Eau Claire Distillery Whisky Named ‘Best in Class’ in Canada
The Ruperts Exceptional Canadian Whisky from Eau Claire Distillery has won a Best in Class award at the 2024 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, where its Canadian Whisky category won Best in Class.
According to David Farran, founder and president of Eau Claire Distillery, the company’s success is a David and Goliath story.
“Winning ‘Best in Class’ feels like we’ve just toppled a giant, and it’s a testament to the passion and precision of our team,” Farran said.
The award comes after the whisky earned Double Gold in three consecutive years, and Platinum status this year. Rupert’s Exceptional Canadian Whisky has earned Double Gold in three consecutive years and earned Platinum status in this year’s competition.
Eau Claire Distillery Whisky Named ‘Best in Class’ in Canada
The distillery also earned Gold for its Batch No. 7 Single Malt Whisky and Silver for its Parlour Gin at the 2024 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
“We’re so proud of what we’ve achieved, and this award solidifies our place in the world of exceptional whisky,” Farran said.
Founded in 2000, the San Francisco World Spirits Competition is the oldest and largest of its kind. Judges rate approximately 5,000 entries each year.
In wine, sommeliers and vintners talk about terroir. That is the flavors that arise from the regional soil, the climate conditions, and the growing conditions in a given year. Like the wine industry, we revel in the annual variation that an individual year can produce in flavor. Year to year, you will always know it is Eau Claire whisky, but we don’t blend to conformity, we share with our consumers those subtle flavor note variations.
The angel’s share, the evaporation during maturation, tends to be more water than alcohol, enabling us to keep flavor complexities within the liquid. Similarly, our barrels breathe with the wide temperature fluctuations inherent in Southern Alberta’s Chinook winds, allowing flavors to impart from the barrel in hot weather and to oxygenate rapidly on the cooler days.
