World’s best vermouth from Vancouver Island

ESQUIMALT – A taste for local has won a Vancouver Island business global attention at the 2023 World Vermouth Awards in London, England.

Michela and Quinn Palmer of Esquimalt Vermouth and Apéritifs (formally Rootside Provisions Ltd.) create wines that have unique regional taste profiles thanks to growers and foragers across the province.

“We’re working with producers who are experts in their field and whose knowledge and experience really come through in the exceptional ingredients they provide. We couldn’t make what we do without incredible inputs from other local producers,” Michela Palmer says.

The couple sources honey for its wines, which start off as mead, from Paradis Apiary in Fort St. John. It’s the latest in a line of suppliers including apiaries on the Saanich Peninsula and in the Fraser Valley.

Palmer turned to the Peace because bees there produce 10 times what Island bees can make per hive, she says.

“Bees are solar-powered, meaning when the sun is up, the bees are busy. As we approach the summer solstice, the days extend to upwards of 20 hours of busy time. So, they get a lot done,” says Paradis Apiary owner Claude Paradis, who is excited to be supplying the Palmers with honey this season and their commitment to local sourcing.

The honey’s quality and taste showcases the region’s bounty.

“We just got some samples not too long ago and it’s just beautiful honey that we’re getting from up there,” Palmer says. “Depending on what the bees pollinate, it’ll taste slightly different.”

The honey adds to that sense of place – what grape wineries call terroir – that’s at the heart of what the Palmers are striving to deliver.

The couple also work with Forest for Dinner in Port Alberni.

“Ben and Celia are the ones who forage some of our local seasonal ingredients like elderflower, Sitka spruce tips, and salal berries,” Palmer says.

These ingredients allow the Palmers to venture outside of the more traditional apéritif flavours, such as sweet Italian classics that have notes of clove, cinnamon and caramel and introduce the Island’s more unique tastes.

“We’re just starting the research on it right now, but we want to do a couple different iterations of a 100% native botanicals apéritif just to kind of highlight what’s here,” Palmer says. “Salal is something that a lot of people haven’t tried, and it’s just so abundant here and really, really delicious. … You know, there’s so much good stuff here and so to be able to share it is really exciting.”

Side hustle

What started as a side hustle resulted in high-quality award-winning beverages. During the 2023 World Vermouth Awards, the Palmers won World’s Best Dry Vermouth for their Rosso (red) product and their Bianco (white) vermouth was named second-best in the semi-sweet category.

“I’m sure there are a lot of people who don’t even know what vermouth is so, hopefully, they’ll go and taste it and see it’s so easy to drink on its own,” Palmer says. “I think if the one thing we can do through this award is to encourage more people to just try it and sip on it on its own is the best thing we can ask for.”

In May 2016, the Palmers established Rootside Bitters and Mixers in Vancouver, selling non-alcoholic tonic syrups and mix concentrates to bars and restaurants. They moved to the Island in 2018 and began exploring the alcoholic beverage space, launching their Rosso sweet vermouth in July 2019 and a dry version in February 2020.

The couple weathered the pandemic storm, thanks in part to the buy-local movement among consumers.

“The community on Vancouver Island is just so incredibly supportive. It feels a little bit more, kind of like you’re not such a tiny, tiny fish in a big pond as you are on the Mainland,” Palmer says.

But like many other businesses, they have experienced supply chain issues and increased production costs.

Rising costs

“Looking back, every single year since 2019, there’s just been zero consistency year to year. It’s just kind of changed every single time,” Palmer says.

Not only has the price of honey, the meadery’s main input, increased by 30%, the cost of packaging and bottles has also risen, which impacted such business decisions as ordering custom bottles and altering bottle size.

“We really started pushing the vermouth a lot more when we received our custom bottles in May 2022 as we didn’t have to worry about sourcing our packaging any longer,” Palmer says.

“One of the biggest decisions was to order custom bottles, as buying a whole container was cheaper than the generic glass we were using. Shipping costs and supply chain issues caused our glass to double in price during the pandemic, so although we needed to make the whole purchase up front, it ended up costing us less per bottle going custom.”

The 500 ml custom bottles halve the couple’s costs and ensure that they don’t have to rely as heavily on precarious supply chains.

This year has seen costs stabilize.

“This year is looking really, really good so far,” she adds.

To further grow and regionalize their business, the couple are building their own warehouse on a six-acre property outside of Nanaimo.

“One of the really exciting things is to focus on local and native botanicals, but then actually get to be able to grow some of those on our own property,” Palmer says.

Palmer will continue to source most of their honey from Fort St. John, but would like to contribute some hyper-local product with a few beehives and create an entire field to bottle ecosystem on site.

Palmer has enjoyed working at their leased Esquimalt warehouse but is looking forward to beginning this new chapter.

“To be able to actually kind of have our own property and to be able to grow things ourselves, I think is going to be what gets us to that next level,” she says.

The commitment and passion behind small Island businesses have resulted in international recognition on multiple occasions.

Alongside Rootside Provisions, Macaloney’s Island Distillery in Victoria recently won the World’s Best Pot Still award and awards for Best Canadian Single Malt, Best Canadian Pot Still and Best Canadian Single Cask Malt. Sheringham Distillery in Langford won the World’s Best Contemporary Gin award last year with its flagship spirit Seaside Gin and Cowichan Valley’s Ampersand Distilling Co. won World’s Best Varietal Vodka in 2020, using 100% BC-grown wheat.