Spirit in Niagara Distillery
Spirit in Niagara Small Batch Distillery was founded by Arnie Lepp, whose family has been farming for 4 generations. They care for over 200 acres of Tender Fruit, seedless grapes and vinifera grapes and are the owner of the largest single family tender fruit shipping company in Ontario, amalgamated from 5 other independent shippers.
Spirit in Niagara loves peaches, nectarines, yellow plums, blue plums, pears, apricots and cherries – the 7 major fruits in Niagara – and use these to make their special small batch spirits.
Reducing waste with incredible taste.
10% of Niagara tender fruits are wasted each year (calculated as 30,500 tonnes production x 10%= 3,050 tonnes a year. Each tonne can yield up to 700 litres of juice; each litre of juice can be fermented to 10% to 14% and amounting to over 70 litres of alcohol. Our objective is to reduce fruit waste disposal problems and produce a value added spirit product. Only the ripest fruit is selected.
Domestically and throughout North America over the past 5 years, the development of products such as flavoured spirits, premium spirits and coolers have revived interest in spirits. Younger alcohol beverage consumers have developed a more mature taste profile which typically includes spirits as well as wine and craft beer. There has been a noticeable trend back to cocktail consumption. Most fruit based spirits consumed in Canada are imported. All other small batch distillers in Ontario focus on grain or potato based spirits.
A.J. Lepp Orchards has access to significant volumes of wasted tender fruit from its orchard operations and from the custom packing operations at Niagara Orchard & Vineyard Corp. and the growers that deliver fresh fruit for distribution.
