Today we were at BC Distilled, the spirit showcase featuring distilleries from all across British Columbia. Gathered to present their new and latest award winning spirits for industry and consumers alike. It is a great way to get to know what our province has to offer by sipping and sampling.
2024 marks the 9th year of the BC Distilled festival, the largest spirits event in Canada reserved exclusively for local artisan distilleries. We were invited to the day session as media and industry, convening at the Italian Cultural Centre on Saturday, April 13.
In years past the venue has always been the Croatian Cultural Centre, so I found the switch up in venue an improvement. The hall was spacious with vaulted ceilings. There was plenty of room for all vendors to be hosted in the shared space, thus creating a more lively and robust drinking experience.
Also new this year are canapés. Small bites for self serving, stationed at standing tables. Skewers of tomato, bocconcini, and olive. Spoons of tuna tartare with an avocado crema. And a vegetarian crescent shaped ravioli in a cream sauce.
The actual festival featured 30 distilleries, and included a handful of non-alcoholic vendors. Equipped with a take home souvenir branded shot glass, each ticket holder was able to meet the makers of the province’s best liquors, and taste the wide variety of spirits that they were pouring.
Each brand came prepared to sample 5-8 bottles from their line. Naturally, you had the option to try them all, and the question became were you able to. Spit buckets and wash stations were available. I, myself focused on the new and the most unique. Getting particularly excited over the event exclusives, and that will be the focus of this post.
And if you found something you liked you were able to take a bottle of it home with you at the Legacy Liquor’s pop-up retail shop within the event. Many of the spirits sampled were craft and small batch, with limited distribution they were not able to get into the local BCL. Meaning most of which, you could only get here.
I have noted that the liqueur category is one of the quickest expanding spirit subsets in Canada; with more than just grain offerings like vodka, gin, and whiskey garnering attention.
Maple Leaf Spirits, a distillery in Penticton was new to BC Distilled, and were here showcasing their line of cherry based liqueurs.
Similarly, New Wave Distilling in Abbotsford uses blueberries as the foundation to all their spirits. They had a varieties of flavours that included a tropical mango passionfruit vodka, and a gin coloured pink with hibiscus.
The team at Mad Lab was high off their recent garnered social media attention. During their last visit Prince Harry and his wife Megan Markle dined at Vancouver’s Vij’s, where they enjoyed Mad Lab’s collaboration gin so much, that Vikram himself gifted them a bottle of it to take with them. And today Mad Lab was showcasing their latest team up with and for Vij’s restaurant: a whiskey.
Monashee Distillery from Revelstoke had a ski luge that we were not able to shot from (I had to ask). We did get a taste of their Cask Strength Bourbon style whiskey made from water, yeast, and grain. As the bottle advertised The Doctor’s Orders tasted exactly like vanilla, caramel, and wafer.
Odd Society in Vancouver had a lovely strawberry gin. Their Wallflower smelled and tasted just like the summer fruit.
And Sons of Vancouver had a fun melon liqueur prepared with real and artificial melon flavour.
I was the most excited learning about Holocene Distillery. 100% new to BC Distilled and the spirit scene, only just opening 5 months prior on Victoria Island. The entire operation is run by the duo helming the booth today. They focus on vodka, gin, and liqueurs prepared with botanicals from “your backyard”. They had such original ingredients like stinging nettle in their gin, which is good for allergies.
They also launched 3 new floral liqueurs on the day of the show. One of which tasted just like cream soda when you add to it some sparkling soda.
The Woods in North Vancouver were doling out teaser tastes of their new Mother’s Day mixed cocktail. Done in collaboration with local bakery Gabi & Jules. Currently un-named and only available 2 weeks before Mother’s Day. It was a mix of Gabi & Jules’ blueberry earl grey syrup and The Woods’ Lemoncello.
Speaking of pre-mixed cocktails, it was nice that a few distilleries were giving us the option of having their spirit as a cocktail, as appose to a straight half ounce shot. Like Sharpe Distillery from Cawston which prepared a Clarified London Fog cocktail.
I found Copper Penny’s oyster gin Caesars one of the best that I have had. The owners pre-batch it, not telling their own staff what goes into the mix. And when it is out, it is out for the night.
And looking for more premixed options, I enjoyed Rain City from Squamish’s Ginseng and Rye Old Fashion. The first in a series of mixed cocktails. They got this idea from one such in Korea, sweetened with maple syrup.
Antidote Distilling from Port Alberni had a unique Black Truffle Vodka. Not overly truffle-forward, but a nice savoury option with its own tasting, making it good for mixing.
We also discovered Snowgoose’s gluten-free rice whiskey. They have a regular and smooth version, and the latter was just as easy as promised. A clear amber coloured spirit that is probably the smoothest whiskey I have had to date.
And Stillhead Distillery had a 3 year tequila finished in rye, that they just pulled out of their cask for today. With a hand written label we were able to taste this warm and creamy agave spirit at 65.6%.
And there was so much more that I did not get to discover at BC Distilled. There was just too many to try and not enough time in the day to do it. This will continue to be an event I appreciate, as a way to learn more about what goes into your cup, and the people behind it. In case you missed it this year, be sure to bookmark it for the next.
bcdistilled.ca
