B.C. distillery first in Canada to join prestigious Scotch Malt Whisky Society | 24CA News

For the primary time ever, a Canadian whisky has been chosen to hitch the celebrated Scotch Malt Whisky Society — the primary to ever meet its excessive requirements.

Shelter Point Distillery in Campbell River, B.C., has been introduced with the honour.

“It’s very, very significant because to be selected for the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) means a lot,” John McCheyne, grasp model ambassador for the group.

“What’s happened over the years is that when we’ve bottled a new distillery at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, our members often, a sizable proportion of them, go out and buy the branded version of that whisky. So Shelter Point will likely see an upsurge in their branded bottling sales as a result of this.”

The Shelter Point Distillery opened in 2011 and James Marinus, head distiller, stated they spent a number of years previous to development to verify they had been able to construct and distill single malt and single grain whiskies.

“Being new at it you don’t know what the end result is going to be and now we’re almost 12 years in and we’ve learned a lot with how things finish off and it’s been a fun project,” Marinus stated.

He stated because the first batch, they’ve modified some grain varieties, and a few malting varieties and experimented with completely different barrels.

“You can learn from the other guys all you want but until you do it yourself, you don’t get a real good understanding of what the outcome is going to be,” Marinus added.

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McCheyne stated with the news that Shelter Point is now a member, they are going to grow to be recognized in nations all over the world.

He stated their members depend on the SMWS to seek out and confirm the most effective whisky.

“We believe that we gave whisky to the world. We have a long, long history, long heritage, prominence of whisky, it’s part of our community, it’s part of our life. It’s not just a drink to us, it’s part of what we are and I think that’s gone on for hundreds and hundreds of years,” McCheyne defined.

The society began in 1983 and has greater than 35,000 members.

It’s a privilege for distillers to be invited to hitch the group and solely members can buy SMWS whiskies. Each whisky is recognized solely by a quantity and is offered in a inexperienced bottle in order that the color of the drink when poured is without doubt one of the elements of enjoyment, McCheyne stated.

“We have a collaboration with many distilleries in Scotland to start with, it was all single malt, single cask scotch to begin with, all of the distilleries when they found out what we were trying to do, were very, very keen to work with us,” he stated.

As whisky started to be distilled in different nations, McCheyne stated their members needed some steering on a number of the finest merchandise worldwide.

“We have to sample the whisky before we bottle it,” he added. “All of the whisky, even the scotch, has to pass a tasting panel before we will bottle it and over the years, many of our samples that we’ve had have been rejected because we didn’t think they were interesting enough for our members.”

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