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Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery is once again reppin’ the Okanagan Valley as its team heads to Germany for the World Spirits Awards.
This year the valley’s home-grown distillery has been nominated in eight different categories, for everything from its single malt whiskey to its absinthe to its highly renowned black currant liqueur.
In the craft distillery universe the World Spirits Awards are as prestigious as the Oscars, and in the past Okanagan Spirits has made some impressive showings: so far it is the only distillery in North America to earn the “word class” distinction, and it has twice won distillery of the year.
Their distiller, Peter von Hahn, has also twice won distiller of the year.
“It’s one of those things where people don’t realize how big of a deal it is for us,” said Okanagan spirits representative Shereen Abbas.
She explained how Okanagan Spirits has been submitting to the awards for years, but over the last few, as they’ve expanded their product line, they’ve started to get some serious honours.
“All of a sudden you have this guy from Canada who’s showing up and winning all these awards against these guys from Europe who’ve been doing it for generations. And they’re like, who is this guy?” she said with a chuckle.
And those awards are really no joke: the winners are picked in a blind taste test by special “supertasters” who have been specifically trained for the task.
Abbas said Okanagan Spirits’ invite back to the ceremonies this year means they’ve likely racked up more awards, as only highly placing distilleries are usually asked to attend.
“We know we’ve placed high, we just don’t know what we’ve got yet,” she said.
But regardless of what they do or don’t win, Abbas said they are just happen to be nominated, and to compete against some of the titans of the craft distillery world.
“Whatever we get we’re always super excited,” she said.
Members of the Okanagan Spirits team are already in Germany, anxiously awaiting the results of this year’s awards, which will be announced on Wednesday, March 22.
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