The Founders’ Casks Part 2: This time, it isn’t part 1! But, if you missed out on The Founders’ Casks Part 1, then CLICK HERE to go back and catch up. Go on, we’ll wait for you. The Box Paradox (Don’t worry, we’re not talking about Schrödinger’s Whisky Cat.) We think you would agree that excessive […]
Read MoreThe Founders’ Casks Part 2: This time, it isn’t part 1! But, if you missed out on The Founders’ Casks Part 1, then CLICK HERE to go back and catch up. Go on, we’ll wait for you.
(Don’t worry, we’re not talking about Schrödinger’s Whisky Cat.) We think you would agree that excessive packaging isn’t a good thing. Whether it be board game or courier boxes that are too large, or companies that put unnecesary filler when all you wanted was what you bought. You don’t need to be a tree-hugger and wear hundred-dollar yoga pants to know that. For us, we want to showcase a product that can immediately be identified as premium without something fancy wrapped around it. Even a re-gifted present can feel elevated and original with a bit of wrapping paper and a ribbon, right? Don’t worry, we’re not accusing you of anything.
Sustainable packaging and recycled materials were our go-to for resolving that challenge, so we initially explored using reclaimed wood. After all, if the wood would just end up in a land fill or burned, why not rescue it to adorn whisky? As far as condemned wood goes, that’s quite a rags-to-riches story. Luckily for us, we’re good friends with Mr. Bill, a Shenzhen legend known for his abilities with wood.
Often in disguise as a hobo (his words), and pushing along a two wheeled cart, he consistently scavenges some amazing pieces of wood that he delicately rejuvenates with a bit of elbow grease, a sanding machine, an (un)healthy portion of whisky that we may or may not provide, and some varnish.
Sadly for us, Mr. Bill left China before we were ready to start mass producing The Founders’ Casks packaging, so it was time for Plan B. We found a company in the Longgang district of Shenzhen that fabricated packaging from recycled materials and sustainable fibres. We just needed to design it.
If you know us, you know that meant more workshops, whisky, random scribbles, doodles, giggles, animal chaperones, and fun.
It turns out designing a box isn’t as easy as it seems (hence the …parabox?). But with more whisky, Zoom meetings, and professional opinions (on boxes…who knew?), we ironed out the problems and came up with something that worked.
Glass, boxes, labels, stoppers, and closures were loaded into a shipping container to our friends over in Wales.
57 days later, the container arrived in the UK and got trucked to our friends in the UK. Yes, we have a lot of friends. Unpacking and bottling soon followed.
While some brands choose to be difficult and even secretive about who they work with, transparency is one of those words that we consider a foundation and cornerstone to the morals and ethics that we want to build upon. In other words, if a company is dodgy or “acting sus,” we’re not interested.
Our friends in the UK are Penderyn. Yes, THAT Penderyn, the company that brought whisky back to Wales in 2000, when the first spirit came off their stills at their distillery.
Officially launched on St. David’s Day in 2004 by HRH The Prince Of Wales, the Penderyn team, under the leadership of Stephen Davies, have gone on to put the flag of Wales next to their torrential amount of award-winning whiskies across 45 countries.
Stephen and his team did much more than just bottle some whisky. It was the expertise, experience, and passion of Laura, Aista, and Bethan that helped our two grey-haired whisky lovers determine how to shape and craft these whiskies using different casks and cask finishes to create the six different expressions of The Founders’ Casks.
The result? Six distinctly unique styles resting in a cask maturation warehouse in an environment not too dissimilar to our own in Da Chi, Longyan, Fujian province: The future home of Nine Rivers Distillery.
We’re hoping by now you might be eager to see what the final bottlings are, what they look like, and how you can get your mittens on some.
All will be revealed……next time!
31 of our team have been involved in some capacity to help bring The Founders’ Casks to life. We give our thanks to all of them. However, there are two people here that really need to have some trumpets blown and confetti thrown for just how much they have put into this regarding their time, skills, experience, and delivery.
Darryl, a creative genius from sunny South Africa, has guided us creatively since the very start of the project. He was the first member of the 9RD team that we wrote about last year and if you missed his story you can read it if you CLICK HERE.
Fabien, the yin to Darryl’s yang (platonically), a creative genius from France who has been around literally as long as Darryl has, offers a contrasting experience to create the perfect balance in our visual identity. We’ll be featuring him soon in an article and you can read more about him then.
Before anyone takes the initiative to try and nick either of our guys…..be warned. They are ours. We don’t share. We have a manic mutt, a whisky cat, other faithful familiars from our dedicated team members, and we know how to use them.
There probably couldn’t be a more appropriate day for us to announce the launch of our first series of bottlings, The Founders’ Casks, than World Whisky Day 2022. So let us tell you all about it and you might even be able to snatch a reservation on some of the last few bottles… The Backstory […]
Read MoreThere probably couldn’t be a more appropriate day for us to announce the launch of our first series of bottlings, The Founders’ Casks, than World Whisky Day 2022. So let us tell you all about it and you might even be able to snatch a reservation on some of the last few bottles…
Way back in 2017, on a rather grim Saturday morning, two grey haired whisky lovers piled into a coffee shop in the hinterlands of Shenzhen and started to scribble out some early concepts of how Nine Rivers Distillery could work as a business. 4 or 5 coffees into it and with some 30 pages of scribble and doodles spread across three tables, the idea came up about being able to demonstrate the types of whisky we would want to craft as an introduction to prospective investors. After all, no one really wants to be a part of something that they might not even like, do they? No one wants to be part of a distillery that makes whisky that they wouldn’t even want to drink themselves.
They worked out how many casks they already had between them, which whiskies might serve best as base whiskies, what types of cask finish might help to create the styles that would best define 9RD, who we could involve to help create these cask finishes and how to eventually bottle them.
After what felt like an entire cask of coffee between then, they shook hands, patted each other on the back and both decided that this would be a doddle. It was only days before they both realised it would be anything but a doddle.
While neither of them will want to be named, they don’t write this content, so we can tell you all anyway – it was Jay and Jeff. So if there are fingers to point and blame to be thrown around, you all know the correct direction to face.
The concept was talked about with other founders of our project, and suddenly they all wanted bottles. Some founders wanted a keepsake. Some founders just wanted something to chug with their friends. It turned into gossip, the story got dropped into a whisky group, and suddenly the demand was for hundreds of bottles. Everyone wanted in on it.
That’s when we realised that this would end up being considerably more than just a few dozen samples. It was a “thing”. So if it was going to be a “thing” then we would make it into a real, serious, professional “thing”. If bottles with our name were going to face the public, then they had to set the benchmark for the quality and standards that we wanted to underpin our name with to the world.
While Juliet argued that names are arbitrary in Act 2, Scene 2 of that literally classic penned by Shakespeare, when it comes to products a name can have a significant impact on success or failure. Brand names are normally the first interaction that a consumer will have with a product. Typically, when consumers hear a name it will immediately create a positive (or negative) impression within the mindset of a consumer. It’s the very first word, of the first chapter in the story of the relationship between a consumer and a brand. An impression that will normally last a lifetime.
After a lot of brain farts, and a few near misses with suggestions from people that *might* have been a tiny bit drunk we had a list of names that ranged from eyebrow-raisers to absolute horrors.
Luckily for us some sanity kicked in and we decided to call our first release exactly what it is. A selection of bottlings to demonstrate the types of whisky we aim to craft conceptualised by two of our founders – so logic led us to call them, The Founders’ Casks.
The next big decision to make was whether we used generic glass, or designed our own bottles from scratch. Bespoke glass would have massive MOQ’s and costs for mold. So we explored a few different ways to make generic glass look a bit more interesting. Hand painting each bottle was going to be a challenge, so we tried a few different types of screen printing.
A few of the screen printing concepts worked quite well, but it was still a bit, well, “meh”, and that just wasn’t good enough for us. It was time to roll up our sleeves and work out how to design our own bottles. What better way to do that than a 9RD workshop exploring various bottle shapes while emptying them of their contents? All in the name of research of course.
We tried to capture all of the elements of who we are as a company, what we want to be as a brand and communicate to the world that we aren’t just another startup distillery. We wanted to share our name with the world and have it on our glass. Bold. Prominent. Distinctive. To demonstrate the pride that we have in who we are and what we are doing.
We wanted a modern style in the branding, the labelling and the packaging. We knew we wanted a tall bottle, with a long neck, creating synergies with our stills. We also agreed that the brand engagement with our customers would last right until the last drop – hence the embossed bottom of the bottle, with our logo, which every whisky lover will see as the last dram pours out of their bottle.
It’s quite amazing how a good lashing of whisky can fuel creativity and under the leadership of Muffin the manic mutt, we thought we were onto something.
Half a dozen workshops later (both online and offline) we had enough to start cranking out some 3D printed prototypes of our bottle concept. This helped it to see where there could be potential problems in glass production. Little quirks in the detail that could potentially be achieved with a glass mold that aren’t so obvious on a digital image.
With the glass designs completed, we sent them up to Yun Cheng County, in Shandong, where we had the mold engraved ready to make the glass bottles for The Founders’ Casks.
Then it was time to get the old sand cooker up to 1700 degrees C, and we were ready to start making glass. Being a heavy, flint-style glass, it needed a few more things thrown into the mix, but let’t not turn this into a boring science lesson (yawn). Let’s keep it simple – it’s liquid sand blown into a mold, allowed to cool, annealed briefly, allowed to cool again – then bingo bongo we had bottles.
19 concepts, 5 different design work-streams and at least 2 jingley meltdowns before we eventually came up with the design for the labels. We got them printed, shipped out to the bottling company and sat back in comfy chairs relaxed and content. Another job well done. Bring on the next challenge!
There’s more to this story. In fact, an entire part 2 to look forward to. But you’ll have to wait until next week to read the conclusion and find out how you might be able to get your hands on The Founders’ Casks.
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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One of our founders, Steve Alexander, was a guest today on the Breakfast Business show with Gavin McLoughlin, on Friday May 20th, 2022. Click on the image below if you’d like to hear it what Steve had to say. Would You Like To Read More? If you enjoyed reading this, and you would like to […]
Read MoreOne of our founders, Steve Alexander, was a guest today on the Breakfast Business show with Gavin McLoughlin, on Friday May 20th, 2022.
Click on the image below if you’d like to hear it what Steve had to say.
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.
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE.
Following on from our series of articles introducing some of the people who have got involved in the Nine Rivers Distillery project, it’s time for me to step up and introduce myself. I’m Steve Alexander and I (along with my wife, Aoife) am one of the two original founders. Also, just accept the fact that […]
Read MoreFollowing on from our series of articles introducing some of the people who have got involved in the Nine Rivers Distillery project, it’s time for me to step up and introduce myself. I’m Steve Alexander and I (along with my wife, Aoife) am one of the two original founders. Also, just accept the fact that I’m going to be spelling it WHISKEY with an “e”, because that’s how we do it in Ireland! Here’s my story.
I was originally born in Dublin, Ireland but currently I live just down the road in Bray, County Wicklow. More specifically, it’s about 20 kilometers south of Dublin and is known as the “Gateway to the Garden of Ireland.” It’s a seaside town with cliff walks and beaches, so it naturally attracts a lot of tourists. Even though it’s near Dublin, it’s got a wonderful balance of both tranquility and vibrancy.
Throughout my youth, whiskey was seen as an “old man’s drink,” something my grandfather would be seen sipping during family gatherings. I accepted it was just one of those adult indulgements that were beyond my understanding (that, and my grandfather’s laughter directed at my grimacing face when I tried it). I also looked at the other adults around me drinking what would put Ireland on the world map of alcohol: Guinness. I wasn’t ever tempted to try that one as a kid, though.
From a young age, I was fascinated with aeroplanes and flight, so aviation became my passion and career. I could travel the world, fly some amazing aeroplanes, and meet lots of interesting people.
Back in 2005, at the age of 22, I packed a suitcase, booked a flight to the USA, and enrolled in flight school at Flight Safety International in Florida. It was here that I was introduced to bourbon by some of my housemates. It then became a bit of house tradition to celebrate each milestone along the quest to become a qualified pilot. Throughout the two years it took me to qualify and pass all the exams, it’s fair to say I have sampled quite a wide range of different bourbons!
Being a Pilot can be tough. There’s a huge amount of travel involved (obviously!) but the upside is that almost every single airport in the world has a travel retail section, where a lot of rare, limited edition, or specialty whiskey is available. A lot of it will only be available in travel retail, so I would take the unique whiskies back home to share with friends and family. Whiskey became something that sparked amazing conversations and debates over the years.
In 2015, I relocated to China with my wife and our (at the time) two children (yes, I’ve been a little busy). I took a job as a Captain, flying for Hainan airlines.
China had been on our bucket list for a long time and it was an opportunity we were both keen to take. After consulting some friends and colleagues, we settled on moving to Shenzhen.
Living in a largely expat dominated community in Nanshan, it didn’t take long before I was connected to one of the Oak and Barley whiskey groups. Through Oak and Barley I got to know Jay, the group leader. He would frequently chip in with opinions on whiskies, tasting notes, random trivia about distilleries, and the occasional slam to anyone that got a bit out of line. It was his knowledge that made me confident that Nine Rivers was going to be not only a success, but a landmark achievement for whiskey in China. I grabbed a bottle of whiskey and headed up to Jay’s office to meet him, chew the fat, understand a bit more about the project, and get involved.
Initially, I was just a background investor. Flying can be an unsociable career at times, so it’s challenging to have structured downtime from work to be able to get seriously involved in other things. But, thanks to COVID, and the massive downturn in international travel, I ended up relocating back to Ireland with Aoife and the kids, which gave me more time to roll up my sleeves and get involved. Unfortunately, it also meant a move home and a move further from the physical project which in some ways is disappointing for me.
I’ve been part of The Think Tank since the pandemic and that’s given me the opportunity to really get my teeth into a few things. Most importantly, I’ve learned more about whiskey from a production point of view. I’ve had a lot of time to read and learn and this has helped me to make useful contributions to the operational layout and processes that will eventually underpin our whiskey production.
I’ve also taken over leading the Social Media Team, so all the content that goes out, across all the platforms, I’ve had my fingers and thumbs on it in some way, shape of form. It’s hard work, but it’s great seeing these pieces go out so people like you can read them.
Many people ask me why I got involved and immediately jump to the assumption that it was purely about seeing the potential for whiskey in China, and the money that can be made from it.
Of course making money is at least some of the motivation. No one wants to lose money, and China has probably the most potential for whiskey than any other market. But, from a sincere point of view, it was more about the opportunity to really get involved in something like this that interested me.
I love whiskey. Almost as much as flying. So the thought of actually being able to say I helped bring amazing whiskey to the world is really exciting. To be able to sit in my local bar in Bray, in a few years time, crack open a bottle with some of my oldest friends from my school days and say “that’s my whiskey – I’m a founder and shareholder in the distillery and I’ve contributed to the mammoth task of bringing this idea to life in the real world” – that’s a day I’m looking forward to.
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.
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To be considered serious in the world of whisky, and if you want to be a true contender for making the world’s best whisky, then you need roll up your sleeves, do your research, and collaborate with the most respected leaders of the industry. Specifically, we are talking about the champion of whisky pot stills, […]
Read MoreTo be considered serious in the world of whisky, and if you want to be a true contender for making the world’s best whisky, then you need roll up your sleeves, do your research, and collaborate with the most respected leaders of the industry. Specifically, we are talking about the champion of whisky pot stills, Forsyths of Scotland.
Forsyths is a name steeped in a rich history of crafting stills for the global whisky industry. Remarkably, Forsyths continues to be a family owned business, now in its 4th generation being led by Richard Forsyth. Forsyths still uses the artisanal technique of hammering (by hand!) copper sheets into the elaborate shapes needed to create the best opportunity for reflux, a process of interaction between spirit and copper that gives whisky a lot of its smoother qualities, and allows unique aromas and flavours of new make whisky to carry through the distillation process.
These handcrafting skills are married with modern technologies during the design process, showing that a company can both produce that old-fashioned excellence while still taking advantage of modernisation where it does not affect final quality.
There are very few leading distilleries in the world that Forsyths have not been involved in; you can find their stills installed all over world – including right here in China.
We engaged with Forsyths way back at the end of 2018, with our first meeting in January 2019, when we were 100% confident that Nine Rivers Distillery was “really going to be a thing.” The project had broken past the boundaries of whisky fuelled gossip and reveries. After a couple of years researching and getting more and more serious, we carved out something that resembled a real plan and were actively looking for a site for our distillery.
Forsyths started back in 1933 by seizing an opportunity. Former coppersmith Alexander Forsyth bought out his former employer, Robert Wilson, to create Forsyth and Son. With more than 40 years experience as a coppersmith who had climbed the ranks from apprentice to tradesman to foreman, his vision took that company and elevated it to the gold standard that most whisky lovers know today.
The Asia Pacific headquarters for Forsyths is based in Hong Kong. This HQ houses Darren Hosie, business development leader, alongside Neale Boag who leads the engineering team in the region.
Our early engagements with Forsyths were based on a very different concept than where we are today. Originally, Nine Rivers Distillery was more of a “proof of concept” project. This means a much smaller scale approach which is not too dissimilar to most distillery startups. We planned 2 small stills, a mash tun, some fermentors and a lot of crossed fingers. In fact, the stills from Nine Rivers Distillery Version 1.0 were less than half of the size of the smallest stills we have in our current setup: 10 stills capable of 7 million LPA.
“I’ve personally enjoyed watching this project grow and develop from a pilot plant to what will now be the biggest single malt whisky distillery in China. They will be well placed within the world rankings in terms of raw production capacity.
It’s interesting to be involved in the project as a solutions provider. The dynamics of so many people involved should be a burden to the project, but it works really well.”
As we all know, the global pandemic presented the world with some challenges, not least around business meetings. Just as we were ready to start workshops around still designs and still house layouts, most of us (the Nine Rivers team and, of course, Darren and Neale from Forsyths) ended up in some form of lockdown. Just like the rest of the world, we all got into the new reality of work by video conference call.
Love it or hate it, we made do. The point of the workshops was to include as many opinions and perspectives as we could with respect to how we shape our stills and the type of new make spirit we want to be crafting. As you probably saw from our last article, we had a LOT of ideas regarding what this should look like. We had some pretty amazing ideas, but our engineering wizards kept us grounded in what was possible, safe, and environmentally friendly.
We didn’t include the entire team in those workshops – let’s be fair, all that engineering stuff can get a little bit too boring (no offense, Neale). In fact, even Hayden fell asleep during most of the calls. It must have been all the running around he does…
At the end of our workshops, we reached some agreements on what we needed from our stills. We’ll share some of those things with you all now, but we have to keep a few things under wraps at this stage – top secret and all that 007 type stuff. What we can share is this:
Diversity is key for us. From virgin oak matured whiskies all the way through to sherry cask matured whiskies. This means we need a range of different new make whiskies therefore at least three different types of spirit stills are an absolute must.
We’ll spare you the technical details, but are going to have huge wash stills. Gigantic. Not just because they look amazing, and not just because we’ll be able to say we have the largest stills in China, but ultimately because our approach to energy efficiency works better with bigger stills.
Our goal became figuring out how to arrange them in a configuration that was not only efficient for production processes, but also would look as awe-inspiring as Gaudi’s Basilica in Barcelona. While that might seem a touch arrogant, we feel confident this will become a popular photo opportunity that gets shared on social media by anyone walking through our doors.
This is possible thanks to the expert guidance of Neale Boag.
“There were some interesting challenges in working with the Nine Rivers Distillery team – they really did want to have their cake and eat it too – not just in terms of the diversity of stills and whisky styles but their absolute commitment to minimising energy consumption and their environmental impact. All of this, PLUS the need for a visual “wow factor” to the entire project.
Thankfully I wasn’t alone on this; I had access to the vast experience and skills of a huge team of engineers to back me up from the Forsyths HQ in Scotland. There were not too many sleepless nights planning this project and I’m personally proud of what we are creating with the Nine Rivers Distillery team. The challenge of making it all work and the passion they had made everything feel rewarding.”
Skip ahead a couple of years. 4 major workshops, 37 phone calls, 213 emails, and 5 company team-buildings later… we have shaken hands (virtually) and a deal is made. As these words are being typed, the manufacturing has already started at Forsyths on our first 3 of 10 stills. Soon, we will be proud parents of a 15’000 litre wash still and two 5’400 litre spirit stills.
We expect them to be arriving in China next year, in 2023, so now we have to get digging holes, pouring concrete, and laying bricks – to make sure we have a still house ready to install them in.
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.
Facebook users, you can CLICK HERE.