Angel’s Envy recently unveiled its completed $8.2 million expansion at its Louisville distillery — and decided to get meta.
The expansion, which adds 13,000 square feet to the facility, will allow Angel’s Envy to welcome an additional 64,000 visitors each year, doubling annual guest capacity. To celebrate, Angel’s Envy invited consumers to plan an in-person visit or experience it virtually via the Angel’s Envy Meta Distillery, the first-ever distillery experience in Decentraland.
The Angel’s Envy Meta Distillery included a gamified and educational distillery production tour and bourbon-making experience, interactive cocktail challenge, Proof of Attendance Protocol (POAP) token, non-fungible token (NFT) wearable giveaways, and more. Visitors were taken on a series of experiences such as a mash bill challenge, cask personalization in the barreling room, and an ingredient quest to create cocktails.
In addition, users had the opportunity to plant virtual white oak trees around the distillery, correlating to trees planted in real life through Angel’s Envy’s “Toast the Trees” initiative – a program created in 2014 to raise awareness about the importance of a healthy white oak tree population to preserve the future of bourbon.
“Angel’s Envy has seen significant growth over the past several years, and that will only be amplified with our Brand Home expansion as we can now better meet the incredible demand from visitors who want to tour our facilities and experience our distillery. We’re proud to be part of such a strong community in Louisville and will continue to invest in our hometown,” said Gigi DaDan, Angel’s Envy General Manager. “We’re thrilled to launch the Angel’s Envy Meta Distillery on National Bourbon Day and look forward to engaging and celebrating bourbon with new audiences from all over the world through the virtual experience.”
The expansion will create approximately 20 new jobs in Louisville and includes new spaces and experiences for guests, such as a larger retail area, five new tasting rooms, an additional bar space, event space, and full catering kitchen and a designated room for Angel’s Envy “Bottle Your Own” experience, which will now offer guests the chance to fill their own bottles of a distillery-exclusive Single Barrel offering. Angel’s Envy worked with Joseph & Joseph, Contagious, and Sullivan & Cozart on the design and build for the expansion; construction began in late 2020.
With the launch of the Angel’s Envy Meta Distillery, the brand became the first in the Bacardi portfolio to create an experience in the metaverse.
“We are excited to welcome the first distillery in Decentraland with the Angel’s Envy Meta Distillery,” said Adam de Cata, Head of Partnerships for Decentraland Foundation. “As we have seen over the past several months, people want to engage in the metaverse with activities and goods that they can relate to from this reality. The Angel’s Envy Meta Distillery creates a new way for people to engage and celebrate in the metaverse.”
For those who didn’t get to experience the meta distillery, they can head to Kentucky to check it out IRL at 500 E. Main St. in Louisville.
