Stir Pairing: Vancouver Writers Fest’s first digital festival, and some local whisky to go with those words
It’s the first time the fest has offered a mastercut; Shelter Point Distillery’s Single Malt is a winner
Every week, Stir Pairing suggests BC food and/or drink to go with a local arts event.
The event
Vancouver Writers Fest Digital Festival
December 6 to January 6, 2023, online, on-demand
The drink
Shelter Point Distillery Single Malt Whisky
The lowdown
Vancouver Writers Fest has come up with a way for people to catch everything they missed at the October 2022 event, with its brand new Digital Festival.
The online offering, presented through the support of the Y.P. Heung Foundation, features 30 curated, fully captioned sessions from this year’s festival, many of which sold out, for on-demand viewing.
Passes are now available on a pay what you can structure, with prices at $0, $20, $100 (recommended), or $250 (which helps support the PWYC model). Digital Festival Gift Passes are also an option, where you get a festival email to forward to the recipient as well as printable gift certificate that can be slipped in a card or stocking.
The lineup includes the session What Home Means, featuring Elamin Abdelmahmoud, Omar El Akkad, Dimitri Nasrallah, and Debra Thompson; Ali Hassan in Conversation with Brent Butt; Freeman's Spotlight with Tess Gunty and John Freeman; and Short Story Masters, featuring Caroline Adderson, Jonathan Escoffery, Kim Fu, and Alexander MacLeod.
Other highlights are Fiction from Reality, with Violaine Huisman, Aislinn Hunter, Gabriel Krauze, and Douglas Stuart; Dr. Gabor Maté in Conversation, hosted by Andrea Woo; and Bestseller to Blockbuster, featuring Tom Perrotta, Iain Reid, and Marsha Lederman.
Then there’s Don’t You Want Me, Baby?: Authors Do 80s Lyrics; Poems for the Twelfth Hour; Queer Little Nightmares (complete with a drag performance by Persephone); and The Literary Cabaret.
The pairing
The snow or rain is falling and you’re cozied up under a blanket listening to bright minds like Aamina Ahmad, Ivan Coyote, Veda Hille, Bill Richardson, and Marcus Youssef (A Gallant Day: The Great Coincidence of August 11). We can’t think of anything more fitting than a sip of whisky. We take zero credit for the idea; one of Vancouver Writers Fest’s most popular, longstanding annual happenings is Whisky & Words. Formerly known as A Dram Come True, the whisky tasting event supports the festival’s youth education outreach work. Every year, Vancouver Writers Fest offers more than 12,000 students across British Columbia the opportunity to interact with celebrated writers through a variety of programs.
Usually held in the spring, Whisky & Words features whiskies from distilleries around the world as well as local craft spirits and beer, a silent auction, and bites from Vancouver restaurants. The 2023 event takes place April 21 from 8 to 11pm at Performance Works on Granville Island.
Until then, we’re partial to Shelter Point Distillery’s Single Malt Whisky—and we’re evidently not alone. The classic single malt won Double Gold at the 2022 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, which is a big deal: it’s the oldest and largest spirits competition in the world, and one of the most respected and prestigious.
This was the first time the Vancouver Island distillery had ever entered the competition, bringing home Double Gold not only for the Single Malt Whisky but also for its Smoke Point Whisky. Double Gold is awarded to entries that receive a Gold medal rating by every member of the judging panel. The win follows the honour of Best Canadian Single Malt at the 2018 World Whiskies Awards.
Shelter Point’s small-batch whiskies start with 100-percent Canadian two-row barley, which is grown on the 380-acre farmland estate in Campbell River and sourced from top B.C. producers. From there, the team takes a traditional approach, including slow fermentation and double-distillation, with every spirit infused with natural glacier-fed water supplied by an aquifer then aged near the ocean in a range of wood casks selected from around the globe for the unique flavours they impart on the final product.
The naturally amber-coloured Single Malt has a balance of “fruit, caramel, barley, baking spices, honey, seaside whiff, hints of wine, smoke, and the sweet leathery mouthfeel of a high-quality single malt”.
“This is the first year Shelter Point Distillery has entered the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, and to win two Double Gold medals is an exceptional milestone,” general manager Stephen Goodridge says in a release. “It is a testament to the quality of the whisky being distilled and bottled here, and we are thrilled as a Canadian distillery to have our single malts internationally recognized as some of the finest whiskies in the world. This win isn’t just for us – it’s for the entire Campbell River and Vancouver Island community.”
Find more information about Shelter Point Distillery’s Single Malt Whisky (46 percent ABV; 750 mL, $78.25) here.
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