Artisan Distillers Canada was launched in February of this year, following the release of results of the 2019 Canadian Artisan Spirit Competition. Since then, we’ve continued to develop plans for other programs, some of which I’ve outlined below. These programs are designed to fulfil the following goals:
Provide distillers will programs and tools to grow their markets.
Create opportunities to share ideas and best practices.
Help to foster a sense of community amongst distillers across the country.
2019 Recap
ADC Membership: About 50 distilleries from across the country have joined ADC. Our goal remains to build membership value to ensure it’s an easy, inexpensive decision to join.
Newsletter: We have published a newsletter every month since February, and grown our audience by about 50 per cent.
CASC: Entries into the 2019 Canadian Artisan Spirit Competition (CASC), which published its results in February, grew by about 40 per cent over the inaugural year in 2018. CASC also expanded to include branding and bitters categories.
What’s in Store for 2020?
CASC results: Results will be announced on Wednesday, February 5, 2020.
ADC Spirits Panel: Do you have a new product, or one on which you’re not sure you’ve hit the mark? In spring 2020 we’ll be launching a Spirits Panel from which you can get an in-depth, no-holds-barred evaluation of your spirits by a team of industry experts and enthusiasts.
Artisan Distillers Conference: Save the date! On November 2–3, 2020, we’ll be hosting Canada’s first conference created exclusively for artisan distillers! In January we’ll run a survey to get some ideas on what (and who) you’d like to see, but you don’t have to wait — drop us a line with your ideas.
I’m going on tour: I’ll be traveling to Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia to try to visit as many distilleries as possible over 10 days in June.
Artisan Distillers seal? The results of our November-issue poll were quite supportive of the idea of implementing a national seal indicating that your distillery is locally-owned and distills its own spirits. We’re going to continue working on this, and will solicit more feedback as the idea develops.