By David MacDonald J eremiah, who is the ‘we’ in Kinsip and how did it all come together? JS: In terms of ownership, it’s a collaborative effort between me, my wife Sarah, her brother Michael and his wife Maria. We purchased the distillery from a husband and wife team here in Bloomfield. It was previously called 66 Gilead Distill- ery, which is the address of the farm. The idea of buying a distillery wasn’t ever a consideration for us because we were initially looking to start one from scratch – we just didn’t know where. The stars aligned for us, really. Prince Edward County had been a meeting place for our young families. My wife and I and our two young children lived in Ottawa at the time
and Michael and Maria and their two young ones, well they still live in Toronto, and so it was an ideal halfway point for getaways. I’ve been fulltime from day one; the other three have day jobs. Michael and Maria commute in quite often – everyone holds a piece to the puzzle. When we took-over the existing distillery it was the first sale of a craft distillery in Ontario. To transition the brand to Kinsip has been an adventure to say the least – and the previous owners have been very helpful over this past year. We’ve positioned the brand quite broadly, and I’m not just talking about what you see online.
We don’t have distillery in the name for a reason. We didn’t
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NOVEMBER 2017 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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