The flavors of the North Shore, that's the essence of this young company. Its gin recipe, composed of forest, fruity, and saline notes, distilled with passion and elegance, has met with resounding success since day one.

"The Norkōtié tastes like the Côte-Nord, the climate plays a big role," explains Catherine Blier, the owner of Vent du Nord Distillery in Baie-Comeau. "The small fruits have more sugar. For example, the haskap develops a thicker skin to protect itself from the cold." In the voice of the young entrepreneur, one can detect her passion for this gin "which has a woody, saline, fruity aspect, a silky texture in the glass, the smoothness is brought by the small fruits."

The idea of distilling gin came to her in May 2018. After a little over a year of preparation, the gin appeared on the shelves of the Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ) in January 2020. "The first 800 bottles sold out in three hours and we haven't stopped since then." Business plan targets were even exceeded, with 42,000 bottles produced.

Originally from Saguenay— Lac-Saint-Jean, Catherine Blier grew up in the restaurant industry, with a father who was a chef. Behind the bar, she tested and created cocktails with Quebec gin, "I'm a fan of Quebec products," she emphasizes. "I'm a nature enthusiast, energetic, epicurean," and she has a taste for adventure. With her big dog, she walks in the forest, discovers and studies trees, small fruits. She composes a gin recipe in her head integrating local herbs, picked here, in the boreal forest. Then, she conducts numerous trials and macerations, and quite instinctively, with her refined palate, finds the best flavor combinations.

The young mother has surrounded herself with the right people to bring her distillery dream to life. She mentions significant encounters for her project, like that of her partner, Paul Blanchard, master distiller and production manager. In the business and agri-food community of Baie-Comeau, she says she has received a lot of support.