From Stillhead Distillery, on the southern outskirts of Duncan, BC, comes a richly fruity gin unlike any other. Although this region is not exactly wilderness, The Island is wild, rugged country, where even city folk live pretty close to the land and its wildlife. So, it makes sense that the main component of this gin is wild blackberries harvested locally by hand.
In the last year or two, when Quebec’s first Acerums landed on store shelves, they entertained our palate with something novel and exciting. This year though, as the sequels to these first bottlings begin to arrive, we discover that Acerum has a much bigger story to tell.
Canada is blessed with a wealth of great whisky distilleries, so many we couldn’t include them all in our 12-pack. And though some whisky lovers may play the drum, they all certainly dram a dram. So, here’s to you and your true love finding holiday bliss on Day 12, in the depths of a dram of Canadian whisky, be it single malt, rye, corn or a blend of all three.
If your true love buys you eleven pipers piping for Christmas, before you reach for the earplugs, take a minute to listen. The harmonies of the pipers united in song is the very essence of great gin. Then, having savoured the pipers’ aural thrills, put the earplugs back in and dream of the palatable indulgences these 11 gins will bestow on you and your true love.
According to some scholars, scholars with way too much time on their hands by the way, ten lords-a-leaping represent the Ten Commandments. OK, let’s run with that. Here we present 10 vodkas you may covet in good conscience, while hoping you find them under the Christmas tree.
Each year it seems Canadian distilleries make more holiday-themed spirits than the year before. These aren’t cheap gimmicks either. Rather, they are carefully crafted limited edition spirits that focus on the flavours of the season. Here are nine that will set your true love’s palate to dancing.
“The Twelve Days of Christmas” takes a dark turn on day eight. Bringing eight bovines into your living room, could be very expensive once you factor in divorce lawyer fees. Fortunately, today’s distillers have a better idea. More of them are making creamed spirits than ever before.
Liqueurs are often thought of as distilling’s ugly ducklings. In the late 1970s, the syrupy over-sweet artificial concoctions that were flying off store shelves gave liqueurs a bad rap. Leisure suit-wearing dentists made a fortune from this craze, but the reputation of the category suffered. Thankfully, this description no longer fits Canadian liqueurs!
Most of Canada’s first microdistilleries actually began by distilling local farm windfall into eau-de-vie and brandy. So, if you’re looking for the Canadian goose that laid the golden egg, look no further, it’s fruit brandy. These six Eau-de-vies and brandies will look just fine nestled under a decorated tree.
How do you compete when someone’s willing to drop serious coin on five golden rings? You don’t. We suggest you reconsider running up your credit card, and sit back and enjoy a cocktail while you gift wrap one of these fine Canadian cocktail kits instead.
Canada’s immense land area has produced a selection of gins that explore the thousands of flavours that grow coast to coast. For distilleries near the sea, this includes taking flavours from the temperamental oceans and taming those flavours into its gins.
Luckily for the spirits lover on your list, Canadian distilleries make brilliant absinthe that combines French tradition with local colour. This season, leave the French hens at the farm and give the gift of Canadian absinthe.
Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery knows what you really should do when you have a Partridge in a Pear Tree. Set the bird free, wait until the pears are perfectly ripe, then crush, ferment and double distil them into a spectacular Bartlett Pear Brandy aka Poire Williams.
Hiram Walker’s attentive doctor still makes house calls on his ageing whisky. And from those visits comes an exceptional new Lot No. 40 called Dark Oak. He has finished the standard Lot No. 40 in new American Oak Char #4 barrels.
For the past four years, batches of Eau Claire single malt whisky would run out before distiller Caitlin Quinn could have another batch ready. Rupert’s satisfies the demand for an Eau Claire whisky that’s available year-round by blending a base whisky with the distillery’s prized single malt.
With no regulations to define it, some distillers are using their creativity and ingenuity to refurbish moonshine’s name. Its surging popularity at the hand of talented distillers often turns what began as a cash-generating necessity into a core distillery product, as happened at Top Shelf Distillers in Perth, Ontario. To their original all-grain Reunion 100-proof Moonshine, at 50% abv, they have since added an assortment of flavoured Moonshines. along with gin, vodka, mint liqueur and some stellar whiskies.
The Hidden Temple Gin bottle could be mistaken for a Raiders of the Lost Ark treasure map, with colourful flora, fauna and retro artefacts shrouding the bottle in mystery.
Looking across the river from Windsor’s Hiram Walker Distillery, Detroit looks like a city where Batman might feel at home. Ornate skyscrapers line up against a landscape of 1920’s Art Deco buildings with gothic upper-story sculptural setbacks. It’s not Gotham, so, during American Prohibition, there were no actual Batman spottings here.
Soon, and for the first time ever, this will include Newfoundland Whisky. This past October, the Newfoundland Distillery Company began laying down barrels of triple-distilled whisky spirit made from Cormack-grown unmalted barley.
To produce the whisky, Jill Lindquist and her team at Raging Crow fermented a mixed mash of 65.2% corn, 17.4% rye and 17.4% barley, then aged the distillate in brand new Kentucky oak barrels for 13 to 16 months.
