It all started with apple orchards and cider but Merridale Cidery and Distiller — one of the Valley’s bellwether agriculture industries — has grown like crazy from that.
They are getting a big footprint, first going beyond cider and offering delicious food, then turning the farm on Cameron Taggart Road in Cobble Hill into a destination for events such as weddings, birthday parties, and corporate events.
“Yes, it’s grown,” Janet Docherty laughs. “But we’d like it to be bigger.”
Docherty, the co-owner, with Rick Pipes, of Merridale, is a dynamic force: in her industry, in tourism, and in promoting the Cowichan Valley as a whole.
“This November we’ve got our Craft Spirit Festival. We recently did the Craft Cider Festival, to which we invited craft ciders from all over B.C. It was a super event. We sold about 500 tickets, and we figured we could have easily done 650. There was huge demand for it,” she said.
And there’s a huge demand for tickets to the spirit festival, too. By this week they were almost sold out.
“That speaks to me that people are just super interested in ‘craft’. People want to touch, they want to feel, they want to taste. They want to know where their food and drink is coming from,” she said.
“It’s interesting to us because this is what we’ve always done but now it’s become a thing for people. It feels amazing and great. But it’s also really fun for us because we were the first craft distillery, not just on the Island but in B.C. Probably one of the first in Canada in many ways. So, now to see so many of them doing it is really quite exciting. To see your fellow cider makers and be able to share stories and knowledge: it’s really exciting for us to have that community that we didn’t have before. And to see people so interested in craft cider.
“Before people didn’t know what it was. They thought it was one of those drinks that are water- and sugar-based. There’s nothing wrong with them but it’s not cider in the traditional sense. People have totally taken hold of it now. It’s a really, really fast growing sector of the beverage industry now. That’s cool. And, the gluten-free part of life has been my friend because those who can’t drink beer now drink cider.”
People are also really getting out and about now to see where things are grown and how they are made, increasing interest in the Cowichan Valley.
“It isn’t just a trend. It’s a change in lifestyle. People are realizing how important it is nowadays to know where your food comes from. There’s a morality aspect of it, there is a need to get back to the roots. But there is also a health aspect of it. Climate change is real, and not having chemicals on your food is important.
“The difficulty of why it’s taken so long is because of the cost factor involved. We got used to food being cheap. And food isn’t cheap. It shouldn’t be cheap, and if it is, you have to question: why is it cheap?
“And there’s that other side of ‘craft’, too where it’s becoming a buzzword and people use it from a marketing perspective. The consumer has to ask those questions. Not everybody is ‘craft’; not everybody is close to home. It’s like always: you have to pay attention to what the real story is behind it.”
That is one of the major points of the craft spirit festival on Nov. 3.
“We’re going completely Island this time, and it will be the first Craft Spirit Festival. Everybody coming will have their ‘craft’ designation, which means something. There is an actual, licensed ‘craft’ designation in B.C.
“So, that’s exciting for us because we were the first craft distiller in B.C. It’s going to be great. It’s about community, It’s about knowledge. None of us are really big. And you don’t get the opportunity because you’re always wearing so many hats to get out and see each other. If you can get into a room where you can get to be right beside someone else who’s doing something similar to you is good. The [market] pie is quite large if we stay focused on that, on the sharing factor, and help grow the industry as a whole.”
The Valley’s Ampersand Distillery will be part of the festival, and posted on their Facebook page, “We’ll be there with Ampersand cocktails. It’s sure to sell out fast. There are 10 distilleries on Vancouver Island now. This event is a good opportunity to meet all of us.”
There appears to be a lot of room for quality.
“Just in general, for food and beverage, on the Island, it’s coming into its own. I don’t think we should sector off wine, cider, beer, spirits. We really need a way to share this altogether. Because most people that drink wine also drink beer or have a cocktail. If you recognize that, and work together, it brings a whole new clientele to you and a whole new level of sharing.”
Next up for Merridale is an expansion into the Victoria area and a grain-based distillery. The fruit-based distilling will continue to be carried out in the Cowichan Valley so this addition to the Merridale family will be entirely new.
The three-storey building will be built to LEED gold standards, and will have a walkway for visitors to tour inside and see what goes on in such an operation.
“Merridale at the farm will continue, but in the city, that will be all new science for us. It’s a fun venture, four years in the making,” Docherty said.
Merridale was first known for its cider but it wasn’t until 2006 that the decision was made to expand with a fully-operational distillery. In 2013, the operation became the first provincially certified craft distillery in B.C.
Pipes’s determination and legal background made him one of those instrumental in changing the old prohibition-like liquor laws of the past into the present day legislation that has allowed for the opening of more than 30 craft distilleries around the province since 2013.
They’re proud of how far they have progressed, while leading a still-new industry.
“At Merridale on the farm, we distill in a 200-litre, hand-hammered copper pot still from Germany which gives us the flexibility to make aromatic brandies, gins and smooth vodka, too. All of our spirits are distilled at least twice and then aged for years in oak barrels, stainless steel tanks or glass containers until they reach their peak. Our apple and pear brandies are aged at least six years in French oak barrels while our XXO Brandy is aged for more than a decade. Like our cider, our gin and vodka are also made entirely from B.C. grown fruits and botanicals,” says a promotional note on the Merridale website.
