A series at Fairmont Hotel Vancouver and educators and distillers across B.C. say whisky is becoming more approachable through food, collaboration and experimentation.
The Story
A food-first approach to Scotch and Canadian whisky is increasingly being promoted by women across B.C., including a continuing series at Fairmont Hotel Vancouver and educators and distillers focused on making spirits easier to explore at the table.
At Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, the Spirit of Scotland Scotch Dinner Series makes the case for treating whisky “more like wine: something to explore through food, conversation and personal taste.” The series launched with a House of Hazelwood dinner in September and continues Oct. 15 with an evening devoted to The Dalmore, hosted by Dalmore whisky specialist Emma Coady.
Guests will begin with a Dalmore 12 cocktail before tasting the Dalmore 15, 18, 35-year-old and a 2009 vintage alongside a multi-course dinner. The event is priced at $450 per person, plus tax and a service charge.
Coady said pairing whisky with food is “a very similar concept as pairing wine,” adding that introducing different flavours, acidity, sweetness and textures can “completely change the way you experience the whisky.” She noted the Dalmore’s character is shaped in part by maturation in sherry and port casks, with Oloroso sherry bringing dried fruit notes such as fig, prune and raisin, along with baking spice and nuts, while port can add plum, toffee, Christmas fruit cake, tannins and a “velvety mouthfeel.”
Coady also described trying a sherry-aged whisky with a high-acid dish such as fish or pork, then seeing the same expression take on a different personality beside something rich and sweet, like an almond tart. She said the best pairings are “a true collaboration,” where food and whisky complement each other so that “both the dish and the whisky sing.”
The series also continues later in the fall with The Macallan on Nov. 5 and Glenmorangie on Nov. 26; each dinner is $450 per person, plus tax and a service charge, with details and reservations available through the hotel’s Scotch dinner series page.
Outside the hotel setting, whisky educator Stacy Kyle said the audience for masterclasses has shifted, citing “more diversity now, definitely more women.” Kyle said event and whisky type can influence who attends, and she described tailoring each masterclass to the intended audience—ranging from connoisseurs and “whisky nerd” attendees to high rollers and those who are “whisky-curious.”
Kyle said she dislikes rigid rules around how whisky should be consumed, while still explaining where conventions come from before encouraging people to “break them.” She pointed to highballs or cocktails as an easy starting place, and said one misconception she hears often is that whisky is necessarily peaty or smoky, or that quality means an old single-malt Scotch. Kyle added, “People might love rye and Coke and say they don’t like whisky. Surprise: rye is whisky.”
In North Vancouver, Sons of Vancouver Distillery partner and blender Jenna Diubaldo said the distillery uses rye as its house grain and aims to counter the idea that rye is always too spicy or aggressive. Diubaldo said rye is “a very versatile grain” that can touch many areas of the flavour wheel, and she called rye the best grain for making whisky and “the focal point for Canada’s whisky industry.”
Diubaldo said Sons of Vancouver’s whisky program is centred on blending and relies on smaller-scale experimentation, including trying yeasts and barrel finishes and making private blends for restaurants and liquor stores. She also pointed to the distillery’s Realms of Rye series as a way to explore different areas of rye’s flavour wheel, and said people can discover new whisky by visiting independent liquor stores and asking for recommendations.
Another perspective on whisky’s broader story comes from independent distiller Terri Lam, who said whisky drinkers often focus on casks while the story begins earlier with farmers growing grain and scientists developing yeasts that shape flavour, as well as product managers predicting what people will want to drink in years to come. Lam said “every bottle is the result of far more hands than most people realize,” describing success as “all those pieces coming together.”
For women interested in spirits production, Lam said hands-on experience is valuable, whether through entry-level production roles, bottling, or apprenticeship, and that technical skills can be learned while passion, problem-solving and teamwork sustain a career. She also credited mentorship and peer support in an industry she described as “small and tight-knit,” saying support from others in the industry has been “a steady source of encouragement, especially when things get tough.”
Fairmont’s whisky dinners represent the more formal end of the spectrum, but the women described say whisky can be enjoyed in multiple ways—from special-occasion pours to highballs and cocktails to dinner pairings—without requiring a deep vocabulary beforehand.
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