Our Home & Native Gin

Canadian distillers look to local ingredients for their terroir-driven spirits.

Gin has always been associated with specific geography. It was born in the Low Countries and raised in England, with styles even named after London and Plymouth. Yet juniper, gin’s main botanical, grows almost everywhere and typically has the same distinct evergreen note. Historically, there hasn’t been much “terroir” to gin — until recently.

Craft distilling has created a generation of global gins that emphasize their sense of place through ingredients and flavours, with Canada proudly at the forefront of the terroir gin movement. One of the first to delve deeply into terroir was the distinctively yellow Ungava, originally developed by independent Quebec cider producer Domaine Pinnacle (now owned by Pernod Ricard via Corby, its Canadian subsidiary). Founder Charles Crawford was inspired to forage for juniper, crowberry and other northern boreal botanicals near Ungava Bay, creating a gin that spoke loudly of its origin.

A boom in Quebec gin produced dozens of innovative craft-distilled spirits. In Montreal, Cirka Distilleries infuses 33 indigenous botanicals into its Gin Sauvage. Distillerie du Fjord, located near Monts-Valin National Park, harvests local fir buds and green alder for its foresty Km12 Gin. In the Gaspésie, O’Dwyer Distillerie forages local mushrooms for its Gin Radoune.

The notion of terroir-driven gin has caught on Canada-wide. Both The Newfoundland Distillery and Nova Scotia’s Still Fired Distilleries imbue their gins with the Maritime spirit by hand-harvesting dulse for their Seaweed Gin and Fundy Gin, respectively.

Sustainable winged kelp flavours the coastal Seaside Gin from Vancouver Island’s Sheringham Distillery. B.C. is home to almost one-third of Canada’s craft distillers, exploring its sense of place through spirits like the smoked-rosemary Black Moon Gin from Legend Distilling in the Okanagan, and the Pacific Northwest hop-infused Cascadian Gin from North Vancouver’s The Woods Spirit Company.

Just across the Rockies, Canmore’s Wild Life Distillery crafts a summer seasonal Alberta Botanical Gin from a mix of different local ingredients each year. Banff’s Park Distillery seasons its fittingly named Alpine Dry Gin with foraged spruce tips.

Completing a national bar of terroir gins, Saskatchewan’s Bandits Distilling flavours its Red Coat Gin with local birch bud and lilac. In Ontario, Sudbury’s Crosscut Distillery uses foraged wild juniper in its Local Harvest Gin, which is made with local grains. Black’s Distillery Gin in Peterborough also uses a local grain base, made from Red Fife wheat grown in the region.

Perhaps it’s time we start referring to Canadian-style gin in its many ultra-local variations.

4 Terroir-Driven Gins To Try

Ungava Gin (43.1%) Immediately identifiable by its bright yellow colour, Ungava offers equal parts forest, spicy pepper, fresh herbs and juniper on the nose and palate. It makes a lovely but curiously coloured martini. $40.

Sheringham Seaside Gin (43%) Bursting with floral and juniper aromas, this creamy gin with a lightly sweet body is accented by the taste of a beachfront breeze. Wondrously sippable on its own, it makes a fine gin and tonic. $50.

Black’s Distillery Gin (40%) On its Red Fife wheat spirit, this distillery layers nine botanicals, including cubeb (a relative of the pepper family), sage and apple for a symphony of herbal notes in the body. Enjoy it straight, over ice. $50.

Wild Life Alberta Botanical Gin (42.1%)
Pale pink in colour, this one-off seasonal spirit exudes fruity juniper on the nose, with foraged yarrow and Labrador tea adding botanical notes to the lightly spicy body. It makes a delightfully different G&T. $60.

Prices and availability vary by province.