Those of you following our story would have noticed we had an Open Day here on site in Longyan, on Saturday 13th May 2023. Some of our investors came to review the progress of the project so far, and to get a real, hands on experience of the scale of the project.
While we live stream the construction and release regular videos on the progress of the construction, they don’t really do any justice to our project.
We have an event scheduled for the last weekend of July 2023, but the concern was simply that by the end of July, all of the steel and concrete will be completed for our first three buildings, and so a lot of the magic will be over and done with. Getting people to the site before July was something we really wanted to do and capturing some of their opinions on their experience.
We grabbed a few short videos from some of the attendees which we’ll put into a video and release soon (we just need to work out how to cobble together H.265 videos when we can only work with H.264….suggestions welcome in the comments below). In the meantime, here are some highlights below.
Spannerman on Open Day
I won’t bore everyone with my story as it’s already been covered in an article. But one thing I will say is that this really needs to be seen to be appreciated. I’d been hearing “wait until you see it” for months now and so when the opportunity came up to go over and visit, there was no way I was going to miss it.
I arrived here last night from Guangzhou. Probably about 8 hours traveling door to door (and the same again tomorrow when I go home) but it was worth every single minute of traveling. Being on the mezzanine floor and thinking that there will be another 3 floors on top of this – and this is just ONE of the 4 buildings was a really amazing feeling. Especially when you consider that this is ours. It’s our project. It’s our money. It’s our commitment. It’s our dedication.
Most people would expect something of this scale to be put together by one of the massive industry monsters with their billions in the bank. But it’s not. It’s just a couple of hundred whisky enthusiasts and a lot of optimism.
Spannerwoman on Open Day
I guess I should start with explaining why I’m “Spannerwoman”. It comes from the fact that my husband’s nickname is Spannerman (see above, Graham Bannerman AKA Spannerman) and some smartarse decided that Spannerwoman would be a more fitting name for me.
I actually got involved in this project because of my husband. He was keen to be a part of the distillery since the beginning and has invested in the project. I decided to come along and make sure this was all real and legitimate (we all know that men are often not the smartest of creatures, especially when under the influence of whisky) and, well there’s no denying now that it is real.
I’ll admit, I’m lost on the numbers. I don’t have a clue what 7.5 million LPA actually means (apparently it means a LOT of whisky) and it seems to be a huge challenge that these whisky lovers have taken on, but at least my husband hasn’t bought into some weird timeshare scam, or spend his money on some virtual nonsense coins or those stupid NFT things!
Lucas D
I came down from Wuhan last night with 3 others. We considered it to be a rehearsal for the big event in July when there should be more of us representing Wuhan.
Wuhan has been involved in Whisky Networking events since the early days, so logically there are Wuhan whisky lovers that are involved in Nine Rivers Distillery. We’re involved on a daily basis, even if it’s only sharing content on social media project.
It was quite amazing to finally see things in real life. Kinda like being a kid at Christmas for a whisky lover such as me. I ended up filling two memory cards with the photos I took. Personally I can’t wait until July. So I can cement in my bricks in The Plenum Wall.
Steve C
I came down last night as one of the 4 people from Wuhan. We’re all friends through Wuhan Whisky Networking and we’ve all been involved in Nine Rivers Distillery since the early days.
Having seen all the architecture, the measurements, the 3D renders, and watching all of the update videos, I really thought I knew what to expect.
But then I didn’t.
When I walked onto the site, where we started with Building 1 (the first “rick house” as we would call it in the USA) and I saw the outline of the building with the concrete beams. It started to sink in a bit. But it was Building 3, where we all went up the steps and stood where the mezzanine viewing area would be. That’s then I realised that this distillery is huge.
I’m just really happy and proud that I decided to get involved when Lucas first brought us all into this project.
Simon G
I’m another one of the Wuhan crew that came down for Open Day. I had actually just landed back in China the day before I traveled, and I missed my train on Friday to come down to Longyan. Drained with jet lag I managed to book another train and get there (albeit it later than planned) just in time for the Open Day on Saturday.
It really was worth the time and the effort to get there. A real game changer for me and many others involved to actually be there and see it for real.
Mischa V
Last but not least from the Wuhan crew, it’s me. Being the tallest person there, I can confidently say that the site looks even better, from up here, at my altitude.
I was originally introduced to whisky by Lucas, our glorious leader in Wuhan, who has been teaching us all about whisky over these last few years with whisky events. He then introduced us all to Nine Rivers Distillery and while at first I thought it was kinda crazy to try and do something on such a vast scale, having now seen it, I’m happy for the bragging rights that being involved is going to give me.
How many whisky enthusiasts can say that they are a founder, an investor and a shareholder in a 7.5 million LPA whisky distillery? Well I can. Plus I’ve got pictures to prove it because I was here on Open Day.
Open Day Videos
We have already published a video about our Open Day, so if you’d like to see that then here are the links:
If you’re based outside of China, then we have the video on YouTube, so CLICK HERE to watch it.
If you’re based inside China, you can find the video on our WeChat channel.
Would You Like To Read More?
If you enjoyed reading about how we currently don’t see any alternatives to Dramfunded, 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.
Would You like To Know More About Helping Nine Rivers Distillery?
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.
You could help us by simply buying your very own Brick for Life – a brick with a steel name plate wrapped around it, which will be cemented into The Plenum (our feature wall) in July 2023. Every brick owner is entitled to a free dram for life every time they visit us in Longyan, Fujian.
Or, you could learn more about being involved and help us grow to our target of 1000 stakeholders. You can read more about how we are Dramfunded if you CLICK HERE. Remember, we currently have no alternatives to Damfunded!
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