality would always come first and we don’t think any whisky producer can claim to be putting quality first AND being distinctive if they are buying the same old casks from the handful of coopers out there producing barrels.
The entire barrel making industry in pretty much dominated by just a few names who crank out the same generic barrels for the masses. While we certainly are not claiming that there are any faults with their barrel craftsmanship, we also can’t claim to be in complete control over everything that goes into crafting our whiskies without making our own barrels. After all, most respected whisky experts attribute between 40% and 60% of the final aromas and flavours of whisky being a direct result of the barrel and its interactions with the maturing whisky. Therefore, in keeping to our promise of quality, a cooperage is an absolute necessity to our vision and our commitment to crafting amazing whiskies.
Red Rock Mountain Cooperage will be almost 7000 square meters in total footprint and will be built to produce 100,000 barrels a year, right here in Da Chi, Longyan, Fujian Province. It will be built on a land parcel that joins our distillery site with the distance between the cooperage and our own dunnage (cask maturation warehouse) being almost 30 meters, or 18 Haydens laid end to end. We know, we actually measured the distance by laying him down on the floor 18 times. #truestory.
We will be working from raw or green timber – wood that hasn’t been air dried and seasoned so it will need time for the elements to reduce the moisture content and to wash away some of the harsher tannins from the wood. It will have a stave mill to create staves from dried planks – each barrel needs 32 staves, so we’ll need to churn out 3.2 million staves a year to make 100’000 barrels.
There will be a vast, open plan cooperage work area with provisions for shaping, crafting, toasting, and, of course, charring the barrels.
We plan to have an immersive visitors experience where visitors can watch the entire end-to-end barrel making process from the safety of an elevated mezzanine floor encircling the production area.
It’s underway right now! We are recruiting the first batch of potential trainees in October. We will then immerse them in some intensive English language training before we send them off to the far corners of the world to spend a couple of years learning how to be coopers.
In the meantime, we’ll crack on with the architecture of the new Red Rock Mountain Cooperage and hope to start building it towards the end of 2023.
We got some press coverage about the event thanks to our friends over at AMCHAM South China. The complete list of news websites and news wires that covered both the AMCHAM delegation to CIFIT and the signing of our MOU is 7 pages long, but we have listed some of our favourite ones below.
If you have a few minutes, click through and read a few. .
Yes we know, it’s really quite random. The rumours are that one leading member of the content editorial team (our money is on it being Phill Stout) discovered one of those funky AI driven arty doodling websites and decided to let it loose on a few cooperage related phrases.
We liked some of them so much, we decided to share them with you all. It really is that simple. Why? Just because we can.
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.
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While many might remember Wednesday, 7th September 2022 as being uneventful, this was actually a special day for Hayden and Jay. It was the day of their big grown up adventure in Xiamen. It was a day of discovery, maturing, and of course a few childish squabbles that this notorious pair are known for. The […]
Read MoreWhile many might remember Wednesday, 7th September 2022 as being uneventful, this was actually a special day for Hayden and Jay. It was the day of their big grown up adventure in Xiamen. It was a day of discovery, maturing, and of course a few childish squabbles that this notorious pair are known for.
The day began with Auntie Maggie and Auntie Winnie deciding to reward Hayden and Jay for being such good boys for a whole week! As a special treat, Uncle Jamal was going to take them out for a day trip to Xiamen.
“I hope we’re going to the seaside”, said Hayden enthusiastically. “I want to make sand castles and find turtles”.
“The beach is b-o-r-i-n-g! I want to go to the zoo and see the animals”, said Jay, who really didn’t enjoy the seaside because he couldn’t swim. “I want to feed the elephants and the monkeys and the giraffes and the hippopotamooses and all the other things”.
“You just want to feed the trolls”, muttered Hayden.
“Now now, trolls aren’t real, Hayden”, said Uncle Jamal. Jay gave a little smirk at this. “Regardless, you’re both wrong”, continued Uncle Jamal. “We’re going to do some grown up things and I need you both to be on your best behaviour because we have lots of people to meet, lots of hands to shake and right at the end you’re going to have to sign a very important piece of paper, so make sure you can remember how to write your names!”.
Hayden and Jay exchanged looks of excitement mixed with concern. Uncle Jamal had never trusted them to do grown up stuff before. Would it be scary? Would it be boring? Their imaginings were interrupted when Jamal finally revealed where they were going: CIFIT!
Uncle Jamal explained that CIFIT is a big international conference that facilitates international investments in China. It’s an event that has been running for 22 years and most of those years has included a delegation from AMCHAM South China.
“I’ve got you both some ID badges”, said uncle Jamal. “CIFIT isn’t open to any old vagabond! It is invitation-only and you have to be serious about business investment in China. Now, put on your ID badges and we’ll start by meeting Uncle Harley from AMCHAM South China. He’s got some press interviews lined up, so take your dress off Jay, and try on that nice suit I got you”.
Dr Harley Seyedin, President of AMCHAM South China, was hosting a press conference to introduce the AMCHAM South China delegation to CIFIT. Before the press conference started, he had some interviews with China Daily and Xiamen television.
Uncle Harley introduced the journalists to Jay, and on the promise of getting candy and cakes from Uncle Jamal if Jay behaved himself and didn’t say any naughty words on camera, Jay said a few words about why Hayden and himself were attending CIFIT.
Jay made Uncle Jamal very happy by saying nothing but nice words to the reporters. It was then time to talk to a larger gathering of journalists in the next room where Uncle Harley and his team introduced their delegation.
Once again, a tired and now slightly grumpy Jay (it was fast approaching nap time) had to stand up and talk more about the purpose for Hayden and Jay to be attending CIFIT. A scornful glare from Uncle Jamal stopped Jay from starting off with his favourite song, Old MacDonald’s Farm. This was disappointing for Hayden, who had finally mastered the sounds of all the animals in the song, especially the turtle.
It was long past nap time, but Uncle Jamal told Hayden and Jay there was much more to do today. They still had lots of people to meet, and lots of hands to shake, plus an important piece of paper that needed to be scribbled on later.
But first things first. Hayden and Jay had to go and sit in a big room with lots and lots of important people. They had to sit up straight (no fidgeting!) and absolutely no silly behaviour.
Of course, Hayden was caught fidgeting twice, so uncle Jamal told him off sternly and made him stand at the back of the room, facing the corner as punishment.
After this, a very bored Hayden and Jay wanted to go and play. So uncle Jamal told them we could go and watch some TV.
Hayden laughed when he saw Jay up on the big telly screen. Jay was talking about the Nine Rivers Distillery project and explaining why Longyan was chosen as the location for the project. Uncle Jamal poked a finger at Hayden and told him to behave and stop making turtle noises.
“Why is he the one on the big telly?!” shouted Hayden, disturbing almost everyone in the room, including all the very important people who were dressed very smart and sitting at the front of the room. “Jay has a face for radio!”.
With Praying Mantis-style kung fu speed and accuracy, Uncle Jamal clipped Hayden around the ear and dragged him to the back of the room to stand in the corner again.
With all the journalists lined up, it was time for Jay to get up on the stage and make his scribble on a very important document.
Jay got on the stage with some other people – this year everything was all hi-tech and electronic. Instead of paper-based agreements, it was touch screen kiosks and electronic signatures. It felt almost like a competition show on the telly at home.
Jay took a picture of everyone in front of him with a not-so-subtle effort with his mobile phone.
One scribble later, and it was all done.
Some of the really special people were then invited to a big dinner where there was lots of yummy food and cakes and orange juice. There was wine and brandy for the grown ups but Uncle Jamal wouldn’t let Hayden or Jay drink any of that.
Shortly after that, having had such a long and busy day, both Hayden and Jay started to get tired. So, Uncle Jamal put them both back in the car to drive them all the way home.
If you made it this far, then watch out for our update next week, where we’ll tell you the grown up version of the events of Wednesday 7th September. What really happened and why… but for those of you that just can’t wait that long, HERE’S A LINK to the official press release about yesterday.
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. Daniel Liang
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[CIFIT, Xiamen, China, September 07, 2022] MOU signed by Red Rock Mountain Cooperage for an internationally invested, oak barrel cooperage in China to support the rapid growth in both the local wine production industry and the more recent developing whisky industry. Red Rock Mountain Cooperage will be built in Da Chi Town, Longyan, Fujian Province, in […]
Read More[CIFIT, Xiamen, China, September 07, 2022] MOU signed by Red Rock Mountain Cooperage for an internationally invested, oak barrel cooperage in China to support the rapid growth in both the local wine production industry and the more recent developing whisky industry.
Red Rock Mountain Cooperage will be built in Da Chi Town, Longyan, Fujian Province, in the shadow of local landmark, Red Rock Mountain (赤岩头). The cooperage will have a capacity of 100’000, full sized, 200 litre oak casks, and will include a cooperage factory and extensive land for air drying raw oak wood on site. Oak logs will be sourced initially from the USA and France, with a longer-term plan to expand into sustainable forestry management to develop oak throughout northern China.
Red Rock Mountain Cooperage will be developing local talent into highly skilled coopers, with the first group of locals being sent to Europe for 2 full years of training in early 2023. This first team will return to China with the support of European coopers, provided by two European partners who will support the Red Rock Cooperage project.
The lead investor in this project is Nine Rivers Distillery, an American led, international investment of more than 160 investors, who joined together through a shared passion for whisky and a strong connection to China. Nine Rivers Distillery is another previous success story of AMCHAM South China, who were the catalyst for the Nine Rivers Distillery project, which was also signed at CIFIT just a couple of years ago.
CIFIT, The China International Fair for Investment & Trade, or CIFIT, approved by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, takes place in September every year in the city of Xiamen, in East China’s Fujian province.
Themed on “introducing foreign direct investment” and “going global”, CIFIT focuses on nationality and internationality, investment negotiations and investment policy promotions, the coordinated development of the national and regional economy, as well as economic and trade exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits.
——- Ends ——-
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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There have been quite a few pieces written by some of the investors in the Nine Rivers Distillery project. I’ve just been told it’s my turn, so here goes everything (or maybe nothing). I want to talk about my journey into the Nine Rivers Distillery project, but it requires knowing a little about who I […]
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There have been quite a few pieces written by some of the investors in the Nine Rivers Distillery project. I’ve just been told it’s my turn, so here goes everything (or maybe nothing). I want to talk about my journey into the Nine Rivers Distillery project, but it requires knowing a little about who I am and what whisky means to me. Daniel Liang
My name is Daniel Liang, and while I might not look like it, I was trained to be an engineer by universities in Asia and North America. I spent the early days of my career in tech, similar to Joy Tan who our last article was about (you can read about her by CLICKING HERE). I also traveled all over the U.S. and China. While my travels allowed me to experience many wonderful places, I’ve actually spent the past 20 years in China as a businessman. Dongguan is where I have most recently ended up getting involved in some good old fashioned traditional manufacturing. In this time, I’ve seen some incredible changes from the “Wild East” of Dongguan to the more mature environment around us today.
Even though my factory work may not seem connected, alcohol is nonetheless a big part of doing business in China, especially in traditional manufacturing. Back in the (good old?) days, a business meeting or collaboration usually started in the office with drinks, then continued over dinner with more chugging, followed by KTV where the madness was turned up to 11, with everyone zipping past comfortable levels of BAC.
Nobody would think of calling in sick the next day; it was just the feeling of successful business, even if it didn’t quite feel like it. Plus, the next day might be a rinse and repeat, so I just ate lots of carbs, reached for that energy drink, and kept going! Thankfully, those days are gone; even typing all that out and reliving those memories makes me exhausted. Despite that, I am proud to say that I am among the few who have strolled past the corpses and survived. Daniel Liang
No, he didn’t push me into the dark world of alcoholism, despite the ominous one-line introduction. Through the interactions I had with him, I found that behind the abrasive online persona there is a passionate person with an encyclopaedic knowledge of whisky. He reminded me of an M&M – hard candy shell but melts in… never mind.
In my conversations with him, I quickly realized that I was on the far-left side of the Brian-Dunning Curve. For the uninitiated, and to prove I’m not a total idiot in comparison, by this I mean I didn’t even know enough about the subject to realize I was ignorant about it. His passion for whisky and creating something disruptive and game changing in the global whisky industry through Nine Rivers Distillery was contagious. I got interested and then involved initially as an investor, and then later as a member of the Board. Daniel Liang
To understand how I got involved with Nine Rivers, it helps to know what whisky means to me and why I felt the motivation to get involved.
My father was a wine enthusiast. We “enjoyed” some nice bottles together, although with my unrefined palate at the time, I consider the wanton abandon in which I guzzled those bottles as a crime.
After he passed away and I was going through his estate, I was shocked to see rack after rack of incredible bottles in his private collection, still waiting for the special occasion that would never come. As I stood before all that expensive fermented grape juice, lost in thought, it occurred to me that those who die with the most toys do not, in fact, win anything. I decided then and there to be the one who isn’t afraid to open bottles and consume them, rather than keep them for value speculation. While others might derive more joy from the process of collecting rather than consuming, I don’t. Daniel Liang
For me, whisky is about creating and accentuating memories, which is all we truly own, and what ultimately matters in the end. It’s about the special bottle to welcome a new job. The sherry bomb to celebrate becoming a parent. The fruity bottle at a birthday. The smoky dram at a wake with the respectful swig at a cemetery. In between all these milestones and events, whisky helps us commemorate these anniversaries by taking a sip and getting lost in memories. Daniel Liang
It’s about “making the ‘remembering self’ remember the ‘experiencing self’”, in Daniel Kahneman’s words. It’s about humanizing the human condition – we should be creating new memories and enjoying life, not dwelling on past glories or events. That is why I refuse to buy “investment” bottles or collectibles that are not meant to be consumed. All of my bottles are drinkers – granted, some may call for a very special occasion, but nonetheless they are all ready to be popped and enjoyed.
Some might ask, “Why whisky? Doesn’t this apply to most alcoholic drinks?” It’s true that alcohol is an excellent stimulant, analgesic, anesthetic, and in sufficient quantities, a memory wiper. Yet few have the depth and range of whisky that make it so versatile. And if you’re going to drink something, it might as well taste good. I’m not advocating for a hedonistic lifestyle; after all, you can’t drink money. Daniel Liang
One of my favourite milestones in the Nine Rivers Distillery project is the ability to buy a private cask. (If you want to read more about reserving your private cask, CLICK HERE.). A friend and I decided to share the cost of a single cask but add our own personal twist. We will age our cask at the distillery until one of us outlives the other. If this sounds like an illegal tontine pledge, we cleverly circumvent it by extracting one bottle every few years for tasting. Getting old does have its perks.
Having gone through the motions of building factories from the ground up here in China (sure, a distillery sounds much nicer, but fundamentally it’s a whisky factory and subject to all the same challenges, rules, regulations and safety issues as any other factory in China) the other board members were keen to bring my experiences into the project. Daniel Liang
I’m not really one to brag or boast about my contributions, but I’ve been involved in the design, architecture, environmental impact report, process design, and all of the hoops we need to go through in order to secure a construction permit. I was there with the team at 3 A.M. on February 18th laying our foundation stone and taking part in the two public ceremonies we had later that day. I’ll continue to be actively involved through construction to production in my capacity as Board member and Senior Vice President Super Boss Chief Laoban Taster (a title I’m currently lobbying the rest of the board to make official).
I’ll wrap up by saying that while I understand Nine Rivers is a financial investment, it also speaks very personally to the qualities that I value: the people involved in this project all have a voice in what we want our product to be. My contribution to these discussions is that I want us to create a product all people can enjoy in good times or bad, forging memories that last long after the bottle is empty. I know it sounds cliché’ but my life experiences have made me realize the truth of the statement that “life is short,” so we might as well enjoy it. Daniel Liang
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. Daniel Liang
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE.