Canada is home to North America's only in-airport distillery
Quick summary
Pubs are common at airports these days, but actual breweries are not. That's why Airbräu at Munich Airport (MUC) in Germany and Cigar City Brewing at Florida's Tampa International Airport (TPA) are rare — they brew beer on-site.
In-airport distilleries are just as hard to find. There are currently only two in the world, and one of them has been open less than a year.
The first one, called The Nicholas Culpeper pub and restaurant, opened in 2016 at London Gatwick Airport (LGW). It's named for a 17th-century botanist, herbalist and physician who once lived nearby. The pub still produces a London Dry Gin using a recipe initially created by master distiller Matt Servini and his team at the Craft Distilling Business; the team also designed and built a special still for the airport site.
Although it was closed for a while during the pandemic, this in-airport distillery has since reopened. It has been so successful that a larger still was installed in 2018 to meet demand, according to Vanessa Rapier, Craft Distilling Business' co-founder and director. She told TPG that "as long as the recipe and ingredients are consistent," distilling gin in an airport "should have no impact on [the gin's] taste." The distillery is located in the pre-security/landside section of the airport's North Terminal.
Canadian airport gets going with gin
Victoria Distillers, which has its headquarters in Sidney, British Columbia, had already been planning to open a distillery at Victoria International Airport (YYJ) in British Columbia before the pandemic started. And despite the decline in air travel and the implementation of travel restrictions, the company pressed forward and opened North America's first airport distillery in September 2021.
The company makes a variety of highly regarded, handmade spirits, but it's best known for an indigo-colored gin inspired by the legendary Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria. The grand hotel opened in 1908 and serves a signature blend of black tea during its popular afternoon high tea service.
That hotel's tea is one of the ingredients in Victoria Distillers' Empress 1908 Gin; it also contains traditional botanicals as well as butterfly pea blossom, the trendy exotic herb that gives the gin its purple hue. The gin's color changes to bright lavender, soft pink, or fuchsia depending on what mixer is added.
Victoria Distillers has set up a still and a shop in the recently expanded departures lounge of the airport.
"Our base spirit distillation is carried out at our parent facility on the Sidney Waterfront, about 10 minutes away," Tomas Dosil, hospitality and experience manager for Victoria Distillers, told TPG. "The manufacturing at our Victoria Airport location consists of infusing, blending and bottling with a custom blending and bottling unit that uses circle clad stainless steel and copper elements intended to mirror the stills at our parent Sidney distillery."
Dosil said that although the shelves at the airport shop are well-stocked with the beautiful and recognizable indigo Empress 1908 Gin, customers can watch through the distillery's floor-to-ceiling windows as their personal bottles are blended, bottled and labeled.
What's more, the distillery offers travelers complimentary half-ounce tastings of the Empress 1908 Gin that's produced on-site.
"We like to add a splash of quality tonic after the initial first taste," Dosil said. "Our team focuses on how the gin is made, what botanicals are used and what flavors you might expect. We also tell the story of Empress 1908, from the inspiration to its inception and what makes the gin unique."
If you want to sample the gin in cocktail form before committing to buying a full bottle, you can order from the menu at the Spinnakers Lounge across from the airport distillery. Dosil said a signature cocktail featuring the airport-made gin is in the works.
Travelers who want to go home with a bottle of the purple gin can easily do so. Right now, the airport distillery produces 50 to 60 bottles daily, but it has the capacity to increase production as passenger traffic grows. And here's a tip: Dosil said the bottle prices at the airport are lower than any you'll find in local government and private retail stores.