SUMMER SPIRITS: SHAKEN OR STIRRED

Summer

Shaken or Stirred

By Blair Phillips & Davin De Kergommeaux

Summer passes quickly. One minute you’re smearing on sunscreen, then two blinks later, you're back salting icy sidewalks. So, why not take some time from summer’s daily grind to enjoy the sunny season? If this means sitting outside in the warm sun, cocktail in hand, Canadian distilleries have been working hard to ensure your bar cart is well stocked with spirits that translate your cold summer drinks into liquid deliciousness.

Dairy Distillery Vodkow

Almonte, Ontario

The thriving town of Almonte, Ontario, once supported several woollen mills. When cheaper foreign textiles began arriving in the 1950s, the mills closed one by one, leaving the sheep to work in the bedtime counting industry. Nearby, Canada's largest dairies produce a waste by-product called milk permeate. A well-rested Omid McDonald saw an opportunity in this by-product and opened Dairy Distillery in Almonte to distil the permeate into vodka.

The resulting “Vodkow” comforts every tastebud like a hundred tiny pillows. Its soft and creamy texture underlies delicate flavours that float across the palate with subtle indulgent notes of a vanilla milkshake. Sip Vodkow on ice or shaken into your favourite refreshing cocktail.

Sheringham Distillery Rye Whisky

Vancouver Island, B.C.

When Jason and Alayne MacIsaac opened the Sheringham Distillery on south Vancouver Island, they dreamed of making whisky. Jason had spent twenty-three years as a chef studying flavours and aromas, perfecting how they work together. As a distiller, his talent for finding these abundant and seasonal ingredients moved from food to gin. It was a smashing success. Now, his ultra-small-batch whiskies are coming of age. These include one made with rye grown on British Columbia farms. Like Sheringham’s gins, this rye is robust, and it’s also loaded with fresh oak and ripe stone fruits while weaving delicate and warm spicy accents throughout. Rich rye grain notes braided through this whisky make you wonder if Sheringham has found a way to put an entire field into a barrel. Robust, delicious and refined, if this whisky were a movie, it would be Jaws vs Bambi.

Distillerie la Manufacture Panacée Gin

Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec

Panacea was the Colonel Sanders of Greek mythology. Her secret recipe of herbs and spices was said to cure anything. Sanders may not be able to make that claim, and neither can Distillerie la Manufacture, but the flavours in their Panacée Gin, French for the Greek goddess, are 100% truth.

Laurent Roche-Ballard, Pier-Luc Roussel, Maxime Chouinard and Michael Bourdages opened the distillery in the small Quebec town of Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, surrounded by a stunning Laurentians landscape. To develop their gin recipe, they collected local flora such as organic wild blueberries, sweet-fern sprouts and dune pepper – a plant with flavours somewhere between black pepper and evergreen.

Panacée is presented in a gorgeous tin flask to match the liquid inside. This tremendous modern Quebec gin pairs peppery high notes beautifully with zesty citrus and juniper, all balanced by a definitive pinch of earthy forest and floral tones. We guarantee that Zeus never had a gin close to this on Mount Olympus. Perhaps that explains his mood swings.

The Farmhouse Spirits Company Sight Vodka

Bradford, Ontario

It’s tempting to think that vodka made from carrots and with a rabbit on the label would be something Wile E. Coyote might order from an ACME catalogue. For Riga Farms, however, making vodka with carrots solved a problem. The farm, near Bradford, Ontario, grows over 300 acres of leafy vegetables and root crops. They pluck about half of these carrots from the ground and package them for eating. The scraggly ones that no one wants become vodka.

After combining these lucky carrots with corn, they ferment and distil them into a new vodka with a Merrie Melodies of flavour. Sight vodka features a cohesive and sweet earthy profile with a slippery mouthfeel. The vodka finishes with a peppery bite planted with delicate savoury tones. It’s just perfect for adding subtle depth to a spiced-up summer Caesar.

BarChef Late Harvest Vesper

Toronto, Ontario

The Vesper Martini became a classic cocktail when James Bond ordered one in the 1953 book Casino Royale. At Toronto’s BarChef, instead of relying on Bond gadgets, Frankie Solarik brought the concept of the Vesper into his lab to re-invent it with homegrown Canadian flavour. He makes his cocktail with an exclusive high octane spruce tip gin distilled at Concord Ontario’s Still Waters distillery. Spruce tips imbue this gin with bright hits of citrus, floral accents and green forest notes.

Solarik mixes the gin with a regional Canadian Late Harvest Vidal wine, which adds tropical fruit layers. A splash of the bar’s Bay Leaf and Lavender Bitters and a dash of sweetener balance the cocktail. This is elegance, refined, and very flavourful. Shaken or stirred? Solarik resolves this Bond debate by making it easy. Simply pour this stylish and flavour-forward ready-to-drink cocktail over ice straight from the bottle and enjoy. For a refreshing summer twist, pour two ounces of the Late Harvest Vesper over ice and top with your favourite tonic water.

“A Martini is always stirred, by the way - always.”

Recipes

Mooberry Sweet Cream (Credit: Dairy Distillery) Makes 1 Cocktail

Cocktail:

½ oz Vodkow 2 oz Vodkow Cream 4 Blackberries and Raspberries Handful of ice cubes 1 pinch of Ground Black Peppercorn for garnish

In a shaker, muddle the berries. Add ice, Vodkow and Vodkow Cream. Shake and double strain into a tulip glass. Garnish with fresh ground black peppercorn. (Berries can be substituted with what’s in season.)

Red Rye Hand (Credit: Mike Norbury) Makes 1 Cocktail

Mint Stem Oleo

250 g sugar 25 g mint stems 150 ml hot water

Cocktail:

2 oz Sheringham Rye 1/3 oz Mint Stem Oleo 3 muddled strawberries 3 dashes angostura bitters Handful of ice cubes Crushed ice Mint Sprig for garnish

For the Mint Stem Oleo, in a saucepan, muddle the mint stems and sugar into a paste. Add hot water, then stir until dissolved. Fine strain into a clean jar. It will store in the fridge for two weeks.

For the cocktail, muddle the strawberries in a shaker. Add ice, rye, mint stem oleo and angostura bitters. Stir until cold and silky smooth. Fine strain into a rocks glass over crushed ice. Garnish with a mint sprig.

Laurentides Negroni (Credit Maxime Coubes) Makes 1 Cocktail

Cocktail:

1 1/4 oz Gin Panacée 3/4 oz sweet vermouth 3/4 oz Campari Handful of ice cubes Chunk of ice Orange Peel Twist for garnish

Add ice, gin, sweet vermouth and Campari to a mixing glass. Stir for 15 seconds with a bar spoon. Strain into a rocks glass over a chunk of ice. Garnish with an orange twist.

Blair Phillips

Blair is a lifestyle and spirits writer specializing in Canada's growing landscape of spirits and distilleries. He is the Canadian contributing editor for Whisky Magazine and writes for the popular Distiller app. He also contributed features for drinkingmadeeasy.com during the TV Series' three season run. He judges several spirits competitions including the World Whisky Awards and Canadian Whisky Awards.

Davin De Kergommeaux

Davin is a drinks writer, public speaker and spirits judge, recognized as the world expert on Canadian whisky. He has travelled to four continents to visit spirits producers and distilleries, and make presentations about Canadian spirits. In 2016 the Globe and Mail named him one of the 50 most influential Canadians in food and drink, then in 2018 the New York Times said his significance in the revival of Canadian whisky could not be overstated.

The Definitive Guide to Canadian Distilleries is an indispensable guide to the past, present and future of Canada's distilleries. Written by bona fide Canadian spirits expert Davin de Kergommeaux, this book covers more than 200 of the most exciting and cutting-edge distilleries, large and small, who are shaping the industry today.

Just a decade ago, fewer than a dozen distilleries, concentrated in two provinces, produced almost all the spirits (mainly whisky) made in Canada. Today, there is a movement afoot in Canada's spirits world. There has never been a better selection of rich specialty spirits--from gin to moonshine, from flavoured vodka to liqueurs--to tempt the palate and supplement your long-time favourites. Despite flourishing public enthusiasm for Canada's distillers, other than incomplete and inaccurate web-based information, no one has offered consumers an all-inclusive guide... until now.