Come warm your winter spirits with us over the next couple months.

First off, we’re at the Victoria Whisky Festival pouring our baby girl: Craigdarroch Spirit.  She’s growing up beautifully.  Come for an formal introduction or to meet her again — January 19-22 at the Hotel Grand Pacific.

Then, from 12-15 February, find us at the second Tales of the Cocktail in Vancouver at the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel.  As Tales’ founder Ann Tuennerman affirms:

Vancouver is such a rich, vibrant cocktail city. We couldn’t help but come back for a second year.

We’re participating at Tales’ Meet the Maker event on Monday the 13th, 12-2pm and pouring everything we’ve got!

The first five rows will get whet (ahem).  Hope you can join us!

‘Tis the season and bells are ringing — sleigh bells and wedding bells.  We’re celebrating.  Not only is the whole Victoria Spirits family together — the first time in almost a year and a half — but Mia and Nicholas are getting married!

In the true Spirit of Victoria, they’re throwing a cocktail party to get hitched.  Solomon Siegel will be mixing magic through our party.  Here’s his nuptial cocktail list (many on our recipe pages and more coming soon):

The Hartland Cocktail
Vic Gin, Poire William, Amaro Montenegro, grapefruit bitters, lemon juice & bubbly

Champagne Cocktail
Bubbly, sugar & bitters

The Aviation
Vic Gin, Luxardo Maraschino, lemon juice & crème de violette

Gin, Tea & Tonic
Vic Gin, green tea, tonic water & orange bitters

Martini
Vic Gin, vermouth & orange bitters

Affinity
Scotch, sweet vermouth, dry vermouth& bitters

Penicillin
Blended Scotch, smoky Scotch, lemon juice, honey syrup & Giffard ginger

Scotch Old Fashioned
Scotch, sugar & bitters

Ask me how do I feel
Ask me now that we’re cosy and clinging
Well sir, all I can say, is if I were a bell I’d be ringing!

Wishing you all the precious gift of time this holiday season.  May you spend it with the ones you love.

It’s been one month since Art of the Cocktail and we can still taste it!

Phil and Valerie bust a gut at our table, as Bryan pours on

We learned a lot, made new friends, and hosted a number of sessions and tours — including our Dr. Strangelove-themed Gin seminar with Solomon Siegel, enjoyed by Canadian House & Home’s Amy Rosen, among others.

To relive the magic, here are two featured cocktails from the event.  The first by Solomon of Hotel Rialto’s Veneto and the second by Moses McIntee, winner of our 2010 cocktail competition and so delicious, it’s worth reposting.

The Rialto Cocktail

60 ml  Victoria Gin
15 ml  Giffard Lichi-Li liqueur
10 ml fresh lemon juice
15 ml Silk Road Lapsang Souchong syrup*
2-3 dashes Bitterman’s Xocolatl Mole bitters

*To make the Lapsang Souchong syrup brew very strong Lapsang Souchong tea (steep over an hour) and then make a 1:1 simple syrup using the tea instead of water.

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.  Garish with a piece of very dark chocolate

Solomon shares The Rialto with the thirsty and adventurous

The Olde Vic

1.5 oz Victoria Gin
0.5 oz Campari
0.5 oz burnt Earl Grey syrup*
3 dashes twisted & bitter

*for syrup, heat 200ml water & 200ml sugar until dissolved. Add 2 tea bags (or loose equivalent) & boil for 5 mins. Let cool & remove bags.

Combine ingredients in mixing glass with ice.  Stir until chilled. Strain over new ice in an old fashioned glass & garnish with lemon peel.

See you all next year!

Last Sunday, Lauren Mote was shaking love at the “Farms to Forks 2″ event with Growing Chefs.  In preparation — and in tune with the harvest — she was roasting Williams (aka Bartlett) pears.

Here’s the recipe, courtesy of Lauren and the team at Kale & Nori Culinary Arts — the fab boutique catering and events co.

Willy’s Fizz
1.5 oz Victoria Gin
1 oz black cardamom & smoked black pepper syrup
0.75 oz lemon juice
2 dashes Bittered Sling “Peach & Pepper” Bitters
1 oz Parson’s Farm William’s Pear purée (roasted)
Soda

Shake all ingredients (except the soda) together, strain into a Collins glass with ice, and top with soda.  Swizzle, stick a straw in it, and let your taste buds melt with joy.

Shane Rhodes is onto something and we like it.  We like it so much, we’ve joined other liquor producers to support his poetry with the strong stuff.

Booze on the brain, Shane Rhodes as pictured in the TC

As Adrian Chamberlain recently wrote in the Times Colonist, the idea arose from a chat in Shane’s favourite pub about the poet’s vicious cycle:

They drink beer and discuss poetry, which inspires them to write poetry.  Meagre earnings from this enables them to buy more beer, talk more poetry and… well, you get the picture. [...] he realized he could “eliminate the middleman” by approaching purveyors of booze directly, in exchange for the dedications.  This takes the pressure off selling poems (via books and magazines) in order to purchase alcohol.

It’s brilliant and, as quoted in the article, for Valerie:

this is what people have to do to survive in the arts.

Last Friday, Shane shared his intoxicating poetry with a crowd at Moka House in Victoria.  Catch him reading his “Final Call” on youtube.  “Cocktails: In the Beginning”, dedicated to Victoria Spirits, is in his book, Err.

Gold Medal Plates — “the ultimate celebration of Canadian Excellence in cuisine, wine, the arts and athletic achievement” — begins next week.  We’ll be at the culinary competitions across the country, to raise funds for the Olympic team and celebrate la crème de la crème canadienne.

Last year we participated as the exclusive spirit in three cities.  This year, we’re delighted to be in nine cities and in the company of other Canadian producers.  (We like a strong team.)

In Winnipeg, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Saskatoon, Toronto, Ottawa, and Kelowna, the Spirits of Excellence bar will feature Alberta Springs Rye Whisky, Iceberg Vodka, and Victoria Gin.

Dave Mitton ‘in the zone’ at our 2010 Toronto Cocktail Competition

In eastern cities, cocktails will be crafted in the nimble hands of Dave Mitton of The Harbord Room, and, out west, Hailey Pasemko, from Nita Lake Lodge, will take charge of the bar.

Hailey Pasemko passes James Chatto a Half Asleep in Frog Pyjamas (from his online review)

For dates and tickets, visit the GMP site.  Join us to celebrate the best!

Peter’s got more than booze up his sleeve.  With his partner Natalie, he co-directs PODA — an ambitious NGO involved in community-led projects in Uganda.  We’ve posted more about their adventures here.

After spending much of last year building a school and community centre in Bwera, Peter and Nat are again fundraising for new projects.

In Victoria?  Please join us on October 22 for Opp Art Africa II: a night of live music and canapés (by our Anna Hunt and Phil Lecours), an art lottery and auction, and fundraiser for PODA.

Here’s how it rolls:  There’ll be 100 pieces of outstanding art and 100 lottery numbers.  Through the evening, lottery numbers will be drawn at random. When your number is drawn, you choose a piece from those remaining.  Every ticket holder is a winner!  Spectacular “experience packages” will also be auctioned.  $200 buys a lottery ticket and guarantees one piece of art / $20 entry for spectators.

Valerie’s dining room looks a bit like Christmas

This year’s artists include: Robert Youds, Ted Harrison, Daniel Laskarin, Rick and Suzy Raxlen, Pat Martin Bates, Heather Keenan, Ken Campbell,  Herbert Siebner, Flemming Jorgensen, Robert Bateman, Carol Evans,  Sue Coleman, Barbara Weaver-Bosson, Victor Bosson, Yves Vial, Manish Om Prakash, Dorothy Haegert, Helen Stewart,  Horst Molleken, Dorothy Field, Allan Mandell, Donna Ion, Bill Porteous, Timothy Wilson Hoey, Paul Burke, Alesha Fowlie, and Stewart Marshall.

This Flemming Jorgensen piece is Mia’s hot pick of the collection

Join us and see what else our family can cook up (although we promise there’ll be some Victoria Gin there too).  Find more details here or download the information sheet.

Join us for a Vic Gin-spiked Art of the Cocktail this weekend!

The Victoria Film Festival fundraiser brings bright lights from far and wide to shake, stir, instil & distil.  We’re up to our armpits in the action.

Join us Saturday for an Intro to Boutique Distilling and for Peter’s collaboration with Solomon Siegel: “Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Gin.”  As well as sharing Gin’s history, production, and cocktail secrets, they will once again remind you that:

Vodka martinis are the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face.  They intend to contaminate our precious bodily fluids! (Siegel, 2011)

Peter and Solomon don’t fool around.

(original photo c/o Doug Harrington)

We’ll also be in full force at the Grand Tasting event on Saturday night and hosting a special Distillery tour on Monday.

Learn more about this epic event and get tickets online.

“The contents of your survival kit is… one pair of nylons, five condoms, one .45 caliber pistol with two magazines, $200 in gold coins, 2 packs of chewing gum, one miniature bible and combination Russian phrase book…” (Dr. Strangelove, 1964).

We are participating in the 2011 Feast of Fields events in Metro Vancouver and on Vancouver Island.

Join us on Sunday, September 11 at Krause Berry Farms in Langley and on Sunday, September 18 at Marley Farm in Saanichton.   What’s this Feast?:

Feast of Fields is a 4 hour gourmet wandering harvest festival and FarmFolk CityFolk’s annual fundraising event. With a wine glass and linen napkin in hand, you can taste the very best of BC from chefs, vintners, brewers, farmers, fishers, ranchers and food artisans from across the province!  Feast of Fields highlights the connections between producer and chef, field and table, and farm folks and city folks. Feast of Fields is a gastronomic journey towards a sustainable, local food system.

Come celebrate the harvest with us!  Find your tickets here.

We just came through our first Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans and were blown away by the organisation, talent, and scale of the event.  It was impossible to see, hear, and drink everything — but we sure tried.

The centre of the action: The Hotel Monteleone

We participated in the ‘Meet your Craft Distiller’ section.  Many came to meet us, again and again.  Besides our familial charm, they were certainly returning for the cocktail: an awesome concoction created by our collaborator, Solomon Siegel of Hotel Rialto’s Veneto.

West Coast Cocktail

2 oz Victoria gin
3/4 oz Martini Bianco vermouth
4 dashes Strega

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a skewer with smoked salmon lox and smoked applewood cheddar. Dip the garnish in the drink and enjoy.

Victoria was also well represented by Shawn Soole of Clive’s Classic Lounge, nominated by Tales as one of the world’s best hotel bars.  It was also wonderful to see many of our pals from our Toronto Cocktail Comp.

We were inspired.  Moreover we are thrilled by some very promising new connections.  Sincere thanks to Tales for putting on an extraordinary event and for inviting us to participate.