Several Canadian distilleries will compete against some of the best in the world after taking home top prizes at the 2019 World Gin Awards in London, England.
Steinhart Distillery in Nova Scotia was one of those winners that could become part of another class, after winning the “Best Classic Gin” in Canada.
The company’s owner Thomas Steinhart said winning the award was “amazing” and a real “dream come true.”
“I don’t consider this work … I never dread getting up,” he told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview. “I get up every morning and think: ‘Awesome. Great. It’s another day to do my stuff.’”
The World Gin Awards competition has 20 international judges choose gins from approximately 80 distilleries from around the world. Their selections were then blind-tasted and voted on by over a hundred attendees, including Steinhart.
“Classic gin” is one of 10 categories distillers competed in -- including “Best Flavoured Gin” and “Best Contemporary Style Gin.” Classic gin means that it has a clean base spirit without adding sugars or other ingredients to make it taste sweeter.
Besides Steinhart, other Canadian distilleries took home honours.
Sheringham Distillery won best “Contemporary Style Gin” in Canada, Cirka won best Canadian “Flavoured Gin,” and the prize of Canada’s “Best London Dry Gin” went to Parlour Gin.
During the first round of voting, Steinhart Distillery won “Best Classic Gin” from Canada, which Steinhart considers to be the most prestigious category.
In the coming weeks, all the country winners will be in the running to be named best in the world in each of the respective 10 categories. On Feb. 21, the winners of these 10 categories will then be in the running for the top prize of being voted the world’s best gin.
“In my opinion, what makes the best gin is the taste, the smell, the aftertaste … it can’t have this chewing-screws aftertaste,” he said. “But everybody has different taste buds.”
Steinhart immigrated to Canada from Germany in the autumn of 1997 and then moved to Nova Scotia in 2001. But it’s only been in the past four years that he began pursuing his dream of making gin full time.
“I thought about (it) before but the laws and the legislation weren’t there yet,” he said.
As a child, he grew up on a farm where he learned distilling from his grandfather. In fact, his own recipes today were tweaked from his grandfather’s.
“If you have a farm you have a still, that’s how it goes over there,” he said. “I learned quite a bit. I learned the basics.”
Steinhart is adding his newest prizes to his growing collection of accolades which he’s received since 2014. Last year, his gin was accepted into the London Gin Guild as the first and only distiller from North America.
Before that, his alcohol won multiple awards at the 2017 Berlin International Spirits Competition, earned two gold medals at the 2016 New York Wine and Spirits Competition and won both silver and bronze medals at the San Francisco Spirits Competition.
Today, he sells directly to restaurants and, besides the North American market, he said his classic gin and maple vodka are fan favourites in Europe and Asia.
Correction: An earlier version of this story described Steinhart Distillery’s Classic Gin as having won "Best Classic Gin in the World" when it had only qualified as the “Best Classic Gin” from Canada, as part of the first round of voting.
