We have all seen the influx of local distilleries open up in the province in the last two to five years, a flood of gin, vodka; liqueurs and the ilk have hit the private liquor stores like a torrent. There is however one category of sprits that is yet to make it to the mainstream of British Columbia’s best bars and liquor stores and it is one of the most revered and broad spirits in the world, whisky. Whisky is something that only a handful of distilleries has had the opportunity to produce enough to bottle for the market; but as our industry blossoms and ages so does the release of small production single malt and blended whisky.

Our modern distilling industry is less than a decade old and out of the distilleries that have been around long enough to produce a product of standard is but a handful. Whisky is expensive, not at the till where the customer hands over there hard earned cash for a bottle but the whole process is costly from the moment that the barley seed is planted in the ground to the time that it is poured from the barrel and bottled. British Columbia’s legislation makes the process of sources provincial grains, “Because the way that the rules are written for craft distilleries, we need to use only BC ingredients. This creates some challenges in finding some ingredients. The upside is that it gives an incentive to have an authentic be product.” Matt Phillips of Phillip’s Fermentorium says; malting fermenting and distilling along with having the space and capital to age the whisky properly and long-term return on investment. But as the passion from distillers to create a quality spirit, there are many distilleries doing this.

Canadian whisky as a whole has seen a surge in the last few years, seeing a focussing of flavours and releases from larger distilleries country wide. Canadian whisky has limited rules which have lead to producers here in British Columbia to maximise on what they have liberty to do. Some of the oldest distilleries in the province such as Okanagan Spirits, Merridale, Victoria Spirits & Urban Distilleries have already released some quality single malts and blended whiskies that have not really seen enough of a response from the average consumer; many being released with raffles and secret buy ups at private events. The whiskies are very good, varying in style from bright, grassy single malts to deep, caramelised offerings.

One of those oldest distilleries, the third oldest to be exact is Merridale on Vancouver Island which became licensed in 2007. Of course being a part of a established cidery meant that distilling fruit into classic eau de vies but it was when proprietor Rick Pipes wanted to experiment with organic British Columbia barley that a small run of 333 bottles of Whisky Jack’s was born; “But we still had one barrel of organic BC barley sitting in a new American oak barrel. By 2012 we decided that we had to make our whisky more consistent with our product line. We had just removed our first batch of Cowichan Apple Brandy from a French oak barrel and decided that whisky with an apple finish seemed like a good fit. After two years in the apple brandy barrel our 7 year old whisky was perfect”, Rick says.

Malting grain has always been a big expense and was a big reason behind Phillip’s recently installing a malting plant onsite in Victoria, “Well, it dovetails well into our whiskey plans, as it allows us to use grains grown here on the island, giving us a real connection to place” Matt says. Along with a long wide assortment of barrels, the direction of whisky coming out in the next decade from the Fermentorium is going to be exciting. From Sheringham in Sooke laying down a red fife whisky, Liberty on Granville Island releasing their first aged whisky this year, yearly releases of Laird of Fintry from Okanagan Spirits and Pemberton’s Organic Single Malt along with Shelter Point’s releases soon, the British Columbian Whisky trade is going to gain momentum and show the rest of Canada how we can showcase our own terroir and style.

Originally published in Alchemy Magazine, Dec 2015.