Toronto's Craft Distilleries

Toronto's original distilling industry, centred on the Gooderham and Worts complex, had been closed for decades by the early 2000s, and provincial licensing rules made it genuinely difficult for small, independent producers to legally operate a distillery in Ontario at all, in sharp contrast to the province's more permissive rules for small breweries and wineries. That regulatory gap meant Ontario, despite its history as a major distilling centre, had almost no small-batch spirits producers through the early 2010s.

A new wave after 2013

Provincial regulatory changes around 2013 made it substantially easier to license and operate a small distillery, and a wave of new craft distillers opened across Toronto in the years that followed, including Spirit of York, which set up inside the historic Distillery District itself, alongside other producers making gin, whisky and vodka on a small-batch scale for the first time in the city in generations. The craft distillery wave paralleled, and drew directly on the momentum of, Ontario's earlier craft beer boom.

Sources

• Ontario Craft Distillers Association
• BlogTO — Toronto's craft distillery scene

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