Grain-To-Glass: Meet Dillon’s Small Batch Distillers

There’s a craft distillery in the heart of Ontario’s Niagara wine country crafting unique spirits using local and seasonal ingredients; just call it “grain-to-glass”. Dillon’s Small Batch Distillers offers a collection of spirits, including vodkas, gins, rye whisky, absinthe, liqueur-style gins, peach and plum schnapps, prepared bottled cocktails and a line of cocktail bitters. We chatted with founder Geoff Dillon to learn more. —Noa Nichol

Please tell us a bit about yourself to start.

My name is Geoff Dillon; I founded Dillon’s Small Batch Distillers back in 2012 (we are currently celebrating our 10-year anniversary) with a passion for taking local ingredients and turning them into unique spirits.

What niche were/are you aiming to fill?

The idea behind it was first and foremost to fill a gap in the rye whisky space. It was clear to me that the rye we Canadians thought we were drinking was made with a cheaper corn-based spirit. I wanted to show people what a true 100 per cent rye whisky could be. As for our other spirits and liqueurs, once we started experimenting with grapes, fruit and botanicals, there was no turning back. Now you can find a selection of flavoured vodkas, gins and liqueurs on rotation seasonally through our online store.

What products do you currently offer, and what makes them unique?

We’re big into the experimentation side of things, so there’s always new spirits going into bottles. Our core lineup includes a recently double-gold-awarded rye-based vodka, a refreshingly crisp dry gin and a rye whisky made from 100 per cent local rye grain. We round that out with a whole lineup of fun gins, like cherry gin (made from sour cherries grown down the street), rhubarb gin (made from our very own rhubarb) and a whole lineup of others. We make liqueurs like cassis (from local black currants) and peach schnapps (we rescued a few truckloads of peaches after a hailstorm bruised them). We also just launched our gin cocktails in a can. We watched this segment grow over the past six years and quietly worked away on what we think are the most balanced canned gin cocktails out there. We knew we were on to something when our tangerine, lemon and a hint of mint flavour took home both double gold and best in class at this year’s San Francisco Spirits Competition, the largest spirits competition in the world.

Many of your ingredients are distinctly local/Canadian; tell us about the impetus behind that.

It’s pretty simple: 10 years of experimenting and creating spirits has consistently shown that fresh, real ingredients taste better. That’s why our home base is in Niagara, so we can be surrounded by the farmers that grow the best ingredients … and we even grow some ourselves.

RTD products are big right now why do you think that is?

We’ve spent a decade answering the question of how to drink our spirits—canned cocktails are an easy solution. They’re an easy way to have a balanced cocktail in a simple can. They just make sense. People want something different and canned cocktails provide a great alternative to a beer or wine.

You wrote a recipe book! What will we find in there? Can you share one of your fave cocktails to make at home?

We did! I mentioned previously that we get asked a lot how to use our spirits. We’ve spent a decade making cocktails both in the distillery sipping room and for the hundreds of events we take part in. The cocktail recipe book is a collection by season of our crowd favourites. One of my absolute favourites is a fall/winter cocktail called the Red Wine Sour from our cocktail book.

You’re clearly big on community, too; during the pandemic, you produced lifesaving hand sanitizer for first responders, hospitals; tell us about that, and about other “give back” efforts.

Being part of the community is huge for us as a distiller. Farmers have it tough; from year-to-year crop yields can swing wildly, buyers can come and go. We act as a safety net by buying fruit that may otherwise not have a home. From grapes to peaches and even things like black walnuts that most people would see as waste—we’ll turn them into a bitter amaro. As for the sanitizer, it was certainly a wild ride. We had the opportunity to either ignore or help when cities’ paramedic services showed up to our door telling us they had nothing to wipe down their ambulances with. The decision was quickly made to start emptying our tanks of alcohol and giving it to the people and organizations that needed it the most and, within a week, hundreds of other businesses were jumping in. We became the hub down here with dozens of wineries, breweries and suppliers donating any liquid, bottles, labels or time they could get liquid to the ones who needed it. It was quite a time!

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