An Invermere-based distillery had their spirits lifted as their vodka earned them international recognition.
Taynton Bay Spirits was handed a gold medal for their vodka, which was crowned “Best in Show by Country” for Canada in the London Spirits Competition.
“We entered our vodka, gin and raspberry vodka,” said co-founder Justin Atterbury. “It’s an international competition and there are well over 100 countries that enter it. Our vodka placed third internationally and was the highest-scoring vodka from North America.”
Atterbury said it was great to bring home the victory.
“We’re always trying to always learn and improve our craft and the product. To get recognized in a competition where there is such stiff competition is fantastic,” said Atterbury.
He said Taynton Bay Spirits’ advantage is its size, and its ability to incorporate customer feedback into its recipe.
“Because we’re smaller and craft, we’re able to put a lot more effort and time into making our product,” said Atterbury. “Due to that, you can get a far superior-tasting product as opposed to a larger corporation who have massive machines that just pump it out consistently.”
Atterbury said the Taynton Bay Spirits distillery opened for business six years before it earned its latest accolade.
“At the time, we owned the Invermere Station Pub and we’re always looking for something different to do, so we started experimenting and looking at making our own spirits to serve in our pub,” said Atterbury. “It started going okay, so we decided to go in full force and opened the distillery in 2017.”
Atterbury hopes to enter his company’s spirits into more competitions.
