An intoxicating infusion as wine and Irish whiskey unite

Wine is not often associated with whiskey.

But the two are being paired together at Quails’ Gate Winery, producing barrel-aged brilliance with new and unique flavours, specifically for St. Patrick’s Day.

Dipping into the family’s Irish heritage, the Stewarts have launched Green Spot Quails’ Gate - an Irish Whiskey finished in Pinot Noir barrels that were sent by the winery to Ireland two years ago.

“When you send barrels to a distillery for that purpose, you don’t really clean them. There’s quite a bit of flavour left in the barrel from the Pinot and the wood is porous,” Assistant Winemaker Rowan Stewart told Kelowna10. “So, over the years that we’ve used that Pinot, it’s infused the wood with a Pinot Noir like flavour, and the whiskey, because it’s much higher alcohol, will pull that out and gain flavours from it.

Stewart’s great grandfather - who came to Canada from Ireland in the early 1900s - is what really led to a partnership with Green Spot.

“They found us on an old poster from the ‘90s about those Irish families (who came to Canada) and they reached out about us sending some wine barrels to age some whiskey in,” he said. “ There was a little bit of back and forth, and we were able to send some Pinot Noir barrels and create this unique collaboration.”

To celebrate the fresh release of the new whiskey, the winery created a specialty drink for St. Patrick’s Day.

It is their own unique take on a whiskey sour with some lavender elements from the Okanagan Lavender Herb Farm. It’s topped off with foam that creates a unique aroma.

Stewart said initially, the drink was only going set for the holiday, but the public grown fond of the creation.

“It seems really popular so we might keep making it every once and a while,” he said. “We made it originally just for the launch of this whiskey and it was a great drink that we decided to keep it going.”