Peaks and Valleys: The WLD Rollercoaster

It has been a hot minute since we last wrote a newsletter; 10 months to be exact, so apologies for the radio silence...

2021 has been a rollercoaster ride for the WLD boys, but it is time for an update! 

The ups and downs of Covid have made the last 20 months interesting to say the least. We have been open, closed, open, closed, closed, open throughout this pandemic, and like many other businesses have had to be malleable.  

Keith and Heidi getting cosy by the fire.

Managing times of uncertainty is one of life's great predicaments. What do you do when you have no guarantee that your business will be open next week, or next month? What do you do when things are out of your control? Control what you can, right?

If Covid was a guru, we think one great lesson it has taught us is to remain steady amidst the madness; 'hold the course', if you will; take the high’s and the low’s for what they are, and carry on. In yoga they call this "yogas chitta vritti nirodha", which refers to calming the fluctuations of the mind. We can tell you that there have definitely been a few fluctuations in our wild minds throughout the last year, but here we are, carrying on, and happy aboot that!

Shout out to our amazing team for hanging on for the ride!

(Mark, Cheryl, Kristina, Gregg, Emma, Mel, Ryan, Gary, Nicole, Heidi, Freya) 

___________________________________

The Year Past

1. Our Rhubarb Gin made a welcomed return, this time with a very well received Strawberry twist! This coincided nicely with the reopening of the Bow Valley’s Farmer Market's last spring, where we had a lot of fun getting reacquainted with our wider Wild Life family!

Amongst the Rhubarb patch

2. We hired 2 new sales reps! Gregg Miller who looks after sales and distribution to the Greater Alberta community, and Emma Bell who looks after our amazing Bow Valley customers. Gregg is Calgary born and raised, with an extensive network spanning across Alberta. Emma is our token Scot who is excitedly awaiting the day our Whisky is ready for distribution so that she can don’ the title of being our Scottish Scotch Sales lady! Between the two they have Alberta covered for fans of all things WLD.

3. This year we were stoked to see that thanks to our amazing community, our beloved Rundle Bar Gin took flight around the Province! It was previously only available throughout the Bow Valley, so it’s great to see the demand for this magical, colour-changing-gin, has grown farther afield. Psst, It also won the Alberta Beverage Awards “Best In Class” for 2021, so hat’s off to this delicious tipple. 

Rundle Bar Gin showing off it's colour changing properties!

4. Our Whisky turned 3! Not to get you all riled up, but this was an exciting milestone for us... 6 years have passed since Keith and Matt shook hands, and we now have barrels of 3 year old spirit. Officially now "WHISKY", the barrelhouse is smelling and tasting more mature than ever. The plan is to launch our first whisky release in the fall of 2022. The countdown is on!

@wldkeith enjoying a 3 year old dram

___________________________________

What’s To Come

1. We have a new winter cocktail menu! Launched at the start of November, the new menu features some delicious classic cocktail twists, along with a few innovative new creations from Cheryl and Kristina!

New Winter 2021 Cocktail Menu. Give the people what they want... Colour!

2. We have brought back the local favourite, our Alberta Botanical Gin! The distillery elves will be working hard to get this product distributed out across the province in the coming weeks, so keep an eye on our instagram page @wldspirits for locations to find this regional classic. 

3. There is a new gin on the way! We are launching a Blackberry Plum Gin next week (secret is out...). This delicious spirit is full of juicy BC Blackberries and WLD love. We will post photos once it lands in the bottle, so stay tuned for this perfect holiday gin.

 Alberta Botanical Gin is now live and available on our online store!

4. Christmas Markets. We will be busy over the next few months spreading the good WLD Cheer around Alberta. The Banff Christmas Market, the recently announced Bear Street Holiday Market, and The Market Collective in Calgary (Dec 17-19). We hope to see you there for some holiday cheer.

5. New Gratitude Book! Shout out to our Mama Bear, Lorraine Widmer-Carson for publishing her brand new book! “An Ecology Of Gratitude” is now officially out! There will be numerous book launches happening around the Bow Valley in the coming weeks, so keep your eyes peeled to attend and support. Join us on November 26th here at the distillery for a cocktail and a chat with the author, as we celebrate this new chapter for Lorraine (pun intended).

Tickets to this event and others are available at www.grassrootsgratitude.ca. 

 

Thanks again to all of you for continuing to #supportlocal. It has helped us and our community sustain and recover from the downtime of last year, and given us hope for the good times to come! 

Gratitude around the campfire.

Enjoy the rest of this first amazing snowfall of the year, and we look forward to seeing you in the tasting room soon! 

Cheers,

- The WLD Boys