It’s a hot summer morning when I line up with Brianna Young (edible Newfoundland & Labrador’s saleswoman extraordinaire) at the start line of the Newfoundland Distillery Company’s 5K Distillery Dash.

Usually I look forward to running, but in this heat, I’ll admit to being more excited about the ice-cold post-run cocktail promised me as part of the race package. I lift my French braids from my neck where they are sticking to my sweaty skin as I survey the colourful crowd of over 200 people around me. It is an impressive turnout for the inaugural event in a town an hour from St. John’s; in fact, during initial race planning, the distillery staff had thought aiming for 100 participants was an optimistic goal. But as registrations poured in, they kept raising that number until finally cutting it off at 200 runners. They have plans to make it even bigger in 2024, and based on the hum from the excited crowd around me, it would be an increase well-received.

In fact, everything the distillery co-founders do seems to garner local enthusiasm and support—from the first experimental production of gin shared with friends when the business idea was in its infancy, to the procurement of approvals and permits to open the first-of-its-kind craft distillery in Newfoundland. Which is fortunate, because co-founder Peter Wilkins admits he didn’t really know what he was getting himself into.

“Bill came to me in 2016 and said ‘I’ve got this cunning idea’—and it’s always a bit frightening when somebody says they have a cunning plan,” Wilkins notes. “He said, ‘I want to make whisky.’ I hadn’t realized how much work a distillery is; I thought sure—Bill would do all the work and make all the booze, and I would taste it and perhaps sell a little bit,” Wilkins says. He’s referring to William Carter, a professional Cordon Bleu trained chef and long-time friend, who had been distilling local botanicals to preserve them, decided Wilkins was the obvious partner choice for this project. After all, for a time, Wilkins worked as a “professional drinker” of sorts, starring in a TV show that sent him and his co-host “around the world drinking”—errr that is, “investigating how other cultures approach alcohol.”

With Carter living nearby in the Bay Roberts region, the pair worked to open a seaside distillery in Clarke’s Beach, where Wilkins has lived for the past 20 years. Originally from Leicestershire and London, Wilkins fell in love with a Newfoundland woman he met in Prague, and happily moved to her home province 25 years ago. Despite his four kids all growing up in the province but then moving back to the UK as adults, Wilkins says that home is here on the Rock. “We go back quite a lot to see friends and family and see the idealized version of it, but being here is really wonderful—I come back here and go, ‘oh, isn’t it lovely and beautiful.’”

Having fallen in love with his wife’s hometown many years ago, he’s delighted to be building deeper community connections with distillery staff, collaborators—and foragers. “We have an amazing array of local foragers who bring all sorts of things to us,” Wilkens explains. “We have people who pick all the different kinds of berries, so we’re very lucky that way.” The distillery relies on these berries and all manner of other locally sourced ingredients to create their terroir-driven spirits of rum, gin, vodka, bitters, aquavit, ready-to-drink cocktails and, as of November 30th, 2023, whisky—the drink that inspired it all.

“We wanted to make whisky from day one, but it’s the hardest one and requires a long experimental process,” says Wilkins. Luckily, the challenge of creating spirit recipes appeals to his artistic and process-driven skill sets—qualities evidenced by his impressive artist resume that, among many other accolades, includes shows across Canada, in Venice and in London, pieces in the Canadian Consulate in New York and the first artist-in-residence at Memorial University. “Actually,” he adds, “they all have their own special complications—each spirit is quite hard to make when you’re doing it for the first time!”

Making spirits may be challenging, but Carter and Wilkins have dressed the distillery for success with impressive equipment and processes: a bespoke copper pot still built for them in Victoria, B.C. under strict regulations gives them a head start with the spirits, the copper acting as a natural flavour filter; a charcoal filter cleans up any unwanted stray flavours to ensure a consistent product; and even their building location at sea level might play a role. “Pressure is lower the closer you get to sea level, which means the process takes longer. The slower the process happens, the better the resulting product,” Wilkins explains. “Like a slow cook of a stew.”

Despite finding himself in a position far and above his initial expectations of simply taste-testing spirits, Wilkins couldn’t be happier. The work is both fun and fulfilling, and he loves hearing when people enjoy the products they’ve laboured over. “It’s always really wonderful when people say they love the spirits. There’s something a little bit magic about creating a product that people tend to enjoy at the end of their day and celebrate their days with,” he notes. (“Sometimes I think they just say nice things because they know I’m involved,” he adds, laughing, “but I think quite often they genuinely enjoy them!”)

On top of all of that, “We’re in a fantastic location, and it’s wonderful coming to work every day just to gaze out of the window!” Truly, I’m not sure how he—or any of the distillery staff—ever actually gets any work done; I’m confident that if my work window overlooked the beach, I’d inevitably spend my days staring unproductively at the sparkling sea.

Speaking of which—I reluctantly tear my gaze from the cool temptation of the ocean and turn to Brianna. “I’m not going to break any speed records in this heat today,” I say. “Let’s just get across the finish line without melting,” she responds, only half-kidding. A very sweaty five kilometres later, we finish the race and make a beeline into the distillery to collect on those (revitalizing/refreshing/restoring/insert-other-rejuvinating-adjectives-here), hard-earned cocktails. 🍹

The Newfoundland Distillery Co

14 Conception Bay Hwy, Clarke’s Beach

thenewfoundlanddistillery.com

Danielle Steiner is a freelance writer and editor who is equally happy sweating through a long run, or relaxing by the fire with a warming beverage.  willowtreewords.com

Ritche Perez is a photographer based in Portugal Cove, St. Philips and St. John’s, with a particular interest in public space and people. inbetweendays.ca

inbetweendays.ca

This article appeared in edible Newfoundland & Labrador, Warmth, No 3