On March 26, BC Distilled, the annual craft- and micro-distillery festival, will take place for the third straight year at the Croatian Cultural Centre. The main tasting event will see 27 BC-based distilleries offering consumers samples of gin, vodka, liqueurs, and, this year, soon-to-be-released whiskies.
“Over the past two years, we’ve seen the number of distilleries in BC nearly double, from 18 to around 34,” says BC Distilled founder Alex Hamer. "What excites me is not just the growth of the industry, but the broadening of products and the overall creativity BC distillers are bringing to the market.”
That creativity is largely the result of many distilleries’ need to pay the bills while they got their whisky programs off the ground. Unlike gin and vodka, whisky isn’t something you turn around quickly.
“With whiskey, it’s about the time,” says James Lester, co-founder of Sons of Vancouver Distillery in North Vancouver. “You can’t rush it.”
In Canada, the law says you’re not allowed to label your whisky as such until it’s been aged in a barrel for a minimum of three years.
“Our main avenue of sales right now is our amaretto and vodka.”
Kelly Woods, co-owner of Gillespie Fine Spirits in Squamish, agrees. “The issue is, you buy all your grain, create this product and then you wait. You have to figure out how to make a business while you’re waiting, so it’s made everyone be very creative. Every single step of this industry is really exciting. You’ve got people being very experimental, and the support of the bartending community is enormous, because they’re on the front lines, letting people know what they can do with these innovative spirits.”
Those innovative spirits include a wide variety of gins and vodkas (last year’s event included 20 varieties of each), as well as aged spirits, one-offs like amaretto, aquavit and cassis, and even brandy.
But, where these distillers are putting a lot of their hopes is in the whisky. This year will see the first releases of three-year-old whiskies from distillers such as Liberty and Odd Society, but, in the meanwhile, those lucky enough to have purchased tickets (now sold out) will be able to taste some of these whiskies-to-be at a special preview event on March 25 at the Westin Bayshore.
Rye, specifically, Canadian rye, plays a large part in these locavore spirits.
“Our interest is in keeping with our Canadian traditions and flavours,” says Woods of Gillespie’s whisky program. Woods isn’t sure if they will release their whisky at the three-year-mark or leave it for a further two years. “Legally, after three years, you can call it whiskey. But we’ve tasted three-year-old whiskey, and there’s a longing there. We’ll likely give ours five. We just want to see something that’s going to put our best foot forward and compare to some of the other world-class whiskies out there.”
Lester, who will be showing his one-year-aged spirit at the preview, has similar plans.
“We’re putting away as much whiskey as we can and we’re going to be let the whiskey be the judge of when it’s ready,” he says. “Our first release will be very unique; 100 per cent rye, fermented in rum yeast, and aged in a Scotch barrel. We’re hoping to really get those characteristics through into the rye.”
Rye isn’t the only grain to take note of, however. Granville Island’s Liberty Distillery will be releasing their first whisky, Trust, at the end of December.
“It’s made from local, organic barley,” explains co-owner Lisa Simpson. “It’s more reminiscent of an Irish-style whiskey.”
Robert, Simpson’s husband and business partner, has always been inspired by the lighter profile of Irish whiskies.
“As opposed to typical Canadian whisky made from rye, this one is triple-distilled and aged in a mature Kentucky bourbon barrel; A Jack Daniels barrel, in this case,” he says. “We wanted to create something where we’re showcasing the many fantastic grains that are grown in BC. We do have rye that is in barrels right now, and are planning to have three or four styles of whisky down the road. Eventually, we plan to have five, 10 and 15-year whiskies.”
In the meanwhile, however, these intrepid distillers are producing some truly stellar products and giving BC a very prominent place on the international spirits map.
To buy tickets for the main tasting event on March 26 and for more information, visit BCDistilled.ca
Anya Levykh is a freelance food, drink and travel writer who covers all things ingestible. In addition to obsessively collecting cookbooks, she is a judge for the Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards and the Taste Canada Food Writing Awards. Find her on Twitter and Instagram @foodgirlfriday.
