Okanagan distillery wins top honours

KELOWNA – Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery has been named “Distillery of the Year” at a prestigious competition in Europe.

This was the second time in a row that the craft distillery, with locations in both Kelowna and Vernon, entered the World Spirits Awards winning the competition’s highest honour.  In addition to the “Distillery of the Year” award, Okanagan Spirits also won “Spirit of the Year” for its blackcurrant liqueur.  The high honours mean the craft distillery has retained its “World Class Distillery” designation.

The 2015 World Spirits Awards were held this week in Denmark.  Okanagan Spirits beat out distilleries from Australia, the United States and countries from all over Europe.

The local  distillery entered eight spirits this year, all of them receiving medals.  Three of the spirits received a “Double Gold,” which is the hardest distinction to earn.

Senior distiller Peter von Hahn represented Okanagan Spirits in Denmark.

“My thanks are not just to the hard-working team at Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery  but also the enthusiastic suppliers of high quality B.C. grown grains, fruit and berries by many growers, orchardists and fruit packing plants,” says von Hahn.

Okanagan Spirits CEO and President of the Craft Distillers Guild of B.C. Tyler Dyck says the awards are important not only for the province but for Canada.

“This is huge not only for distilling in B.C. but also for establishing Canadian craft distilleries  as a force to be reckoned with on the world stage, ” says Dyck.

In all, 65 distilleries from 25 different countries entered this year’s awards.