If you walk into almost any distillery tasting room in British Columbia, odds are, you’ll find a bottle of gin — or 10 — waiting for you. BC didn’t just embrace gin; it made gin its flagship spirit.

But why? Why did this corner of the Pacific Northwest become the epicenter of craft gin in Canada?

The answer is part history, part economics, and part pure West Coast magic. 

Before 2013, starting a distillery in British Columbia was almost impossible for small producers.
High liquor board markups, rigid distribution rules, and federal tax structures favored industrial-scale operations.

Then everything changed.

In 2013, BC introduced the Craft Distillery License — a policy shift designed to encourage small, locally rooted distilleries.
It offered major advantages:

• Reduced markups for distilleries using 100% BC-grown agricultural inputs
• Permission for direct-to-consumer sales from tasting rooms and online stores
• Access to farm-to-glass marketing narratives, perfect for local branding

Small distilleries exploded almost overnight.
But while whiskey, brandy, and rum needed years in barrels before they could be sold, gin didn’t.

Gin could be made fast.
Distill a spirit, infuse it with botanicals, bottle it — and you’re in business.

For the first wave of BC craft distillers, gin wasn’t just an artistic choice — it was survival.

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If gin is defined by its botanicals, then British Columbia is a gin-maker’s paradise.

Here, distillers can forage or source:

• Wild juniper berries from the Gulf Islands
• Lavender fields in the Fraser Valley
• Douglas fir tips from the coastal mountains
• Seaweed and kelp along the Pacific shores
• Lemongrass, coriander, and orchard fruits grown in BC’s microclimates

Where traditional London Dry gin tends to focus on sharp, juniper-driven flavor profiles, BC gins often taste greener, fresher, and more floral — a direct reflection of the natural world around them.

Some gins lean into local terroir (Seaside Gin from Sheringham, Garden Gin from Raincity Distillery), while others experiment wildly, folding in apples, sage, elderflower, or spruce tips.

In BC, gin became an expression of place.

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At the same time BC’s craft scene was exploding, gin was staging a comeback across North America.

• The craft cocktail revival — led by bartenders who idolized pre-Prohibition classics like the Martini, Negroni, and Gimlet — fueled interest in gin.
• Consumers, burned out by overly sweet vodka flavors, started craving more complexity and botanical flavors.
• The global rise of premium tonic water brands (Fever Tree, East Imperial) elevated the humble G&T into something worthy of attention.

Gin was no longer just the dusty bottle at the back of the bar.
It was now a canvas for creativity — and nowhere more so than in BC.

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The craft gin boom helped establish BC as a serious player in global spirits.‍It proved small-scale distilling was viable.‍It gave local agriculture — from organic farms to foraging outfits — new markets.‍And it set the tone for everything that came next: craft whiskey, amaro, vodka, even bottled cocktails.

The Legacy Behind Empress Gin

While there are several BC distilleries worth celebrating when we talk about the gin renaissance — Long Table, Sheringham, Okanagan Spirits, and more — Victoria Distillers feels like the most fitting to highlight in this issue. They weren’t just early to the party — they helped define it.

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Originally founded in 2008 as Victoria Spirits, they were among the first true small-batch distilleries in the province, long before the 2013 BC Craft Distillery License made gin a go-to product for startups. Their original product, Victoria Gin, was one of the earliest premium gins produced in Canada — and it set the tone for what BC gin could be: nuanced, balanced, and botanically expressive.

The distillery rebranded as Victoria Distillers in 2016 and moved to their now-iconic waterfront location in Sidney, transforming from a tucked-away operation to a flagship destination with a full tasting room and tour experience.

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In 2017, Victoria Distillers launched Empress 1908 Gin in collaboration with the Fairmont Empress Hotel — a move that would change everything.

Here’s what made it work:

• Colour: The deep indigo hue (from butterfly pea blossom) was shocking, elegant, and instantly Instagrammable.
• Story: The connection to the Empress Hotel’s famous tea service gave it gravitas and romanticism.
• Flavor: Despite the novelty, it delivered — juniper-forward, with subtle citrus, rose, and ginger complexity.

What started as a small batch release quickly turned into an international success story, with Empress Gin now available across Canada, the U.S., and beyond. It became a blueprint for modern gin marketing — proving that visual drama + craft quality = unstoppable growth.

Today, Victoria Distillers remains a cornerstone of BC craft distilling — not just because they were early, but because they evolved, took risks, and built a brand that became bigger than the bottle.

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If you visit the Empress 1908 website, you’ll find an entire library of cocktail recipes — everything from violet-hued martinis to tea-infused twists on the French 75. It’s a goldmine of inspiration for adventurous home bartenders.

But sometimes, less is more.

We recommend starting with the classic gin and tonic — no bells, no whistles. Just a clean, crisp showcase of the spirit’s character.

• 2 oz Empress 1908 Gin of choice
• 3 oz Premium Tonic Water
• To garnish:
  • Grapefruit Slice (for Empress Indigo Gin)
  • Orange Slice (for Empress Elderflower Rose Gin)
  • Lemon Wheels, Cucumber Slices, & Thyme Sprigs (for Empress Cucumber Lemon Gin)

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