From June 13 through July 5, Drink Atlantic became the world’s first pandemic-era drinks festival to take place entirely online, through eight seminars, panels and virtual tastings via video-conference. The conference incorporated participation from a number of Nova Scotia artisan distilleries into two seminars, including Ironworks Distillery in Lunenberg, Compass Distillers in Halifax and Barrelling Tide Distillery in Port Williams. With a mandate to “bring together the drinker, the maker, and the crafter, to concoct a holistic beverage experience and entice Halifax to drink better,” the festival attracted nearly 400 participants worldwide (with many post-festival views of archived videos afterwards) to the online seminars, says Matt Boyle of The Clever Barkeep, one of the festival organizers.
The popular Mullligan Stew podcast by Terry David Mulligan recently broadcasted an interview with David Farran, the founder of Turner Valley, Alberta’s Eau Claire Distillery.
A Georgian Bay, Ontario-based distillery won a gold medal at the 2020 San Francisco World Spirits Competition for its Heretic Spirits Gin.
Spritz fans can find a handy round-up of Canadian aperitivos, including artisan spirit bottlings, compiled this summer at Eat North.
The artisan distilling program at Niagara College added a new product to its School Spirits line of student-made spirits, which already includes a fruit eau-de-vie, vodka and gin. According to the Welland Tribune, the new School Spirits Rum, made from brown sugar and molasses, was double-pot distilled, slowly fermented for two weeks then aged for a year in small oak casks formerly used to mature bourbon.