Spirit of Ottawa West birthday tour

La Vida Local tour regular Mary celebrated her birthday in style, surrounded by all her closest friends, with a customized "spirit of the west" tour. From a guided brewery tour of Kanata's Evergreen Craft Ales, complemented by a flight of four beers with home-made pretzels, kettle chips & dip, the group moved next door to visit Ottawa's newest distillery, Ogham Craft Spirits.

Named for an ancient Irish alphabet, each of the "OGHAM" characters are named after various trees, serving as a reminder that we can always draw inspiration from the environment around us. At Ogham, this inspiration is what guides owner Adam Brierley to create spirits that faithfully represent the land from which they come.

Beginning with a taste of Ogham's specialty "Poitin", the birthday group experienced the origin flavour of what will next be aged into the distillery's signature Irish/Canadian Whisky. Other exciting spirits sampled included an Eau de vie craft cider and Ogham's pot still gin made with hand-foraged juniper berries from Mississippi Mills.

From Kanata, the LVL tour bus carried the group to Munster for an exclusive tour of Saunders Farm's brand new Cider House, where host Jeff O'Reilly graciously welcomed us to the converted log barn with a warm fire and seasonal ciders on tap, making for both a tasty and toasty end to a crisp November tour.