News & Openings

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News & Openings

• Earlier this year, Shelter Point Distillery founder Patrick Evans sold majority ownership of the distillery to Chris Nelson of Nelson Investment Inc. (Evans continues to farm on the Campbell River, B.C. property where the distillery is located.) Stephen Goodridge, a founder of Goodridge & Williams Distilling, has been appointed Shelter Point's new General Manager.

• Austin, Texas-based Milestone Brands acquired Victoria Distillers in June and plans to double volumes of products like Empress 1908 gin to more than 400,000 cases annually.

Source: https://www.touchwoodeditions.com/book/the-five-bottle-bar/

• This fall, Five Bottle Bar by Jessica Schact of Ampersand Distilling in Duncan, B.C., will be published by Touchwood Editions. It's a cocktail book to help people build a full cocktail bar with just five-plus bottles.

• Modern Luxuria wrote about Anohka Distillery, located west of Edmonton, makers of Tempest Gin.

• Eau Claire Distillery in Turner Valley, Alberta, launched a Stampede Canadian Rye Whisky in partnership with the Calgary Stampede in June.

• Alberta Open Farm Days on August 13 and 14 will include distillers like Pivot Spirits Craft Distillery in Rolling Hills, Alberta.

• PA Now wrote about the vibrant brewing and distilling scene in Saskatchewan, including Last Mountain Distillery and Lucky Bastard Distillers.

• The Ottawa Citizen reported that Dunrobin Distilleries is building a new distillery on the site of a former illicit cannabis grow-op site in downtown Stittsville, Ontario. Local legend has it that Elivs Presley once stopped at a former gas station on the same site to fill up his Cadillac in 1957.

• Apikol, a Quebec micro-distilling and agri-tourism operation, received a $100,000 Canadian Economic Development grant in July to support its beekeeping operations and honey-based spirits.

• In the U.S., on the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, women- and LGBTQ-owned Republic Restoratives Distillery in Washington, D.C., announced it would donate proceeds from the sale of its Dissent Gin to the National Network of Abortion Funds.

January 2022 Industry News

• Ottawa Magazine recently celebrated regional artisan distillers like Dairy Distillery, Dunrobin Distilleries, Artist in Residence and Whitewater Distilling.

• Eau Claire Distillery in Turner Valley, Alberta, released an innovative Collector’s Edition collaboration bottling of its Rupert’s Whisky with the Calgary Flames.

• Invermere, BC, mixologists Justin Atterbury and Steve Kuffler from Taynton Bay Spirits contributed a curated cocktail list to the opening of the Blind Pig Pub in Cranbrook, BC, according to the Cranbrook Daily Townsman.

• Alberta’s newest farm-to-flask operation, Anohka Distillery, opened in Parkland County in December; its Tempest Gin is made in an unfiltered style with “more than 10x the botanicals,” sourced from around the globe.

• Legendary brewer Peter McAuslan has turned distiller with the release of Peter McAuslan’s Quebec Single Malt Whisky, a lightly peated whisky aged in ex-bourbon.

• The Saanich News reported that a bottle of Shelter Point single malt was presented to the Speaker of the House of Commons by MP Rachel Blaney, and will be considered for the Speaker’s Selection whisky of the year.