Blue Phoenix: Origin Story
- Matt Lee
- Feb 8, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 4, 2019
Blue Phoenix, the world’s first Vietnamese rice wine, is ready to make its debut – starting with the SF Bay Area! The 18% ABV libation is based on a 35-year old recipe for the best-selling Ruou Nep (translated to “sticky rice alcohol”) in Vietnam. Most consumers are familiar with Japanese rice wine (sake) and Korean rice wine (soju) but, until now, there has been no rice wine product available at Vietnamese restaurants. Blue Phoenix claims to make all of your noodle, rice, BBQ, seafood, and savory foods taste even better. And, that it’s great with all types of food, not just Vietnamese food.
It’s been a long journey to get the product to where it needs to be – nearly 5 years in the making. The original company was founded by three friends while on vacation in Vietnam at the end of 2014. The initial concept was to import Ruou Nep because it was the “most delicious alcohol I’ve ever tasted” according to co-founder Matthew Lee. That, along with the “clean” feeling, lack of hangover the next day, and the fact that co-founder Thuy Hoang’s family owned the distillery, provided enough reasons to start an importing company. The company was then Matthew as the CEO, Rikki Phan as sales and marketing, and Thuy as operations/ international relations.
After doing research into exactly what it takes to create an alcoholic beverage brand, it was decided that the product could reach more people if it was a rice wine rather than a liquor (in Vietnam the Ruou Nep is 28% and 39% ABV). Pivoting from a liquor to a rice wine meant that they would need to find new producers, and they were able to sign a contract with an international distiller in 2016. But, after 3 months of development and 2 months of waiting, there was no product being produced. The distiller finally admitted that he had used the funds to pay his debts. Unwilling to work with someone of such character, the three cut ties completely. Thousands of dollars and one entire year were lost.
Never willing to give up, the three pivoted back to liquor because Thuy’s family came in to save them with their original Ruou Nep (Ruou Nep Long An if you want to find it in Vietnam). New licenses had to be obtained (a 6-month process) and new bottles and labels had to be designed. This time the obstacle was the bottle designer was taking too long because he was upset his last design was not used for the rice wine. A second bottle company was sourced but they were taking a long time as well. The second bottle company ended up creating a great bottle but said they could not actually manufacture it due to problems with consistency. 2017 ended in failure.
That was when things really started to fall apart. Rikki moved back to Vietnam and quit the company to focus on other things. Thuy moved back to Vietnam as well, but could not spend enough time working on exporting Ruou Nep because her family needed her help with their businesses. The final tipping point was that samples could not even be shipped to America to generate pre-sales. The shipment was denied at the airport because the American Material Data Safety Sheet (MSDS) was declined and in Vietnam it takes 6-months in cue for a MSDS to be generated by their labs. At that point it was 2018, and another pivot was necessary to keep the dream of importing the “most delicious alcohol” to America.
The decision was actually to not import at all. Instead, the importing company was dissolved and Matthew Lee created a new company, Matley Entertainment LLC, that would create a domestic rice wine product. Despite being cheated by the international distiller in 2016, Matthew had retained the recipe. Submitting a recipe is part of getting alcohol licenses with the federal governing agency the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) and since Matthew had submitted all of the paperwork himself, he was knowledgeable about how to make it. He also had been reading stacks of books on spirit and sake production and had visited both distilleries in Vietnam. He added hands-on experience by volunteering at a local, award-winning sake producer Sequoia Sake.
Despite having knowledge about how to make the product, Matthew still had no means or sufficient experience to actually produce it. Unfortunately, Sequoia Sake did not have the resources or time to help with development of a new product. So, Matt made a list of all of the sake producers in America and sent out a request for quote on developing and producing a Vietnamese rice wine. Of all of the responses, Texas Sake Co in Austin, Texas was by far the best situated to work on this project. Head brewer (Toji) Jeff Bell was able to do the additional research and create test batches until sample #8 was deemed perfect by Matthew. The first part of 2019 was spent creating the new company, acquiring licenses, and producing the first pallet of Blue Phoenix.
Blue Phoenix will make its initial debut at Sake Day SF on Sept 28th at Hotel Kabuki in Japan town. The aforementioned Sequoia Sake and Texas Sake Co will also be pouring at the event. Sake Day SF is run by Mei Ho and local sake purveyor and owner of True Sake, Beau Timken. True Sake is located at 560 Hayes Street in Hayes Valley. Tickets for Sake Day SF can be found at www.sakeday.com. If you are unable to make it, there is a growing list of locations you can find Blue Phoenix at www.bluephoenixricewine.com/find-a-vendor. We encourage you to go out and try the new, unique, and delicious Vietnamese-American rice wine described as an “all-natural experience (that) starts with a sweet rice aroma, followed by a savory middle-mouth feel, and tapers off with a clean, crisp aftertaste.”
For more information, please contact Matthew Lee at matt@matleyentertainment.com or (530) 219-3312.