 Good afternoon. Thank you all for coming. For those that don't know me, my name is Ryan Christensen. I'm the president and head distiller of Caledonia Spirits. Before we jump into the dirt, I am going to give a few thank yous because this project has been massive for our small company and it's nothing short of a miracle to even be here in this field today. So first off, it starts with the team at Caledonia Spirits. The amount of work, the camaraderie, the creativity, everything that my team has done to make this possible. A few quick introductions. Minty Conan, this is my business partner and CFO. To her right is Todd Hardy. He's the founder of Caledonia Spirits. Besides Todd is Chris Ealy, production manager at Caledonia Spirits. Next to Chris is Rob. It's very warm. Rob Higgins from Negli & Chase and Tim Duff from Wayman-Lampere Architects. So thank you to the entire Caledonia team. Thank you to the entire building design team. Thank you to the Wolf Engineering. Thank you to Engineering Services of Vermont, Wayman-Lampere, Negli & Chase. This has been one of the biggest projects, biggest teams that I've ever worked on and I can't believe that we're finally here now. Thank you to our new neighbors on Berry Street and River Street and anybody that heard that weight drop the last few weeks, did anybody hear that? Thank you. Sorry about that. Just so that we're clear, distillation is very quiet compared to dynamic compaction. Thank you to our lenders. Mascoma Savings has been an incredible partner to us. Elden Duby, I think I saw you here. Elden, thank you very much. Just to elaborate a little bit, Elden is one of those bankers who looks at your balance sheet but after he looks you in the eye and really gauge you as an entrepreneur and engages your team and that goes a long way with us. In addition, thank you to NCIC for the support on this financing and also Granite State Capital. The governors here, Governor Phil Scott, the governor, we have congressional delegation here. We do not have Bernie himself or Senator Leahy or Peter Welch, but they have sent representation and it's very appreciated that they're here. So thank you. Now, a huge thank you and there's actually a couple of exclamation points here on the piece of paper to the city of Montpelier. We first got involved in this site and with the city quite some time ago. This has been a big project that's taken a lot of turns and we're finally moving forward and we couldn't be more excited, but the support of city management, Bill Frazier, Sue Allen, the entire city of Montpelier, City Council has been so supportive of this project. It's been wonderful. Tom McCartle and Public Works, those guys have worked so hard on our behalf that we are very, very appreciative of that. Mayor Watson is right here. Former Mayor John Holler, also a huge supporter of this project and a really great guy and somebody who's been very helpful to us. And then one last person from Montpelier, and I know I'm skipping a whole ton of people that have been very helpful, but this project would not have even been an idea or a vision, if not for Jesse Baker, who is no longer in Montpelier. She's now in Manuski, but if anybody said the pleasure of meeting Jesse Baker, I know that she's doing heroic things right now and we're forever thankful for her. There are many folks to thank, obviously, but we also need a huge thank you for the greatest town in the world, which is Hardwick, Vermont. If not for Hardwick, I don't think Caledonia's spirits would be in business. The spirits business is incredibly competitive and it takes a community to rally around a company to find its way through that. The Hardwick community, Greensboro, Craftsbury, all of northern Vermont said, this is a team, this is a product, we believe in these guys and they gave us a jump start. And we have now grown to capacity in Hardwick and we need more space. So Hardwick is by all means a town that helped us get here. Now, we felt we were out of space about three years ago. It felt like we were bursting at the seams in Hardwick. We have developed a wonderful skill in doing more in a small space and that is a skill that I hope that we will not forget and I think we'll utilize that skill here because even this space, which looks very large as we start to dig in the dirt, there's not as much from here as we thought. We are already looking at our business has grown since construction design began. So we're glad that we had that skill. We are in a very competitive business in the spirits landscape. There are major billion-dollar companies out there that we go to bat with every single day. They are buying up shelf space. They have flawless marketing. They have all of the shiny objects. Yet somehow this little Caledonia spirits in Bar Hill Gin continue to grow and I have a couple of theories as to why that might be. First off, we distill every single bottle that goes to market. That may not sound crazy. That may sound crazy to you, but when we go to market with every bottle, we know who made it. It's artistillers. It's our team. It's Scott. It's Andrew. It's Craig. It's the whole team of Caledonia spirits. That's not normal in this industry. There are a lot of brands out there that are buying products and selling products and slapping a label on it and there's all sorts of marketing that goes along with it. We produce everything and it's a harder path. But to steal a quote from our founder Todd Hardy, that's what makes the gin taste better. Rather than heat the honey that we make our products with, if we were to heat the honey, it would go through the pumps easier. It would go through the filters easier. Everything would work a lot better, but it actually wouldn't taste that good. You would not taste and smell the aroma of the wildflowers that the bees are feeding on. You would not taste and smell the apple blossoms that the bees are feeding on. Again, that's what makes the gin taste better. Rather than ship commodity grains from the Midwest here to Vermont, we buy certified organic grains from Todd Hardy's farm in Greensboro. Todd nurtures the land. He takes care of the land. And we know that Todd's farm is allowing the land to rest and he's not polluting the rivers. So we feel good about the grains that we're buying and that also makes the gin taste better. Rather than depend on market pricing to figure out what we're going to pay our farmers, we have conversations with our farmers. When we meet with a farmer and we talk about a contract, first we need to figure out what their business model can support. Because what we want is the best quality raw materials, not the best pricing. And it starts with quality raw materials. Again, that also makes the gin taste better. Rather than paying employees minimum wage, we started a livable wage. That also makes the gin taste better. We started this business on a 15 gallon direct fire still. Anybody doesn't know what that means. That means there was a fire underneath a still, which is producing 160 proof ethanol. That's not wise and we probably won't ever do that again. And probably I definitely mean definitely. But that's what we had. That's what we started with and we had to build a brand. So we ran that still about once a week to begin with. That produced just a few cases per distillation and we brought it to Vermont. We then went to Massachusetts. And eventually we were running that still three times per day every single day. We were starting very early in the morning and ending fairly late in the evening. Meanwhile, Todd was driving what we call mom's red car, which was packed to the gills with Bar Hill gin. And he was driving that all over the nation. We would load that car up and we'd load it so full that we'd actually have to close one door with the window down so we could get one more case in there and then put a sign that says Todd don't open the door until you roll the window down and take this case out and then we put the window up. And then we'd take it for a quick spin around the parking lot to make sure the wheels weren't actually rubbing because it was carrying so much gin. But Todd would drive that right down to the city. We'd drop it off from the distributor. The distributor instantly wanted more and we would just have to run that still over and over and over. And for the record mom's red car was also known as the mother ship. So today we have larger stills. We have a larger team. We have larger ambitions and we're looking at this this globe and it's actually getting a little bit smaller as we start to figure out how the spirit world works. We couldn't be more thankful of the support. We couldn't believe that 200 people RSVP to see us put a shovel into the dirt. We are very excited when we open this distillery but we haven't even built the building yet and we already feel the support. Thank you all for being a part of this story. This is undoubtedly a new chapter for Caledonia spirits. And we very much look forward to it. So thank you all. Now I'm going to hand this off to the governor. So governor, take it away. Thank you very much. And Ryan, I'm not sure that everyone's here to watch us shovel dirt or to listen to us speak. They may be here for another reason. They may be here to do with a cocktail party. I think that's what the invitation said. So good afternoon to everyone. Thank you for including me in today's celebration. I recently started what I call the capital for a day where along with my cabinet, I'm spending a day in each county. We started in Rutland County, brought the entire cabinet. They are all my commissioners and secretaries and then went from there to Caledonia and we've done Franklin County and Windsor County as well. And I did this because of what I experienced with my everyday jobs tour when I was lieutenant governor. Working a day in someone else's shoes is really important. And it gives you a touch and a feel for what the struggles and the challenges and opportunities are throughout Vermont. And so we decided to do this. And by the way, as lieutenant governor, I worked in the distillery for a day. So if I'm not successful in the next couple of elections, I may come over and see you. But this new capital for a day initiative is another opportunity for me and my cabinet to roll up our sleeves and walk in someone else's shoes. We've done again all these trips and we've met with constituents, lawmakers, businesses, local partners and state employees as well. And the goal really is to provide direct access to the administration to make us better prepared to address the regional challenges and statewide challenges that we see and know that we have to get beyond in order for there to be economic growth. So that day we spent in Caledonia County. We started off the day at Caledonia Spirits in Hardwick. We had our cabinet meeting right there in the facility. We had a lot of ideas after that day and a half at your facility. That was a joke, by the way. We didn't really spend the day and a half there. But they educated us as to what your product was, vision and industry. And I learned from one thing that bird oaks do have a use. Maybe we'll see something in the future with that. But I always wondered what they were good for. While I was there, I got to view the blueprints for this new building. And as someone who spent 30 years in my life in construction, it was exciting for me to see and for me to be here as part of this groundbreaking. It seems everywhere I look in Vermont. We see more breweries, distilleries, vineyards, and they're growing by leaps and bounds. And over the last 14 years, Vermont has seen a number of these distilleries grow from a mere three to now we have 28 in the state. That's an 833% increase. This is a sector that is helping put us on the map, increasing our tourism draw, and leading to more economic activity in our communities for related businesses like barrel builders, local farms, where we get our wheat, and where we get our honey, as well as hotels and restaurants as well. And as a state, we have to continue to support entrepreneurs like Ryan, who have invested in the natural resources that we have and the working landscapes because they create good paying jobs and rewarding jobs as well. This is really an example of what we can do when we work together. We pull together in the same direction. Ryan and his team have already achieved so much, including international recognition, the year at the Hong Kong International Spirit Competition, as well as, that's a great, they deserve a round of applause for that, as well as the vodka distillery of the year at the Berlin International Spirit Competition among various other gold medals over the years. So, Ryan, I just want to thank you for making Vermont your home and to choose to invest and expand here. And I look forward to toasting this completion of this incredible project. So thank you very much for inviting me as well. All right, so I am undoubtedly a better distiller than I am an NC, but I'm doing my best here. But next up, we have the mayor, Anne Watson. Hello, everyone, welcome. Thanks for coming out for this great occasion today. I am so excited to be welcoming, not just you, but Caledonia Spirits, two Montpelier on behalf of the city. We are so grateful to have you. Thank you so much for spending so much time to get to this point. I also want to thank the city staff who spent a lot of time. And Ryan already mentioned this, but Bill of Frazier, Tom McCartle, Sue Allen, Jesse Baker, who spent so many hours to make this happen, to get to this point, to get to today. It's just so very exciting for us. I also want to thank the neighbors as well for their accommodation in this space. This is going to be a great addition to our community. And I just want to also recognize, I don't know if you know this, Ryan, but I live right there. I'm one of those neighbors on Berry Street. So I feel like I should be bringing you, like, a banana bread right now. Because I anticipate that we are going to be neighbors for a long time. So welcome all. Thank you. And I just want to also mention what this means for the city of Montpelier. We are so excited to be bringing these 40 jobs or more. Is it 40? I think it's... Okay, last time we checked, it's 40. 40 jobs to Montpelier. And to be bringing a value-added agricultural business to the ecosystem of businesses in Montpelier. We're excited to be growing our business community here in Montpelier. And we know that beyond a great distillery, this is going to be a great destination for people to come to in central Vermont. So thank you all for being here. I don't want to get in the way of the rest of the cocktail party. So thank you, and yeah. Let's have a drink.