Founder’s Letter
We are coming to you from Việt Nam. We are a 100% Vietnamese-owned distillery, and we work tirelessly with our community farming and foraging partners to paint a rich, deep, multi-faceted picture of Việt Nam through our brand and our spirits.
Our name, Sông Cái, means Mother River. It is a unifying concept for Việt Nam, from the H’mong in the highlands of Hà Giang, to the Kinh in the deltaic flood plains of Cà Mau, to the diaspora carrying Việt Nam’s culture across the world. Sông Cái denotes our shared history, community, spirituality, and terroir.
We are Việt Nam’s first gin — a starting point to tell stories of Việt Nam’s rich diversity of botanicals and culture from the Northwest Mountains to the Mekong Delta. We will soon be introducing an exciting range of traditional heirloom spirits, proudly crafted in Việt Nam, that capture the essence of Vietnamese heritage.
We created this journal to jot down notes, snippets, and share insights as we continue this journey. In-line with our ethos, the topics we anticipate exploring include:
Ethnobotany
Sông Cái Distillery approaches botanicals and ingredients not just as sources of flavor, but as vehicles to tell stories of culture and the relationship that people and communities have to the land.
Cocktails
We are a community of scientists, distillers, chefs, mixologists, and farmers. What we promise to deliver is a way to look at cocktails and cocktail recipes through a detailed, analytical framework, including technique and ways to look at flavor and taste.
Culture and Stories:
Việt Nam is rich with history, folklore, art, and culture. We are proud and excited to use this platform to give voice to these stories both traditional and contemporary.
Spirits and Fermentation
The creation of flavor and aroma through alcohol is our lifeblood. We will be giving a glimpse of technique and process in traditional Vietnamese fermentation, distillation, and other flavor extraction techniques. From rượu thuốc (Vietnamese amari), rượu cái (Vietnamese rice wine similar to sake) to gin and whisky, our range will span traditional and western beverages. Also central to this will be our work on fermentation and the isolation and use of local microbes — going beyond koji.
This blog represents and distills our collective hopes and ambitions. We invite you to come with us on this journey.
Daniel Nguyen
Founder, Distiller, and CEO