Canadian producers are making a name for themselves on the world stage – without losing sight of where they come from. In an increasingly globalized drinks market, staying authentic can be a challenge, but for the producers featured in this issue, success abroad doesn’t mean abandoning their roots.
In fact, it’s their connections to the places they’ve been and the people they’ve met that sets them apart – and makes them contenders far beyond Canadian borders.
A growing number of distillers are embracing honey as more than just a sweetener. These producers are leaning into local apiaries, experimenting with wild fermentations and letting the bees take the lead in shaping these terroir-driven spirits. Read all about the tricky, sticky substance yielding spectacular results in the Cover Story.
From a soaring bell tower to underground barrel cellars carved into volcanic rock, Mission Hill Family Estate Winery is as architecturally awe-inspiring as the wines it produces. In the Winery Profile chief winemaker Taylor Whelan walks us through life atop Mount Boucherie, where drones buzz over vineyards, fermentation tanks deliver data in real time and a herd of Scottish Highland cattle helps aerate the soil.
Speaking of Scottish, Canadian entrepreneurs Rob and Kelly Carpenter have done the unthinkable: opened the first single malt whisky distillery in Scotland’s capital in nearly a century. Holyrood Distillery, their ambitious project built in a 200-year-old stone building near Arthur’s Seat, is a high-tech, high-flavour operation where beer yeast meets barley, and brewers’ mash bills are reimagined for whisky. It’s also a love story – between two people, between Canada and Scotland, and between tradition and innovation.
Meanwhile, Canadian distillers are seeing a sales boom thanks to a surge of national pride. As we explore the “Buy Canadian” movement – fuelled by trade tensions and a growing desire to support local – has led to dramatic growth for small-batch spirits producers across the country.
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