“For a long time it’s been a growing and competitive wine region; in the recent past it’s become famous for craft beer and cider – and now it has one distillery.”
want to seem like the xyz craft distillery because that’s something everyone can do – that’s kind of ubiquitous now in the distillery world. We were also mindful of things that could be co-opted by the big guys. We do talk about and promote small batch production, but big guys can also do small batch production – it’s all relative. Their small batch may be our yearly production, for example. I always say talk is cheap, which is why educating people who come to the distillery is so important. But that’s a fine line, especially when your philosophy is to allow the product to speak for itself. I don’t work the tasting room often – it’s not my main position here – but I do fill in from time to time. I’m really mindful to not explain to people who’ve just completed the tour what they’re going to taste or smell. I really want the people to judge the spirits on their own merit. I don’t want to personally influence their judgments in any way, shape or form. Being in wine country, people are often passing through on tours of the region and it’s not uncommon to see some grab a glass and start swirling. It’s almost like it’s a habit or an impulse; if there’s alcohol in your hand, it must need swirling. With any spirit, you don’t want to swirl it. You swirl wine to open it up and let alcohol evaporate from it. When you start swirling a 45 percent whiskey, you’re going to get a lot of alcohol evaporating – then you stick it in your nose, it burns, and you’re instantly turned-off.
about spirits. Even if people aren’t going home and drinking our product, we still want them to know how to better enjoy them in general. The first thing I notice when I visit Kinsip.ca is that it’s minimalistic, user-friendly. In no way do you insist upon the product, which speaks to your “talk is cheap” phi- losophy, Jeremiah. If anything, the website is demon- strative of your daringness and your confidence in your products: You advertise right there on your homepage
We really do take the time to educate because we care
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2017
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