North of 7 Distillery

My husband and I stopped in here recently during a trip of Ottawa – it was the middle of the day on a weekday so it was pretty quiet (which was fine by us!). Small spot with great selection. The person we spoke to (sadly we were so caught up in the amazing product that we forgot to get his name!) was knowledgeable and friendly.

All the liquors we sampled were incredible…it was hard not to buy a bottle of everything. The gin I tried is also some of the best I’ve ever had in my life. We’ll definitely be back!

Great customer service! Love how their products are made in Ottawa. They had a decent stock considering the lcbo strike. I tried the vodka. Its pretty good almost reminds me of a white rum! Looking forward to doing the tour in the near future.

My father joined the Royal Navy in 1941 and subsequently the Royal Canadian Navy in 1952. For some 30 years, rum was an integral part of his working life. While in (and out of) the navies, trips to the Caribbean and its distilleries were frequent. So, dad knows rum and, more to the point, dad knows good rum from mediocre rum. Dad says North of 7 Leatherback Special Reserve is amongst the best he’s ever tasted. I agree. It is extremely smooth (esp. considering its 57% alcohol) with just a bit of water and equally lets a can of Coke know who is boss. I’ve been enjoying their gin for some years now, which I take with a cube of ice (one cube only). Yes, we buy their products because they’re local but moreover because they’re damn good! We’ve just started on their whiskies…more to follow.

Excellent craft distillery. I have not tried the rum so I cannot speak to it, but I have sampled or bought all of the other products and they have all been excellent. I returned today after not having visited for ten months and the service and friendliness of the staff was still the same. They also had a new single malt whisky offering that was excellent. The staff member who served me told that it tastes like an Irish whiskey and he was correct. I was great and I bought one right away after sampling. If you live in Ottawa or the surrounding region or are visiting this place is worth a visit – especially if you are a whisky or gin drinker.

I had organized a group Feb 2016 using groupon to do a tour of the North of 7 distillery. Jody is one of the co-owners and he was refreshing about they did not know what they were getting into and it was a lot of trial and test and sample lol… Greg the other co-owner when queried mentioned some of the challenges running a craft distillery in Ontario. I had looked into a document on LCBO markup which is high even on federal excise tax so tax on tax with only a small portion going to the distillery. The then 22 month white dog aging into Canadian whiskey should a lot of promise.

We organized a return trip for June 2017 and sampled some new products such as the Canadian whisky, 57% rum and spiced rum as well as the white dog, gin, vodka and regular run. My favourite surprisingly was the 57% rum which considering I am not a rum tippler as the norm except for the very occasional rum and coke or cocktails.

The tour is a nice way to spend an hour, find out more about distilling and sample some very good craft products. I have bought the Gin and the 57% rum for myself and a bottle of Canadian whiskey from the 2nd barrel as a gift…