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typical week looks like in a distillery’s production
cycle.
“You walk through every step of the
process, and it’s a different process every
day,” she said. “Any time that you can
spend in a distillery doing that hands-on
work and learning from other distilleries
is really essential.”
Diubaldo says she found the business
component of the program tremendously
useful as well.
“They’re quite clear in telling you that
while the distilling side of things is very
important and you need to be creating a
good product, a large part of distilling business
is getting people to buy your product,”
she said.
“When you’re a tiny craft distillery
and you’re going up against big multinational
companies that have huge marketing
budgets, you need to be very on the
ball with your own marketing strategy.”
Diubaldo says she’s stayed in touch
with Lester, who has continued to provide
support and guidance during her journey to
set up her own distilling business.
“James and I communicate on a regular
basis, and he’s been a huge help in pretty
much every step of the process,” she said.
“I’m forever indebted to Sons of Vancouver
for helping me in that way.”
According to Lester, the Sons of
Vancouver distillers aren’t really concerned
about The Distillery School students copying
their techniques.
“A few years ago, it was a very cagey
industry where people held their secrets or
their techniques close to their chest,” Lester
said, adding it’s still a tendency in the distilling
business but not so much anymore.
“We’ve tried very hard to move the
industry away from that as a whole,” Lester
said. “We learned everything we know from
other people who’ve done this. The distilling
course is something that we offer almost as
our way of fostering the industry and building
it up.”
Lester says when the first craft distilleries
began appearing in Canada, a number
of them came out with inferior products
that may have soured some consumers on
artisan spirits.
To prevent that from happening, he
says, it’s essential that new artisan distilleries
opening up know exactly what they’re
doing. As Lester puts it, “it’s important for
all of our image.” n
Those interested in signing up for the
school can get more information at
www.distilleryschool.ca.
“I would like people when they leave the
school to know what they are going to
make, how they are going to make it,
and who they are going to sell it to.”
– James Lester, The Distillery School
EDUCAT I O N
Photos courtesy of Sons of Vancouver
SUMMER 2019 § POURED CANADA § 17
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