F E AT U R E
Jenna Diubaldo
Jeanna Diubaldo is hoping to have
No. 13 Distilling Company up and running
in Winnipeg later on this year. She’s already
invested a great deal of time and energy on
the venture, but for Diubaldo, it’s been a
labour of love.
“It’s definitely an ambitious endeavor.
We’ve been at this for two or three years
now and we’ve still got a way to go,” said
Diubaldo. “You just really want to see yourself
succeed and see your dreams though.
It’s a lot of fun, even though it’s a lot of work.”
The distillery’s name comes from a
decommissioned Winnipeg fire hall that
was bought and redeveloped by Diubaldo’s
entrepreneurial father, Enzo. Diubaldo, a
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says help cement her vision to open a smallbatch
distillery of her own.
“My time in Vancouver proved to me
that the concept works,” Diubaldo said.
“We’re a small distillery with a small budget,
entirely independently owned. We’re not
going to have a huge shop to begin with –
we’re going to start small and grow with the
industry here.”
When No. 13 Distilling Company
opens, Diubaldo plans to run it with the
help of a part-time staffer. She’ll share
ownership with Kyla Wiseman, Diubaldo’s
stepsister who’ll act as the distillery’s
finance manager, and her brother Stephen
Diubaldo, a Winnipeg entrepreneur.
Diubaldo says their planned products
include a wheat-based vodka and a gin
incorporating Manitoba botanicals, as well
as some different liquors inspired by the
family’s Italian heritage.
“We’d love to do an amaro and we’d love
to do an aperitivo,” she said. “Beyond that,
we haven’t completely solidified things, but
for sure you’ll see some really interesting
liqueurs from us.”
Diubaldo says she hopes No. 13
Distilling Company inspires other women
to become interested in distilling and that
she’ll be in position to hire female or female
identifying people to come on board once
the business gets bigger.
“I know distilling has primarily been
populated by men, but I think women who
are in the industry are doing some of the
most interesting distilling that I’ve seen,”
she said.
“I’ve met a few women now in the limited
time that I’ve been in this industry, and
they’re just doing amazing things.” n
former community worker and singer in
a Winnipeg rock band, says when her dad
died five years ago, she took stock of her life
and decided that owning her own business
was something she really wanted to do.
Diubaldo’s road to becoming a distiller
started seven years ago, when she started
homebrewing beer. She subsequently
earned a brewing technology certificate
from Siebel Institute in Chicago and was
looking to start her own craft brewery, but
she says she switched gears to craft distilling
to try to capitalize on the “next big
thing” in the alcoholic beverage market.
In 2017, Diubaldo completed The
Distillery School run by the B.C. artisan
distillery, Sons of Vancouver, which she
“I’ve met a few
women now in
the limited time
that I’ve been in
this industry, and
they’re just doing
amazing things.”
– Jenna Diubaldo, No. 13
Distilling Company Photo courtesy of Rachel Wood
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