When Geoff Dillon founded Dillon’s Small Batch Distillers in 2012, he wanted to make whiskey and other bottled craft spirits, inspired by the natural surroundings of the distillery’s backyard in Niagara (Ontario, Canada).
Thirteen years later, Dillon’s gin- and vodka-based 5% ABV canned cocktails (RTDs) are what’s leading the way, introducing new consumers to the now Mark Anthony-backed company in both Canada and the U.S.
“This was a hard decision, because now we’ve got one big still, and this one big still is now making vodka and gin for RTDs most of the time instead of making whiskey,” Dillon told Brewbound.
“It took us 10 years as a craft facility to realize that people wanted not totally craft-oriented spirits,” he continued. “I started off making a vodka made from grapes from our backyard – big mouthfeel, big viscosity, almost little brandy-esque flavors in it. It took 10 years to be like, ‘OK, what are we doing?’ If a bartender is making a martini with it, it’s getting sent back. Let’s make the cleanest vodka the world’s ever seen.”
That “super clean” vodka is used in Dillon’s new vodka-based RTD line, available in a slim can variety 8-pack with four flavors: Blueberry, Peach & a Twist of Lemon; Raspberry, Lemon & a Hint of Lavender; Apricot & a Touch of Ginger; and Pear, Lime & a Touch of Cucumber. The offering launched in the U.S. in May, and is now available in Michigan, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
The vodka-based RTDs are the second Dillon’s offering available in the U.S., with the company entering the country in 2024 with gin-based RTDs. The gin cocktails are now available in 18 states (New York, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Illinois, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Wyoming, Colorado, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Maine, and New Hampshire), plus Washington, D.C.
Dillon’s first crafted its RTDs three years ago, not long after the company was acquired by Mark Anthony Group. The 2021 acquisition “seriously helped” Dillon’s move into the RTD market, “because that’s their wheelhouse,” Dillon said.
“They’re so good at figuring out how to mix the right flavors and what spirits to use, and sourcing everything and getting that across the countries,” he said. “They’ve been a huge help in getting this thing to really hit.
“They’re an awesome, originally Canadian company,” he added. “When I met Anthony [von Mandl], the owner, he just felt like me, he felt like us – he had the same vision all about quality. I was ready to get it [Dillon’s] to the next level, and I didn’t really have the resources to do what I thought I needed to to get there. So he was an awesome partner, and it has just been a great four years now.”
The vodka and gin used in the RTDs are made at Dillon’s Niagara facility, with ingredients sourced from the area – a farm-rich neighborhood in Toronto. Despite political conflict between the U.S. and Canada, the company has been able to avoid supply and distribution interruptions, Dillon said.
Dillon’s was the first craft distillery in Niagara, and some of its bottled spirits are now staples within bars and restaurants in Toronto, Dillon said. However, the canned RTDs – which are now the No. 1 canned cocktail brand in Canada, as of three months ago, Dillon shared – have become a tool to introduce Dillon’s to new consumers in both the U.S. and Canada
“So many more people know us now because of these,” Dillon said. “The goal is for them to fall in love with the brand and the ideas behind it, and dig deeper.
“We laugh about it in the sipping room here – we’re the first craft distillery in the province, we formed the Ontario Craft Distillers Association, I got all the rules changed here so you could be a craft [distillery] … This is three years old, our RTDs, and we will have people come to the store and say out loud, ‘Oh my god, Dillion’s makes gin now.’”
The RTDs have also introduced new consumers to gin overall, dispelling myths for something that has a reputation for being the “sad spirit.”
“Gin wise, they’re really nicely balanced cocktails,” Dillon said. “They’ve got a whole bunch going on and [are] complex. They’ve got sweetness, they’ve got acid. It’s a proper little cocktail.”
The gin-based RTDs are available in the U.S. in a slim can variety 8-pack with four flavors: Tangerine, Lemon & a Hint of Mint; Blackberry, Lemon & a Dash of Elderflower; Black Cherry & a Touch of Cranberry; and newly released Strawberry Rhubarb & a Zest of Lime. Single-flavor 4-packs are also available for the tangerine and blackberry offerings.
The key to getting past gin’s reputation, as well as elevating Dillon’s above others in the increasingly crowded RTD market, is sampling opportunities and community events, Dillon said.
At the time he spoke with Brewbound, Dillon had just come back from the Nantucket Food & Wine Festival in Massachusetts. Dillon’s has been showing up at similar events throughout the Northeast U.S., bringing a portable version of its Canadian sipping room to consumers so they can feel like they’re in the Dillon’s distillery space, while staying stateside.
“Nobody expects the little Canadian distillery to show up big,” Dillon said. “That’s always fun.”
Moving forward, Dillon’s plans to expand its lineup with other cocktail offerings, potentially adding higher ABV cocktails into the mix – something the company already explored in Canada in the form of bottled RTDs before Dillon’s added cans into the mix.
“[RTDs], it’s the gateway into cocktails,” Dillon said. “It’s simple, it’s easy, you can have it anywhere. It’s what gets you interested in cocktails.
“It makes a lot of sense to us – let’s take everything we know in both spirits and balance and acidity and sugar, everything we know, and try to make the best RTD in the world.”