ABOUT US
Supplying the Very Best
We're not industry professionals with 20 years of experience. We're not distillers with impressive science degrees. We're just people who fell in love with whisky and think of ourselves as enthusiasts. If you enjoy whisky, you're one of us! We're part of the same community. We believe that industry collaboration and community are important to every distillery. Connecting with like-minded enthusiasts and making friends is an important part of community and Whisky. Come for the Whisky, stay for the friends.
Jeff and Kevin are both members of several different Whisky communities, in fact, they met doing tastings with Kensington Wine Market. After 3 years having a good time on those tastings and building trust in each other's palates. They came together to try and build an independent bottler in Canada that emulated the formula they had so much respect for from Scotland.
Kevin
Ex-South African, Love of sports. He first discovered Whisky at the Irish Whisky Museum in Dublin, Ireland. Returning from Dublin he bought a Redbreast 12 in the Dublin airport, and then when I got home, I purchased a Laphroaig Quarter Cask and began sharing them with friends. These were some of my favourite memories. At the same time, I realized that I was getting older and had less and less time to hang out with my friends. So I created the London Area Whisky Society, a scheduled night for us to hang out once every couple of months. So very early on in my Whisky journey, I was focused on bringing people together.
Jeff
Born and raised on Vancouver Island BC, arrived in earnest on the whisky scene roughly five years ago, and has been a constant fixture in the local Dram Association, SMWS Canada and Kensington virtual tastings since. Despite having been privileged to try some amazing whiskies over the years, Jeff is always on-the-search for the next great dram, going out of his way to get in on any tasting he can. Jeff’s favourite part of the whisky scene is the people. Old friends. New friends. Whisky friends. It’s the community of people around this spirit that makes it enjoyable.
“I’d rather drink shit whisky with good people, than drink good whisky with shit people.” – Jeff Syrja
We recognize that in order to make independent bottling work in Canada, we need to be positive for the industry and postive for the distilleries that we partner with. One of our goals is to help elevate the Canadian spirits market, through connecting with Canadian Whisky enthusiasts, the same way that we continue to connect with hundreds of distilleries through the communities we are part of.
We buy casks from Canadian craft distilleries and present them as the best that Canada has to offer from that Distillery. While we are not a non-profit, we do intend to ensure our prices are fair, reasonable and accessible for as many Canadians as possible. Because our bottles will have the original distillery proudly and boldly represented on the bottle, we hope to funnel further spirit enthusiasts to those distilleries. We believe that Canada offers some of the best spirits in the world. We believe these spirits should be shown off, and as Canadians, we are proud to do so. Please join "The Rising Tide" of Canadian Spirits, please join our community and toast to Canadian quality.