Diamond Valley’s Eau Claire Distillery earned some additional hardware and global recognition at a recent competition in the U.S.
The distillery, which has been in business in the Foothills for nearly a decade, earned three medals at the 2023 San Francisco World Spirits Competition in May.
Distillery founder and CEO David Farran said the team at Eau Claire aims to make world-class whisky, and international recognition shows it's on the right track.
“I think when something like this happens, it gives us street cred, that we really have performed the way that we want to,” Farran said.
The distillery's Rupert’s Exceptional Canadian Whisky, a blended whisky featuring locally sourced barley, won double gold at the contest for the second straight year.
A double gold is awarded if every judge on the panel rates the spirit as gold in a blind taste-test.
Back-to-back double golds put Rupert's within reach of an even greater achievement next year. A third double gold would give the whisky a platinum medal.
“Which is a very rare thing for any product to receive,” he said. “If we do it again, then it really sort of puts us in a stratosphere that is pretty rare.”
The world competition has been called the Olympics of spirits, and a newer Eau Claire product also hit the podium at this year's contest.
The distillery’s Stampede Rye Whisky, the official whisky of the Calgary Stampede, brought home a gold medal despite being on the market for less than a year.
The fact that it won gold, as a relatively unknown product, is outstanding, Farran said.
“I think it proves that we're not a one-trick wonder, that we can continue to produce these world class whiskies,” he said.
A third entry, Batch 006, won a silver medal in the contest’s single-grain whisky category.
Batch 006 represents the sixth year a single-malt has been produced at Eau Claire.
The product is different every year, and it competes with Scottish single malts, so a silver medal is special, he said.
Eau Claire’s location in Diamond Valley means it is at a higher elevation and experiences a drier climate and wider temperature range than most typical distilleries.
“What happens is that we get a faster maturation rate and a much better flavour,” Farran said.
The San Francisco World Spirits Competition began in 2000 and had nearly 5,000 entries last year. Organizers say it is the largest spirits competition in the world.
