Okanagan Spirits claims top titles
A Vernon distillery is among the best in the world.
Okanagan Spirits received the distillery of the year and spirit of the year awards, along with the world-class distillery designation, at the 2013 World Spirits Awards held in Klagenfurt, Austria.
“This level of recognition puts us alongside a very elite group of world-class distillers who are the superstars of the industry,” said Peter von Hahn, master distiller.
“It was an amazing honour a few years ago, when we became Canada’s only master-class distillery, but to surpass that this year with becoming North America’s only world-class distillery, and being named the World Spirits Awards’ distillery of the year is simply astounding.”
In order to achieve this top honour, von Hahn needed a gold medal sweep across a full category, which would mean five gold medals out of five spirits entered in a particular category of alcohol production.
But he didn’t stop there.
In fact von Hahn went on to win distillery of the year, spirit of the year and medal with all 10 of his B.C. fruit-made spirits that he entered, claiming one double gold medal, four gold medals, and five silver medals for his products spanning liqueurs, eau de vie fruit brandies, aquavit and absinthe.
In fact, Okanagan Spirits black currant liqueur was given the highest points score ever given to a product at the World Spirits event.
“I had previously stated that we needed to dream big to achieve success at an awards event of this caliber, and I guess that big dream came true, placing us directly on top of the world stage of craft spirit production,” said von Hahn.
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