(photo: Tony Dyck, Owner of Okanagan Spirits with Mike Berry, President of the Friends of Fintry)
With locations in both Vernon and Kelowna, Okanagan Spirits is the perfect place to spice up your taste buds. Made from B.C. fruit, the craft distillery’s 25 spirits are produced right before your eyes in 250 litre copper pot stills from Germany. A tasting at Okanagan Spirits is more than just sampling the delicious fruit brandies and liqueurs, as it includes an education on distilling such as how to drink and store spirits.
Most recently, Okanagan Spirit’s ‘Laird of Fintry’ Single Malt Whisky has become a hot item in the Okanagan’s food and beverage scene. The journey towards this whisky has truly been a labour of love for Okanagan Spirits that started seven years ago when they sourced their first batch of whisky wort and began the process to create this small-batch spirit.
Fermented and double distilled in the copper pot still, this whisky is barrel-aged for six years. It pays homage to Captain James Cameron Dun-Waters who first settled in the Okanagan in 1908 and who brought many a bottle of Scotch over to Canada under his own label. Last year, the first barrel of this whisky made from 100% B.C. malted barley sold out immediately.
“Over that time we had been talking about our whisky and people love whisky, people are authorities on whisky,” says Rodney Goodchild, marketing and operations manager at Okanagan Spirits. “We knew that the demand for the bottles would outstrip what we had.”
With only about 300 bottles available, this whisky is in high demand. Starting in September, Okanagan Spirits will be accepting entries for the lottery release of the second barrel of this whisky. Stay tuned to Okanagan Spirits’ social media channels and website for details.
~ Laura Lushington