A new distillery opens in eastern Ontario, and this is what they make

Raise your glass and make a toast to a new Distillery in eastern Ontario.

Artist in Residence (AIR) Distillerie has launched in Hawkesbury. This is the second location for the company, who has an existing operation in Gatineau.

"I want this to be a local distillery. So, this will be the local Ontario distillery,” owner Pierre Mantha tells CTV News Ottawa.  “You have an advantage when you’re in Ontario – for LCBO, it’s easier to get in. LCBO is the biggest spirits seller in the world. If you can do LCBO, I'm set up for anywhere in the world.”

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Mantha says the company will eventually expand to the United States.

The Hawkesbury site is located on Tupper Street, and Mantha says it is currently running two days a week, with a plan to operate more starting next month.

He says at first, they will focus on distilling whisky at the location, and is making a smoked maple whisky.

Smoked maple whisky from Artist in Residence distillery in Hawkesbury, Ont. (Peter Szperling/CTV News Ottawa)

“I'm trying to bring the new generation to try something a little bit easier to drink.”   

The company already produces whisky and other spirits, like gin, at the Gatineau location.

Appealing to a new generation of whisky drinkers is in line with market demand.

"It's not just your dad or grandfather's drink anymore,” says Mike Brisebois of The Whisky Explorer.

“It's really changed over in the demographics. We're seeing more 25- to 40-year-olds drinking whisky.  Many women are jumping in that category and honestly are going to take over in terms of the interest of whisky as a whole."

Brisebois is the founder Whisky Wonderland, which is an event that will be bringing up to 900 people from across the country together next February. He is also with The Whisky Explorer Magazine.

He says whisky is “more of that sense of relaxed notion of sitting back, enjoying a dram and not just rushing it."

"You're having many of your guests over having conversations and just taking your time with it, and most people now are more interested in the story behind the whisky, the history behind it, the distillery itself, and then to the juice liquid.”

Local ingredients

Mantha says locally grown corn is used in the whisky-making process, “Something we want it to do. And for me, whisky is from grain to glass.”

The Hawkesbury location opened after some delays, and the operation has cost “Close to $10 million, to start,” says Mantha.

The whisky will be aged in wood barrels, which Mantha says were purchased from Tennessee.

Wood barrels where the whisky will be aged at the Artist in Residence distillery in Hawkesbury, Ont. (Peter Szperling/CTV News Ottawa)

The distillery in Hawkesbury is not open to the public yet, but Mantha says it may open eventually for tours a year or so later. He adds there is a plan to open a store on site, and eventually a restaurant, during a future phase of the project.

Available at LCBO

On Thursday and Friday, Mantha says he delivered bottles to Ottawa area LCBO locations, including to the Rideau and King Edward LCBO, Orleans Tenth Line, and the location in Hawkesbury.