Canada stands at a moment of opportunity. Global trade shocks, rising demand for homegrown goods and an urgent push for sustainability are forcing businesses and policy-makers alike to rethink old assumptions. In many industries, innovation is more than an aspirational corporate goal – it’s the key to thriving, even amidst the turmoil of the current economic moment.
Take whisky, for example. For generations, barrel-aging has defined the craft, with long timelines, a heavy reliance on oak and a production model that lacks innovation. But as expectations around environmental sustainability continue to rise, tariffs and trade insecurity become the new normal, and Canadians continue to turn to made-in-Canada products to displace American ones, it’s clear that action needs to be taken to meet rapidly evolving demands.
Thankfully, some producers in the craft spirits sector haven’t given up on improving whisky production and have been developing new processes that can address both environmental concerns and evolving supply-chain realities.
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The innovative Stockhausen method is one of those processes, replicating the flavour-building interactions between wood and spirits and creating the same barrel-aged profiles that Canadian whisky drinkers cherish. This new aging process can be done in a matter of weeks instead of years. It reduces the need for new wood by roughly 80 per cent, driving down emissions tied to barrel processing, and cultivates a more resilient supply chain amid global barrel shortages.
This isn’t about replacing tradition for novelty’s sake. The reality is that Canada needs a faster, more sustainable method of delivering one of our most iconic commodities. Since American products have been taken off the shelves, we have been turning to made-in-Canada products. In Ontario alone, according to the LCBO, Canadians are purchasing close to one million more bottles of Canadian whisky per year than they used to. In response, Canadian makers need to be able to expand their toolkit so they can meet demand and support local supply.
Modern maturation techniques have the added benefit of supporting Canadian agricultural producers by allowing for shorter intervals between production cycles and offering more consistent grain purchases for suppliers. It can also enable smaller, local distilleries to scale intelligently, allowing them to provide more options to Canadian consumers and export their products to a world that is eager to taste the best of Canada.
In order for these kinds of innovations to be effective, government policy and regulations have to keep up. Much of Canada’s framework for spirits was designed in an era when innovation of this kind wasn’t even conceivable, much less used in practice. Rules that were sensible a generation ago now act as barriers to responsible, sustainable innovation.
In fact, there are even cases where punitive regulations are only applied to Canadian producers and not our international counterparts. For example, whiskies made in Canada that do not have a declarative “age statement” are still required to age the majority of the spirit for three years – a rule not applied to American-made no-age-statement whiskies that are sold in Canada.
That means that big American brands have no requirement to meet the minimum threshold imposed on Canadian products.
These kinds of policy gaps can be frustrating for both consumers and producers. But as Canadians work to stand united against the threat of American tariffs, now is the time to close the gaps, incentivize innovation and reward changemakers who are carving a new path for Canada.
As we’ve seen, innovation is cumulative. When a small-town distillery invests in advanced techniques and when regulators advance policy shifts to create fairness for domestic producers, the benefits ripple across the economy. We get more resilient supply chains, lower environmental impacts, steadier income for farmers and a richer array of Canadian-made products on our shelves.
Now is the moment for Canada to be pragmatic and ambitious, because beyond the economic advantage it naturally presents, true innovation can serve as a means of preserving what Canadians value: quality, community and sustainability.
And that’s something we can all raise a glass to.
Adrian Spitzer is the founder and president of Dunrobin Distilleries.
