By Geoff Smith (@smithco on Twitter)

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Exporting Canadian whisky to the world

Aug 16, 2017 | 7:11 AM

LETHBRIDGE – The aroma is unmistakable.

Entering an older warehouse building, one can almost feel the alcohol. The air is thick with the smell of Canadian whisky: Black Velvet that’s been aging for more than two decades.

But there it will remain until there’s a market for it as a special product. Nearby in a much newer building, with state-of-the-art venitilation, Black Velvet whisky is being aged for three to eight years in oak barrels. And that’s the product that will go out to the world, explains Claude Bilodeau, vice-president and general manager of Black Velvet Distillery.

“This facility makes Black Velvet Whisky for the world. So we ship globally out of here — a lot of bulk product to the U.S. for co-packing, but a lot of it here is packed as well,” he explained during a tour of the plant.

Why Lethbridge?

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“Close proximity to the U.S. which is the majority of our market,” Bilodeau said. “It’s also an excellent city in the sense of size. It’s a fairly safe city, and we’ve got two excellent post-secondary schools that put out awesome people.”

The distillery was built by Gilbey’s in 1973. Since 1999 it has been owned by Constellation Brands. Fifty-six people work at the plant in north Lethbridge.

“It’s amazing how many people don’t know we’re here,” Bilodeau said. “I encounter that many times every week.”

Producing the whisky hasn’t changed over the years.

“We bring in grains by either railcar or truck and those grains are either corn, rye, or malt. We process them separately. When we bring the grain in, we receive it in, we mill it down to a flour. We then add water and enzymes to that flour to make it mash,” he outlined.

The mash is cooked and fermented between 60 and 70 hours, before being put through three stills.

“In those stills we boil off the alcohol and the end result is a 96 percent pure alcohol product. From there we dilute it down to about 77 per cent, which is industry standard.”

Bilodeau said trends come and go, for things like different flavours. But Black Velvet drinkers are reliable.

“Their father drank Black Velvet, their grandfather drank Black Velvet,” Bilodeau said. 

“It is a fantastic product that we’d put against anybody.”

Check out other stories is the Food for Thought series:

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Food for Thought – Taking a close look at Food processors

Food for Thought – Taber and area feeding Canada’s sweet tooth