The Visitor Centre Today is ... Spirit Of York Distillery
From grain to glass: Why Toronto’s Spirit of York Distillery is a masterclass in mixing transparency, superb spirits and living industrial heritage.
Copper, malt, and memories: The family roots of my Distillery District obsession
I've always had a massive soft spot for the aesthetics of old industrial architecture. My engineer grandfather went from working on ships, into a chocolate factory and finished his career as head engineer for the massive Threlfalls brewery in Liverpool.
Childhood visits to him are permanently locked into my memory as a sensory wonderland and, perhaps surprisingly, as the inspiration for my future career. Aside from the heady aromas of wort and grain, it was the gleaming copper kettles, massive steaming wooden mash tuns, dials, brass handwheels, metal beams and tiled walls that got me.
My earliest memory is his office, wrapped in dark carved wood panelling, with parquet floors and large arched metal windows, where you would find my seven-year-old self spinning in a button-backed leather chair while colouring in pictures at his desk.
The Trueman Street brewery was a vast red-brick building dating from 1818. When he retired in 1977, the dray horses had long since gone and within five years the entire site would fall silent. It's now serviced apartments.
When I eventually studied design, these were the types of buildings I wanted to get my hands on. To restore them, reimagine them and uncover the stories behind the bricks. It's probably no coincidence that I've just installed parquet, panelling and Crittall windows at home, for goodness sake.
That's why Toronto's Distillery District hits such a chord with me. I'll write a whole article on the area soon.
Apart from my Balzac's coffee fix, the reason I return now, is for whisky.
Spirit of York is among the chosen few 'out of Scotland' distilleries I've returned to again and again. So, when I found myself back in Ontario in 2026, there was one place in Toronto I had to revisit.
My research trips usually follow months of meticulous planning. What I hadn't planned for was discovering that Spirit of York's tours were temporarily suspended, coinciding, naturally, with the exact week I was in Toronto.
Undeterred, I contacted the brand. This was one of those distilleries I'd vowed to share with my readers, so I bent my usual rule of visiting unannounced and begged a little.
Master Distiller Matt Driscoll delivered. My husband Phil and I were given a private tour and tasting hosted by one of the distillers, followed by cocktails and lunch, which we paid for ourselves.
So, this isn't an ad. It's a genuine guide to a distillery I hold very dear. You can decide if you'd like it yourself, by going on one of their tours. Just be sure to book it before you book your flight!
From Windmill to World Leader: The Legacy of Gooderham and Worts
Long before Toronto was Toronto, it was a little outpost called York. It was here, just two years before the city officially changed its name, that William Gooderham and James Worts set up a modest brick windmill in 1832.
They only intended to mill grain, but Victorian ambition took over and that little lakeside mill ballooned into a massive 13-acre industrial powerhouse. By 1877, the sprawling complex of limestone and red brick was the biggest distillery on the planet, producing an astonishing two million gallons of whisky a year.
When the stills eventually fell silent in the 1990s, the largest collection of Victorian industrial architecture in North America found another use, becoming one of Canada's busiest filming locations, which earned it the nickname Hollywood North.
It reminds me of Stanley Dock in Liverpool, not far from my grandfather's old brewery, whose cobbled streets and warehouses recently stood in for the Guinness brewery in Netflix's House of Guinness. The historic buildings here in Toronto became anything from a 1940s Polish concentration camp in X-Men (2000) to a women's prison for banged up Roxie Hart in Chicago (2002).
In 2003 it eventually became what we know as the Distillery District today. More than 40 brick and stone heritage buildings were reimagined as galleries, workshops, studios, restaurants, shops and cafés. Every time I'm back in Toronto I carve out at least a day to wander its cobbled lanes. Whether you're here for a wedding, a haunted history walk, or a winter market, you will wander past hundreds of salvaged artifacts, and witness history brought back to life.
But, for all that reinvention, something rather important was missing: whisky.
When I first visited in 2016, little did I know that inside the old Malting House, 7,200 square feet of spirited magic was already being created.
The people behind the Spirit - The Spirit of York brand history
Behind the polished glass and copper, the roots of Spirit of York trace back to an interesting intersection of serious capital and a genuine love for the land.
Founders Rob Cudney and Maryke Ballard are heavyweights in the Canadian investment landscape. Rob helms Northfield Capital, while Maryke directs their private family investments. But their interests extend well beyond finance.
The pair are also behind the revitalisation of The Grange of Prince Edward, a low-intervention winery housed in a 200-year-old barn in Prince Edward County. In other words, they weren't casual hobbyists suddenly deciding that making booze might be fun. They already understood agriculture, fermentation and the patience required to make something that can't be rushed, whisky. And for that they would need a world-class distillery, and where better than right in the historic district.
When Covid hit, Spirit of York was only three years old and, like so many hospitality businesses, took time to find its feet again. Simon Ho became President and COO in 2022, although he was no stranger to the business. He'd been involved since the 2016 build-out, bringing almost two decades of experience from Toronto's premium cocktail scene.
At the mechanical and creative helm is Master Distiller Matt Driscoll, who holds a master's degree from Heriot-Watt University here in Scotland. Its International Centre for Brewing and Distilling is essentially Hogwarts for alcohol production, so there's a little home-turf pride in knowing that his expertise has travelled across the Atlantic to Toronto.
The local connections continue into the ingredients. Spirit of York doesn't simply turn on a Toronto tap. Its water comes from a 400-foot well on Bill and Diane Truax's property in Springwater, Ontario. Their family business, Aquapur, began around 50 years ago delivering water to local farmers whose own supplies had run dry.
The rye is Ontario-grown too, currently coming from the wonderfully named Scotland, Ontario. The one in Canada, not the one where I live.
The Spirit of York Distillery concentrated on vodka, gin, whisky, bitters and, more unusually, aquavit, that Scandi signature spirit I love tasting when visiting Nordic clients. All have won awards, from the likes of the San Francisco Spirit Awards and the International Spirits Challenge. But they also like to experiment.
Small-batch creations have ranged from seasonal Harvest Gin to a Christmas spirit distilled from actual fruitcakes. One can only imagine the mountain of marzipan and sultanas sacrificed for that particular run. Then there's been Cinnamon Toast Crunch vodka, which made me think of my visit to the flavour alchemists at Empirical, now based in Brooklyn. If they can use Nacho Cheese Doritos, then a breakfast cereal spirit sounds like a tremendous tipple.
The permanent range has expanded too, with Aperitivo, Coffee Liqueur and Citruscello joining the line-up. More on those delights later.
Brilliant Bottles: Why Spirit of York designs for the counter, not the bin
The custom-moulded bottles have always been striking too. Spirit of York apparently went through more than 1,000 concepts before settling on the final design. As someone who knows the pain of presenting design after design to clients, hats off to Jessica Brasil, and the team at Toronto agency LG2, who created the bottles and original visual identity.
An old-school engineer like my grandfather hated waste. Everything in his world was built to be maintained, repaired and kept for as long as possible, and there's a little of that philosophy here.
With their incredibly heavy bases and necks designed to take standard pouring spouts, the award-winning bottles weren't intended to head straight for the recycling bin. I've seen them given second lives as everything from decanters to plant propagation vases.
Visiting Spirit of York Distillery: What to Expect
The Spirit of York distillery design
Completed by Woodbecker Construction, the doors finally swung open to the Spirit of York Distillery in 2017 and when I returned for the first time in 2018, I found all my favourite things inside the converted malting house: wooden columns, concrete floors, red brick walls, shelves of labelled glass apothecary jars, a gleaming copper clad hexagonal bar and floor to ceiling windows onto a production floor. You could literally see the magic happening.
There were little brick cubby holes, which became perfect shelves for bottles.
Better still, an elevated walkway provided a self-guided tour around the distillery. This was a properly tactile interpretation. Barrels had been cut open so you could run your hands across the alligator char, feeling the cracks and grooves in the wood. Jars held the botanicals used in the gin, there to be picked up, smelt and touched.
Outside, the tall glass extension put the distillation columns on show to anyone walking past.
It was so simple and effective that I subsequently told hundreds of drinks brands and industry professionals about it.
So, what would I find on my return in 2026?
Before I'd even stepped inside, I could see things had changed. There's now a patio, although on the rainy July day we visited nobody was rushing to use it. Torontonians take patio season seriously, so I'm sure it's a different story when the sun is out.
Inside, the old hexagonal bar with it's trailing foliage had gone. In its place are two counters in front of the production windows and much more comfortable seating.
Our server told us they prefer the new layout and I can see why. We sank into tweed and velvet armchairs and immediately felt inclined to linger. In the visitor-attraction world we call that dwell time. Give people somewhere comfortable to sit and they're far more likely to stay for another drink, another tasting and, ultimately, another bottle.
Thankfully, the wonderful feature lighting made from Spirit of York bottles and copper piping remains above the entrance. Look closely and you'll realise it's shaped like the brand's logo.
The little bar by the door with the hatch is new too.
The self-guided walkway is still there, as are some of the original copper interpretation panels, now with even more patina.
But I was sorry to see that some of my favourite displays had disappeared.
I remembered the old grain display particularly well. Clear tubes showed the rye at different stages and turning handles underneath sent it swirling into a vortex, perfect for a grain-to-glass distillery. Eight years later, I still remembered doing it.
That's surely what good interpretation is supposed to do. It took something fairly technical and made me stop, touch it and understand a little more about what was going into the bottle. A little tap dispensed glacial water. It's the purest water in Canada, so was worth shouting about.
I therefore wasn't keen on the pair of angels in chain mail that had replaced them.
The half-barrels and jars of botanicals had disappeared too, replaced by more random artwork, this time a highlander. They had the look of being AI generated, which is a bit of a no-no right now. I found the images on Getty, so they're not AI slop, but there's enough story in and around the distillery to have images that evoke a more authentic sense of place. And I think something has been lost in the process.
I'd rather see Farmer Joe, who provides the grain, looking wistfully across his land, or staff rolling a cask into a warehouse on a misty morning. You get the picture. Bring back some charred wood too. Sensory touch points aren't just fun, they're useful for visitors with sight loss and incredibly effective as education and memory aids.
A few of the cubby holes have been covered up with product shots, of garnished cocktails or bottles.
The wall of Cole and Son's Bastoni wallpaper gave off a gentleman's club vibe. I would have designed bespoke wallpaper using distillery tools, dials, pipes etc, which would have been a luxurious but still authentic touch.
But there are a few new graphics to reinforce the message.
And the small bar with all the apothecary bottles is probably still my favourite part. If only I could recreate that curve at home for my own whisky library.
I can see what Spirit of York is trying to achieve. The visitor space has moved towards a more polished, luxury feel, something I've seen happening at plenty of distilleries in recent years.
The irony is that the things that had been removed were precisely the things that helped tell Spirit of York's own story.
The tour
I should probably explain at this point that this wasn't a normal Spirit of York tour.
Matt, the Master Distiller, had arranged our visit but was unable to join us at the last minute, so Steve very kindly stepped in. I do wonder whether he'd been told we were industry visitors and assumed we knew rather more about the technicalities of distillation than we actually did.
I've visited hundreds of distilleries over the years, but I'm much more interested in how you tell the story of making something than remembering precisely what percentage of alcohol was in a tank at any particular moment. Give me beautiful copper, old-fashioned dials, pipes disappearing through walls and a good story and I'm happy.
Phil, meanwhile, is a manufacturing engineering consultant. He was looking at the same equipment but from a different angle. How did they get it in? Why did they put it there? How do you make a modern production line work in a nineteenth-century building?
Steve, therefore, had two slightly different audiences on his hands, which might explain why the tour occasionally bounced from one part of the process to another.
We weren't really following a rehearsed visitor route. We were following the conversation.
We kicked off with a G&T, which is a perfect way to start a tour. I have to admit though that juggling a glass, a phone camera and a fan so I wouldn't melt meant that I didn't take as many photos as usual. Blame the July heat and the menopause.
Steve told us he'd been trained by Phil from Edinburgh, which immediately gave us another connection, and caused a chuckle. My husband, also called Phil, is from Edinburgh. Steve had also worked at wineries in Niagara and at Wayne Gretzky's distillery, which we'd visited just a few days earlier, so we swapped stories about what we'd tasted on their whisky tour.
Steve started with some of the history, the War of 1812 and the Distillery District, although we soon went off-piste again when we discovered his newfound appreciation of Outlander. The series was partly filmed within half an hour of our front door, with Falkland and Culross now firmly established on the Outlander tourist trail. Buses still arrive full of overseas fans, touring castles and filling the little shops to buy tea towels emblazoned with the faces of their favourite characters. Tourism comes in many forms.
Eventually we made our way back to the Malting House and how Spirit of York actually makes its spirits.
Spirit of York's own spirits are produced on site, and almost everything needed to make them has to come in and out through those old, green, wooden doors.
DISTL, their secondary brand, works slightly differently, with its alcohol base brought in from elsewhere. That has to make its way through the doors, too.
This is a working production area, not one designed to be beautiful. I've seen some remarkably tight distilleries over the years, and always marvel at the ingenuity required to fit modern equipment into buildings that were never designed for it.
Spirit of York is a particularly good example. They can't simply drive a forklift inside because there's nowhere to turn, while an old metal beam above the former Malting House doors restricts access even further.
Everything has to work around the building, rather than the other way round.
We were seeing it at a relatively quiet time, too. Production slows during the summer because it simply gets too hot inside.
The grain arrives in 650-kilo super sacks, which are emptied into a remarkably small, metal hopper. We'd already established that the rye currently comes from Scotland, near Hamilton, Ontario, but imagining standing beside several enormous sacks of it naturally sent us off on another tangent about the sheer number of Scottish place names we'd encountered across Canada. Steve asked what Hamilton in Scotland was like.
It turns out the two Hamiltons have more in common than just a name. Both have strong industrial histories and have evolved into commuter towns. Neither is exactly on the tourist trail.
Steve handed us some of the grain to smell and touch, before inviting me to climb the steps to peer inside one of the empty, stainless-steel mash tanks.
Like a mountain goat, up I went.
I peered into what was essentially a big tank with a paddle in it, then came back down the steps, nearly falling over in the process.
Graceful I am not.
I'm sure Steve was internally calculating just how much health and safety paperwork I might have caused.
It's in these tanks that water is added to the grain, with the mixture heated using direct steam injection. Enzymes help convert the starches into fermentable sugars, before Spirit of York's proprietary yeast gets to work.
That yeast was more interesting than I'd expected. Rather than a conventional distillers' yeast, Spirit of York uses a sparkling-wine yeast bred by a Niagara laboratory. Steve explained that it produces roughly half the alcohol they could otherwise achieve, but what they sacrifice in strength, they gain in flavour.
Perhaps that's one advantage of having Canada's best-known wine region just down the road. Niagara isn't only packed with wineries. Niagara College has its own teaching winery, brewery and distillery, training the next generation of winemakers, brewers and distillers, too. There's an awful lot of drinks knowledge concentrated in a relatively small corner of Ontario.
And for a spirit ultimately judged on flavour, sacrificing a little strength seems a pretty fair trade.
Trying not to trip up again, we headed over to learn about distillation.
First stop was the rather lovely little lab still, a hybrid, complete with a botanical basket, used for small-batch creations and much of the DISTL range.
It's also where Steve explained their Make Your Own Gin experience. Visitors get seven different flavours to play with, blending their own gin before leaving with a 26oz (750ml) bottle of their creation. The experience includes G&Ts, a tour and a tasting flight, but is more about having some fun than taking a deep dive into gin history.
Once a year, Toronto's bartenders get to have a go, too. Spirit of York's aptly named Bartender Gin programme brings them into the distillery to create their own gin. I can only imagine some of the funky combinations they come up with.
I admitted to Steve just how rubbish I've been at blending gin and whisky over the years. I've made some truly awful concoctions on make-your-own experiences, which is why I prefer to leave the blending to the experts.
I love seeing where distilleries get their stills from. Will it be a Forsyths or a Vendome?
Here it was a CARL, so a little bespoke German number. The only thing missing was a name. I do love a good still name, usually accompanied by a backstory. I asked Steve.
They just call it 'Carl'.
Shame. There's not a lot of romance in that. Apologies to all the romantic Carls out there.
CARL has been making distilling equipment since 1869, around the time Gooderham & Worts was at its peak, although the family's coppersmithing roots stretch back even further, to around 1800. Now in its fifth generation of family ownership, I only wish they offered factory tours. I'd love to see the skill that goes into making one of these up close.
Their stills crop up in plenty of places I've visited around the world, including Cedar Ridge in Iowa, where I'd been just the week before, Adnams in Southwold and Edinburgh Gin. Once you start looking at the equipment, you begin spotting the same names everywhere.
To the left was a larger CARL, the stripping still, confusingly also called 'Carl'. This alembic-style pot still is primarily used for whisky, and Steve explained how its shape and height influence the character of the spirit.
Here, though, there's another consideration before anyone starts choosing the ideal shape.
Will it actually fit?
The height restrictions of the old building dictate the size of still Spirit of York can use. They can't exactly remove the roof and crane one in, as I've seen done elsewhere. Think of somewhere like Glenmorangie, with those famously giraffe-like stills stretching upwards through the stillhouse. You simply couldn't fit anything remotely like that in here.
Around 1,500 litres of fermented wash, at roughly 13% alcohol, goes into the steam-jacketed copper stripping still. Over six to eight hours, that becomes around 500 litres of low wines at about 45% ABV. Steve let us smell some. There's an oily richness to it, and it's a smell I adore.
The low wines are collected in larger storage tanks, before heading to the second still, tucked away in the corner.
And finally, a still with a proper name.
Meet 'Finn the Finisher'.
This is where the second distillation takes place, refining the low wines into the spirit that will eventually head into barrel.
But some of the most impressive production equipment is actually outside.
Tucked around the back of the building, behind glass, is a 40-foot rectification tower containing the tall copper columns used to produce the high-strength spirit needed for vodka. People walk past it every day, probably without giving much thought to what's going on inside.
Steve told us there are 52 bubble plates within the system.
I've seen plenty of column stills and rectification columns over the years, but I'd completely forgotten about bubble plates. We'd even been shown them during our tour of Adnams. Clearly, that particular bit of distilling knowledge had fallen out of my head somewhere along the way.
The easiest way I found to understand them again was to imagine a very tall building, with lots of little floors inside it. Each floor is a metal plate, holding a shallow pool of liquid. Alcohol-rich vapour works its way upwards, bubbling through the liquid on each plate, while heavier, more water-rich liquid works its way back down.
In very simple terms, each plate gives the spirit another opportunity to separate the alcohol from the water and some of the other compounds. Repeat that process over and over again, and you end up with the much cleaner, higher-strength spirit needed for vodka.
So, why put a 40-foot rectification tower outside?
The answer, once again, comes back to the building. When the distillery fit-out was being designed, the team hadn't banked on the third floor having been leased as office space. There simply wasn't enough height left inside to accommodate it.
So, outside it had to go.
And this was where I finally began to understand why Steve had been bouncing between vodka, gin and different bits of distilling equipment.
Spirit of York produces a high-proof base spirit, which can then take different routes, depending on what's being made.
Suddenly, all those stills, pipes and towers started to make rather more sense.
Heading towards the bottling room, we paused beside several stainless-steel vessels, as Steve excitedly whipped off the lids to show us what was inside.
The first was an unmistakable citrus hit and the brand's version of Limoncello, Citruscello. 'Wait until you taste it' he said, beaming.
Lifting the next lid revealed the unmistakable aroma of strawberries and raspberries, as this was their Pink gin, so popular we're told it is now not a seasonal product, but an all year round staple.
Inevitably, we got talking about fruit. I grow all sorts at home in Perthshire, although the strawberries and raspberries in our garden were enthusiastically harvested by the local red squirrels before we got the chance to eat them. I mentioned my annual glut of rhubarb, and Steve thought rhubarb and strawberry pie might provide inspiration for another product. Happy to be of service.
That got me thinking about my crab apples, pears and damsons, before I remembered just how awful I am at blending spirits.
Maybe I'll stick to jam and crumble.
Our last stop was the cramped bottling area, where I was staggered by just how much is still done by hand.
Once filled, bottles are hand labelled, stamped, sorted and packed, with far less automation than I'd expected. There is machinery to help with some of the process, although Steve explained that it doesn't always play ball.
Another Heriot-Watt alumnus was busy working his way through the bottles, using what had once been the old meeting-room table as his packing station.
Masters of reinvention.
The tasting
After the tour, Steve took us back to the bar for a proper, structured tasting. He was incredibly generous with his time, even though he told us he had a 50-litre batch of Citruscello he should have been bottling.
We started with a flight of four from the core range: vodka on the left, gin in the middle, aquavit on the right and whisky, although that didn't quite fit into the tasting-flight board.
As someone who tastes wine and whisky as part of my work, I appreciated having time to do this properly. Not simply nose, taste and move on, but let it breathe, go back to a glass, compare it with another and let the conversation wander a little.
Spirit of York Vodka
Now, I don't really do vodka unless it's in a cocktail. A few too many teenage experiences, familiar to many of us, I'm sure, might have something to do with that. My husband hasn't exactly helped rehabilitate its reputation either. He once came back from working in Russia with a bottle that tasted remarkably like lighter fluid. Not that I've tasted lighter fluid, obviously, and I wouldn't recommend it. So, vodka and I have maintained a respectful distance.
That's not to say I haven't spent time around the premium stuff. I worked with Reyka Distillery in Iceland, something Steve discovered as we swapped a few stories about distilleries I'd worked with and designed for over the years. So, I know premium vodka can be a very different beast. I just rarely choose to drink it neat.
Spirit Of York Vodka starts with that rye spirit we'd seen being produced during the tour, before the rectification towers take it to the much higher strength needed for vodka. Bottled at 40% ABV, it was silkier than I expected, creamy even, with a little peppery warmth and, crucially, none of that aggressive alcoholic burn I've always associated with vodka.
Perhaps I simply haven't been paying enough attention.
I might be converted.
Spirit of York Gin
Next up was the gin, which Steve described as the brand's bread and butter.
Made with 15 botanicals, including juniper, cinnamon, citrus peel and cubeb pepper, this time it was served neat.
Now, this is how I like it, much to many a gin distillery tour guide's annoyance. I can't do fizz, so soda and tonic are not my friends. I've always argued that if a gin has been made with craft, time and skill, why can't I drink it neat without hiding it in something else?
If it's good enough, trust me, it can stand up on its own. Sipping gin is a thing, people.
I've worked with plenty of gin brands over the years and have navigated many a tasting with suitable politeness. Once the guide has recovered from my request for no tonic and no garnish, they generally turn their attention to their core market: the rest of the group, happily sipping G&Ts while trying not to take their eyes out with a chunk of cucumber or a spiky sprig of rosemary.
The Spirit of York Gin is bottled at 40% ABV. I couldn't pick out all 15 botanicals, but the juniper was thankfully less prominent than in some more traditional gins. Citrus and floral notes came forward instead, developing the longer it sat in the glass as we chatted, with a little spice following through on the palate and finish.
We've become rather fond of this more modern style of gin since our tour of Aviation Gin in Portland, where juniper doesn't necessarily have to elbow everything else out of the way. Spirit of York was equally enjoyable.
Spirit of York Aquavit
Next up was the Spirit Of York Aquavit, bottled at 44% ABV, a dill lovers delight, it comes with a rather good backstory.
When Spirit of York first opened, its tasting boards had three holes, intended for vodka, gin and whisky. There was just one problem. The whisky was still ageing, leaving an empty space.
Simon Ho, who, if you recall, came from Toronto's bartending world, started asking friends in the trade what else they'd like to see a local distillery make.
Aquavit would not have been my guess. But here it is.
Produced using that smaller lab still we'd seen earlier, Spirit of York's interpretation isn't as herb and spice-forward as some traditional aquavits. It's brighter, with grapefruit amongst the flavours, and my immediate thought was how good this would be with gravlax. I make the Scandi staple every Christmas as the starter to our festive lunch, serving it with rye bread and lashings of butter, flaked with Blackthorn sea salt.
I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.
The Waiting Game: Spirit of York Canadian Whisky
Then came the Spirit of York Whisky, and this one needs a little more explanation.
When we first visited Spirit of York in 2018, their whisky had just launched. I remember it particularly well because a bottle came home in my suitcase and sat rather proudly amongst the 'Not-from-Scotland' section of my collection.
There was something rather fitting about whisky returning to this particular corner of Toronto. As I said, Gooderham & Worts had been making it here from the nineteenth century, before production finally disappeared from the Distillery District. More than half a century later, whisky was being poured here again.
But whisky makes you wait.
Canadian whisky must be mashed, distilled and aged in Canada, bottled at no less than 40% ABV and spend at least three years maturing in what the regulations rather wonderfully call 'small wood'. And yes, wood. Not necessarily oak.
The rules are rather less prescriptive than those governing Scotch or bourbon. Producers can use different cereal grains, distil them separately and blend them later, and flavouring is permitted, although the finished spirit still has to possess the aroma, taste and character generally associated with Canadian whisky.
So, no, you can't simply chuck your grain concoction into a wooden biscuit barrel and leave it in the broom cupboard of your Yonge Street condo for three years. There are rather more rules involved than that.
Though I suspect it would taste terrible anyway.
That relative freedom is one of the things that makes Canadian whisky such an interesting, and sometimes misunderstood, whisky category.
Spirit of York, however, has gone down a much more specific route with its own whisky.
We'd already followed the rye through the distillery, from those enormous sacks of grain from Scotland, Ontario, through mashing and fermentation, before meeting Carl and Finn. Now we finally got to taste where all that work ends up.
Steve told us the whisky spends a minimum of three years in new oak, with a level three to four char.
My week in Kentucky a few years ago gave me something of an education in char levels, although ultimately there's only one question that really matters when you're standing at a tasting bar.
Did I like it?
Very much.
In fact, it was just as lovely as I remembered.
At around C$57 for a 750ml bottle, it was remarkably good value too, particularly as we were enjoying an extremely favourable exchange rate during our trip. That made it about £30.
A no-brainer. Yes, it was still suitcase-worthy.
As we swapped a few of our favourite distilleries back and forth, Steve told me about Spring Mill Distillery in Guelph, another historic building I should check out.
That's one for the next visit
The wider range - time for a bit of extra fun
I'm easily encouraged at the best of times, but after a fun tour and a few tastings, I was positively giddy when Steve started bringing out more bottles.
What had started as a flight of four became an unexpected opportunity to taste our way through almost everything they were producing.
Harvest Gin
First came a little smidgeon of Harvest Gin, a seasonal creation from Master Distiller Matt Driscoll, originally developed as a way of using surplus fruit.
Pear is joined by nutmeg, vanilla and baking spices. We have a pear tree back home, so I know the annual problem of suddenly having far more pears than you know what to do with.
This tasted like pear pie. Or perhaps more like my pear crumble recipe.
Either way, as I told Steve, it was one of the nicest gins I'd ever tasted.
Naturally, there wasn't a bottle left to buy.
Distl Sweet Tea Liqueur
Next up a little whack of sweetness and their Sweet Tea Liqueur, another seasonal small batch serve, bottled under the brand's Distl label, but not on their website.
Quite dangerous I would imagine on a hot day, with a deceptively light hint of booze, it's bottled at 30% ABV. We don't really do sweet tea back home, but I had drunk quite a bit when travelling in the American South. Good for an Arnold Palmer with homemade lemonade I thought.
Distl Pink Gin
The sweetness continued with the Distl Pink Gin. Pink gin might be enormously popular, and I certainly know plenty of people who love it, but this was a step too far along the sweet scale for me. Liquid candyfloss.
If you've got a sweeter tooth than me, however, this might be right up your street.
Citruscello
Now, I love limoncello. It's one of those flavours that immediately transports me back to Italy, sipping a cold glass at a café table in a piazza in Turin or Florence, preferably with nowhere particularly pressing to be.
So, saying that I preferred Spirit of York's Citruscello to limoncello isn't something I do lightly.
We'd already had a sneak peek at it during the tour. Originally made for summer, Steve told us they simply couldn't make enough of it, and it had also become a year-round product.
Rather than lemon taking centre stage, this was much more rounded, with different citrus flavours coming and going as I tasted it. Sweet, certainly, but with enough freshness to stop it becoming cloying.
It also comes in a rather suitcase-friendly 375ml bottle.
This was always going to be a contender for the trip back home and my husband got the calculator out to see if we could fit a bottle into our duty free allowance.
Distl Ancho Chili Liqueur
Next came another one not on the website, their Ancho Chilli Liqueur. Three spicy peppers, plenty of cinnamon and a touch of sweetness made me think of Mexican hot chocolate crossed with chilli jam. That was on the nose at least.
I used to be chilli averse. Then I lost my sense of taste and smell for a year following a dose of Covid back in 2020. What I have found is that since those senses have returned, I can take, and actively look out for, a bit more heat. On first taste I have to admit that I questioned whether I'd made a mistake. It seemed to wrap itself around my tongue and stay there, like when I've been a little enthusiastic with the crushed chilli flakes or chilli oil on a spicy pizza. Maybe not for me then, but my husband loved it. In fact, he loved it enough that it very nearly came home with us. More taps on the calculator followed.
Spirit of York Coffee Liqueur
The Spirit of York Coffee Liqueur sensibly came last, after which there was little point asking our palates to return to anything too delicate.
It also brings another Toronto name into the story, with Pilot Coffee Roasters' Catalyst Blend combined with Spirit of York's own brown sugar syrup. I do love a good Espresso Martini, and this was really good. Rich and properly coffee-led, rather than simply sweet. Steve even had his name on the bottle. I'd have bought it just for that memory.
At around $26 CAN for a 375ml bottle, it wasn't going to break the bank either.
By this point, the calculator was working overtime.
What made the suitcase?
Being able to taste such a broad range also presented us with a problem. We travel with limited suitcase space and, more importantly, a duty-free allowance, and we visit many distilleries, breweries and wineries on one trip. Bringing bottles home therefore requires a degree of ruthlessness. Choosing between them can feel rather like choosing between children.
It also means that every bottle that does make the journey home is special.
We had just enough room for one 750ml bottle and, after some number crunching, could squeeze in a 375ml bottle too.
That had us maxed out.
So, what made the cut?
Well, we needed to replace the bottle of Spirit of York Whisky in our collection, so that was a given. You can't buy it in the UK. Citruscello made the cut too.
The Ancho Chilli came extremely close, while the Harvest Gin would have been a serious contender, had there been any left.
More importantly, we hadn't been pushed towards any of them.
There was no hard sell and no hurried procession of measures. Steve gave us time to taste, compare and talk about what was in the glass.
Our visit had been arranged directly with Spirit of York and we weren't charged for the private tour or tasting, although we paid for our bottles, food and cocktails.
Steve's real generosity was with his time.
Staying for another round? Let's eat too
With the tasting finished and our bottles safely chosen, we sank into the velvet armchairs and turned our attention to the food and cocktail menus.
We'd missed lunch, after all. They also run Happy Hour from 5pm until close, but even we couldn't stay for another two hours to appreciate the few dollars' saving.
Spirit of York has expanded its food offering since my last visit, with a farm-to-table menu alongside a good selection of cocktails and signature serves. We had dinner reservations later, so this was supposed to be a light bite.
I'm a sucker for a sharing platter.
We ordered one to share, and the toast that came with it was a particular highlight. I'd happily have eaten a bowl of that on its own.
There was also the small matter of cocktails. I love an Old Fashioned, so naturally that was one of our choices, made here with Distl whisky, maple syrup, campfire bitters and orange zest. It was rather good.
It felt like a Sangria or Cosmo sort of day for the second, and the Cosmo won out.
If pizza is more your thing, they'd launched a pizza night just the month before our visit.
Our server also told us about their viral Yorkie Burrito, inspired by a classic Sunday lunch and made with that British staple, the Yorkshire pudding, no less.
Served on the patio during the Distillery Districts' famous Winter Village, imagine braised beef pot roast, crispy roast potatoes and onions, carrots, peas and even cauliflower cheese, all dressed with gravy and my favourite condiment, creamy horseradish.
There's another reason to return.
The Spirit of York Shop
If you only have time to pop in and pick up a bottle or two, the shop carries most of the range. I say most, because there were a few empty shelves when we visited, including, rather frustratingly, that Harvest Gin I'd fallen for during the tasting.
Alongside the Spirit of York bottles we'd been working our way through, there's the more affordable DISTL range.
DISTL has its own vodka, although unlike Spirit of York's rye-based version, this one is made from wheat. There's a separate DISTL Canadian Whisky too, made from a blend of corn and rye.
Italy provides the inspiration for Spirit of York's Aperitivo, a bittersweet mix of orange peel, gentian, dried cherry, wild cherry bark and liquorice root.
Negroni anyone?
Espresso Martini fans are particularly well catered for. There's a kit pairing Spirit of York Vodka and Coffee Liqueur with house-made Demerara syrup and Two Bears cold brew.
Rather dangerously, everything you need is in one box.
The emphasis in the shop is very much on the spirits themselves, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Although, as you'll discover, I did leave with a few ideas about what else they could have sold me.
Ban on US brands in LCBO - the ups and downs for the Canadian spirits market
There's another reason why this is an interesting time for Canadian distillers.
In March 2025, amid the growing tariff dispute between Canada and the United States, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) removed American-made alcohol from its shelves. This wasn't a token gesture. The LCBO had stocked more than 3,600 US products, representing annual sales of up to C$965 million.
Suddenly, there was an awful lot of shelf space to fill.
And Canadian consumers appear increasingly willing to fill it with something closer to home. By June 2026, the LCBO was reporting record numbers of Ontario-made products on its shelves, alongside significant growth in sales of Canadian and Ontario-made drinks.
Perhaps consumers are simply discovering what I've known for years: Canada makes some truly great stuff.
My wish, of course, is that we can all get along, and that some of those bottles eventually find their way over to us in the UK. I'm not holding my breath.
Aside from the mass-market giants such as Crown Royal and Canadian Club, finding Canadian spirits back home can still take a bit of work. So, I'll continue ordering from specialist merchants and, inevitably, leaving room in the suitcase whenever we return to Canada.
Perhaps that's part of what makes them special. When you're standing in a distillery shop knowing that only a couple of bottles can come home, you choose carefully.
The bottles that do make it back to Scotland aren't simply something we've bought for a collection. They're reminders of the places we've visited, the people we've met and the stories we've heard along the way. They're bottles to open with friends, sharing not just what's in the glass, but some of those stories with a wider audience.
Is Spirit of York Distillery worth visiting?
I might be biased, but this is still my favourite distillery in Toronto. It was good to see it busy too, with a steady flow of visitors for a Monday afternoon. We ended up staying for four hours, which probably says more than anything.
It still blows my mind how much they manage to produce in such a small space. The building is stunning. I just wish that enormous rectification tower wasn't tucked around the back. Imagine it out front. I know historic building planning laws would never allow it, but it would have been a showstopper.
The distillery has certainly become more of a place to linger. The comfy seating, food, cocktails and ideas such as pizza nights give people reasons to stay beyond a tour or tasting, and that's good to see. I do miss some of the tactile displays from my first visit, though. For a grain-to-glass distillery, I'd love to see more of the farmers, grain and people behind the spirits brought back into the visitor story. There's so much good material here to work with.
And if they're looking for ideas, sell those tasting glasses, add a Christmas bauble and a good coffee-table book about the renovation of the building and the brand, and I'll bring a bigger suitcase.
Most importantly, the welcome was every bit as warm as I remembered. I just hope it isn't another eight years before I'm back.
Plan your visit to the Spirit Of York Distillery
Address
The Distillery District, 12 Trinity St, Toronto, ON M5A 3C4, Canada
Website: Spirit Of York Distillery
How long was the visit?
Our tour lasted an hour, with another hour for the tasting, followed by a few hours for lunch and cocktails.
Spirit of York tickets?
We paid for all our purchases, food and drinks, and this was not any form of advertisement. However, on this occasion, we did have a private tour.
Tour & Tasting from $40 CAN.
Opening times
It's always worth checking with the distillery for their current opening times, as they can vary. When we visited in July, tours had just been put on hold until September.
Bar and retail hours:
Sun - Thurs 12PM - 10PM
Fri and Sat 12PM - 11PM
Tours & Experiences:
Distillery tour and tasting - 5pm every Saturday.
Make Your Own Gin Workshop - a 2 hour masterclass, costing $106.19 plus tax every Friday at 7PM.
Getting to Spirit Of York distillery
If you're staying in Toronto getting to the Spirit of York Distillery couldn't be easier. I'm a huge tram fan, so used Toronto's streetcar system the whole week we were in the city. The 504A King streetcar drops you right outside at Distillery Loop, or take the 503 Kingston Road or 504B streetcars to Parliament Street and walk a block towards the waterfront. They run every couple of minutes, and without having to drive you can fully enjoy a tipple, dram or session without worrying about being over the limit.
If you have to bring a car, perhaps for all those fabulous purchases, then there are a few secure car parks on site, though they do get very busy during weekends and holiday events, such as the Winter market. You can also just get an Uber.
Where to stay when visiting Spirit of York distillery
This was our third trip to the city, so we can recommend a few places.
On our first trip we stayed in an Airbnb in one of the two towers at the Distillery District, which came with a pool, plus terrific views of Lake Ontario, even if you had to ignore the multiple laned highway and plethora of train tracks in front of you.
I spent a few days in the apartment, guessing what John, our host, was like, based on the clues left in situ. The protein powders, guitar, 80's new wave albums and travel posters gave us a brief insight. Turns out he worked for the AAA. Getting another rental here was always my plan, but there seems to have been a crack down on renting in those blocks and we haven't been able to score a stay there for ten years.
In 2018 we stayed at the Radisson Blu Toronto Downtown for a week, with our grown up kids in tow.
Full disclosure, we used a bunch of Radisson Reward vouchers to pay for the rooms. My husband stays in Radisson hotels for work in Europe 4 days every week, so those points really do add up. We had a great stay. It was absolutely our intention to return there for our 2026 stay, but Radisson changed the rules on us, so we can no longer use Radisson points earned in Europe in the USA and Canada.
So, our latest trip found us more in the centre of things, staying 7 nights at the new Riu Plaza Toronto. It's reception smells amazing, an odd point I know. It did a decent enough breakfast, and the room was very comfortable, plus it's nearer to multiple transit options. Slight downside is the corridor noise (fire doors and concrete walls don't help), so pack ear plugs and use white noise on your phone like I did, and you'll have a good stay. We would definitely stay again.
What else is there to see close to Spirit Of York Distillery
As I have said already, the Distillery District is fabulous and well worth at least an afternoon of your time.
We always get the ferry across to Center Island. The skyline views are worth it alone, but there are beaches and nice walks too. Demand for the ferry has seriously ramped up over the ten years we have been visiting. The queuing system used to be very orderly, and now it is every man, woman, child, bike, buggy and dog for themselves!
A new find for us this trip was Evergreen Brick Works. They hold a Saturday Farmers Market there, which we followed with a walk around the reclaimed Don Valley Brickworks industrial site. I'm a sucker for an old industrial building as you might have gathered.
There's an environmental community centre, a fabulous kid's playground and lovely nature walks around ponds filled with all manner of wildlife. We suggest using the free shuttle bus, which picks you up and drops you back at Broadview Station. If you're taking the tram up to the station, maybe jump off at Riverdale Park, for sunset views over the city.
If you're new to the city then the CN Tower is great. We've done it 3 times now and even enjoyed the revolving restaurant. If you're at the tower, and a train nerd like me, then the small outdoor Railway Museum right next to it is worth a quick stop, to learn about the history of the area.
And, as you're there, I can recommend Steam Whistle Brewing. Their taproom is inside a set of former brick railway sheds built around a train turntable. They might not brew here anymore, but the tour was delivered by a part time actor, with enough drama and history thrown in to make it really fun, and the beer and food is great too.
We've done Toronto 3 times for a week each time, so we've visited most of the tourist hotspots. If you can make it for the Beaches Jazz Festival in July then we can highly recommend an evening at StreetFest, where we danced and sang along Queen Street East for 6 hours. One minute we were belting out Pink Pony Club, the next we were getting down to Stevie Wonder, before enjoying a spot of reggae and a cocktail, while 80s new romantic classics floated through the air as we munched on pizza surrounded by food trucks. Best of all...the music was FREE! Truly the most fun we've ever had in Toronto, as our croaky voices and aching legs the next day can attest to.
Please note - I'm real
I visit every brand visitor centre and experience myself. My feedback is real, based on a single visit, but informed by years of experience designing and exploring brand experiences all over the world.
I love writing my own reflections, diving into a brand's history, doing the research and looking at spaces through the eyes of a commercial interior designer. With over 30 years of working with customers, I also enjoy watching how guests interact with guides, displays and spaces. Everything I share is honest, personal and entirely human, not AI generated.
That authenticity is important to me, and if it's important to you and you want to work with me, or share your experiences or want to suggest others, then I am happy to be contacted via this website.
Photographs: ©Julie White unless noted otherwise
Disclaimer - The views and opinions expressed are solely my own. I paid for the tours in full and any comments reflect my personal experiences on that day. Please drink responsibly. Please visit and garner your own thoughts and feel free to research the brand and the visitor centre in question.
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