Page 46 - Beverage MasterFebMarch 2021_Update

International News

Ontario Craft Spirits

By: Stuart Laidlaw
F or over a century, Canadian liquor meant spirits. Founded in 2012 by Master Distiller Geoff

one thing: rye whisky. But in the early
Dillon, they opened with a pair of gins, a white rye
2010s micro-distilleries started popping
cocktail bitters. At that time, bartenders in the
up across Ontario, focusing on high-qual- and a vodka, as well as Ontario’s first homegrown
ity, locally produced spirits that tell a story about province’s burgeoning craft cocktail scene were
the communities they come from. Today there are keen to get their hands on local spirits that told
more than 30 craft distilleries in Ontario, producing a story about where they themselves were from.
millions of litres of gin, vodka, white rum, single Nick Nemeth, at the time a Niagara-area restau-
malt whisky, and, of course, rye. But as the public’s rant manager, now Senior Manager for Beverage
thirst for locally produced drinks grows, distilleries Development at Boston Pizza, recalls visiting
are starting to test the waters with more adventur- Dillon’s Distillers in fall 2012, pre-opening: “What
ous, niche products. was great about visiting Dillon’s from the onset was
that, even though there were other Ontario craft
Dillon’s Small Batch Distillers was a founding distilleries already, they were experimenting with
member of Ontario’s current gin boom, and was new spirits and flavours in a way that no one else
an early mover in this new wave of Ontario craft was at that point.”

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