cirka-joanne_opt (1)Cirka Distilleries was founded in 2014 in Côte-St-Paul, Montreal, by Paul Cirka, John Frare and JoAnne Gaudreau, a graduate of the McGill-HEC Montréal Executive MBA program. It produces its spirits from grains, aiming to “create a product rich in flavors, aromas and unique features.”

Recently, the distillery and its product, Cirka Terroir, received the silver medal at the 2016 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

However, the distillery has also had to deal with an important issue. In Canada, a federal law states that “a vodka must be a drinkable alcoholic beverage obtained by the treatment of grains or potatoes with charcoal, so that the product has no character nor flavor, nor distinctive taste.” The problem for Cirka is that their vodka is too flavourful. It is possible to distinguish a note of fruits, juniper berries and rose hips with a hint of buttered toast and a surprising creamy and buttery texture (according to bières et plaisir.com).

Cirka Distilleries went back to the still, to test some options for neutralizing Cirka Terroir’s flavour.  Eventually they decided they didn’t want to create a bland and tasteless product, so they changed tracks. Rather than remove the flavour, they removed the name.  Unlike artisan distillers elsewhere who sell this type of spirit as vodka, Cirka Distilleries had to remove the word vodka from their packaging.

An article in La Presse reports that “

[Cirka Distilleries] preferred to launch a product of which they were really proud. Terroir, the “non-vodka”, will be sold as grain spirits.”

JoAnne Gaudreau (EMBA 2012) explained: “We prefer to change the name or label rather than changing the nature and properties of our spirit. In our opinion, the essence of our product is much more important than the name it bears. ”

Cirka Terroir will also be available on the SAQ website soon.

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