bcbusiness.ca OctOber 2015 BCBusiness 77
However, developing an industry on the
scale of Scotland's is unlikely—especially given B.C.'s
restrictive rules as to what quali"es as craft. The B.C.
government de"nes a craft distillery as one that "uses
100 per cent B.C. agriculture inputs, ferments and
distills their product on-site, and produces less than
50,000 litres annually." But critics argue that this
de"nition means we'll never see a B.C. craft tequila
or rum as we simply can't grow the right ingredients,
such as agave or sugar cane. It also ignores the age-old
tradition of making gin from neutral grain spirit (
NGS),
which is a highly recti"ed neutral spirit base with no
remaining grain ‚avour. In England, where so many
world-class gins are made, distillers have to buy their
NGS from a third-party supplier; in B.C., there is no
third party making
NGS—and even if there were, a
distiller couldn't buy it and get a craft designation
as the
NGS needs to, according to the rules, be made
"on-site."
faRM tO Glass
Shelter Point's
oceanfront farm on
Vancouver Island
