On December 18, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Chun'an Bank Malt Whisky Brewing Project – the first 100-million-yuan-level foreign-funded whisky project in Chun'an County – was held in Fuwen Township, Chun'an County by Angostura Group, a well-known British spirits company.
It is understood that the project has a total investment of 700 million yuan and plans to build a modern landmark whisky distillery integrating industrial production and tourism. The overall plan consists of two parts: a production plant area and an experience center. Following Pernod Ricard's Emeishan Distillery and Diageo's Yunnan Distillery, it is the third benchmark project established by leading international foreign spirits enterprises in China. It is expected that the first batch of Chun'an Bank Whisky will be launched in five years; after the project reaches full production capacity, the annual production scale will reach 3 million liters, with an annual sales revenue of over 600 million yuan.
Founded in 1950, the UK-based Angostura Group exports its products to more than 80 countries and regions worldwide. Since 2020, relevant leaders of the group have planned to invest in building a factory in China. After inspecting multiple cities around Zhejiang Province, they finally chose Chun'an as the project site. "Water is a crucial raw material for whisky brewing, and Qiandao Lake has excellent water quality," said Alan Hillman, President of Angostura Group. He noted that the Chun'an Bank Malt Whisky Distillery is the group's first project in Asia, which holds great significance for the Asian market.
"The market share of whisky in China is rising year by year, and I am very optimistic about the future development prospects of whisky in China," Alan Hillman stated. After the project is put into production, whisky "made in Chun'an" will appear on the shelves of many countries and regions around the world.
In addition to Angostura's project, four other whisky projects – including "Qiandao Lake Whisky", "Huarui Whisky" and "Chengcheng Whisky" – have already been launched along the shores of Qiandao Lake.
In recent years, leveraging the advantage of Qiandao Lake as a source of "high-quality water in China", Chun'an has vigorously developed the healthy water industry and built the "Qiandao Lake" regional brand for the water beverage industry. From January to October 2023, the sales revenue of Chun'an's water beverage industry reached 11.426 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.19%.
Adhering to the principle of "relying on water to develop industries", Chun'an has also targeted the niche track of whisky and actively strived to build "China's best whisky production base". "2021 is known as the 'First Year of Chinese Whisky', when domestic and foreign capitals began to invest in building distilleries in areas suitable for whisky brewing," an official from Chun'an County Bureau of Foreign Cooperation and Investment Promotion introduced. Whisky enterprises tend to set up their production bases in areas with beautiful landscapes (such as lakes and mountains), which aligns well with the "character" of Qiandao Lake. Therefore, whisky has become one of the important tracks for the development of Chun'an's water beverage industry.
Projects integrating industrial production, sightseeing and leisure – a model that combines industry and tourism – have become the current development trend of the whisky industry. For example, the Qiandao Lake Whisky Project has settled in the High-speed Railway Ecological Industrial Park in Wenchang Town, Chun'an County, where a whisky factory with an annual capacity of 900 tons and a boutique hotel will be built.
According to an official from Chun'an County, based on the local unique ecological and tourism resources, Chun'an will add new check-in spots such as whisky experience centers in the future, building on existing industry-tourism projects including the Beer Museum and the Nongfu Spring production base. At the same time, with the goal of building "China's best whisky production base", the county will provide support in terms of spatial guarantee, industrial cultivation and policy support, and explore a characteristic development path of "Whisky + Tourism".
2026
