Saskatchewan’s Black Fox Celebrates More Than a Decade of Distilling Success

For Black Fox Farm & Distillery co-founders and husband and wife team Barb Stefanyshyn-Coté and John Stefanyshyn, it’s been an adventure.

The fifth-generation farmers have created one of the most successful and respected craft distilleries in the country. Located a short drive from Saskatoon, Black Fox celebrated its 10th anniversary last year. During their tenure the Stefanyshyns have seen their products become available beyond Saskatchewan, shipping to Alberta and Manitoba, and then beyond to the United Arab Emirates and Europe.

Crafting luxury Canadian gin and whisky through fully integrated sustainable operations, Black Fox grows 95% of its ingredients across 160 acres of pristine land. It’s hard to get a sense of the scope of the operation when you first arrive but as I walked through the garden and the fields it was hard not to be floored by its size and beauty.

The duo have earned degrees in agriculture, are Nuffield scholars, alumni of Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers program, and recipients for the Canadian Agricultural Lifetime Leadership program. Their product was crowned World’s Best Oaked Gin at the 2017 World Gin Awards in London.

The awards don’t end there. Last year it was announced that Black Fox had been honoured with four prestigious awards from the 2025 International Wine and Spirit Competition, marking a defining moment for Canadian spirits on the global stage. The distillery’s commitment to terroir-driven excellence was recognized across its portfolio, most notably with Black Fox Haskap Gin, which earned the coveted Spirit Gold Outstanding designation and an exceptional score of 99 — a rare honour granted to only three other gins in the competition’s more than 60-year history.

Their Blended Canadian Whisky (2024) — Spirit Gold, Single Grain Canadian Whisky (triticosecale) — Spirit Gold, and Cask Finished Single Grain Canadian Whisky — Spirit Silver, all finished with a score of 90 or better. They also won for World’s Best Oaked Gin.

Each bottle carries a coin connecting the purchaser to a Certificate of Provenance that tells the customer details about the whisky including how hot the barrel got, how cold, and how many hours of sunshine the barrel was exposed to.

I think it’s fair to say most people would associate the province with beer, and I would certainly be guilty of making that mistake. Let’s face it, Saskatchewan is famous for its abundance of wheat and pulses and there are several outstanding craft breweries throughout to attest to that fact. But the Stefanyshyns recognized there was more to the province’s potential, and the world is beginning to see that too. As I sampled smooth, rich and delightful shots from a flight served under an umbrella on the patio surrounded by luscious green fields, it became clear to me as well.

“We didn’t realize that we were doing something really special until about two years ago—and everybody else around the world was kind of looking at our business model and saying, ‘That’s cool. They’re doing something unique,’ Barb had gone down to a big conference in the United States and started touching base with all the other distillers,” John Stefanyshyn said. “They couldn’t believe that we knew the plant genetics, that we knew the soil profiles. Everybody else had little bits of the puzzle, but we seemed to be able to put it all together.”

A Blessing in Disguise Creates a Delicious Opportunity

Working in Saskatchewan gives Black Fox several advantages. Canada is known for growing some of the best grains in the world so it made sense that those grains would make great whisky and gin. But beyond that, the province is home. The couple were born there, went to the University of Saskatchewan, and attended the College of Agriculture, where they met.

Beyond that, the terroir is different. Stefanyshyn-Coté explained that the earth is not the same as in Manitoba or Alberta. The days are longer, the nights are cool, and the weather has major fluctuations that don’t generally occur anywhere else. That fluctuation in temperature turned out to be a lucky break because unlike other distillers, Black Fox stores their barrels outside.

“Canadian whisky must legally be aged in a barrel for a minimum of three years. At two years, we sent our whisky to the UK for review,” said Stefanyshyn-Coté. “The expert who tasted it told us to never contact him again — he thought we were lying. He said, ‘This is not a 2-year-old whisky. You’re charlatans.’ We had to look up what ‘charlatan’ meant!”

At first they were not sure what had happened. Could it be the grain? Black Fox uses triticale, which is a hybrid of wheat and rye first bred in the 1950s. Triticale retains the robust and disease-resistant qualities of rye while offering advantages for milling and baking also found in wheat. Perhaps it was the barrel? Stefanyshyn-Coté explained that they use brand new barrels, which is rare in the business. Or maybe it’s because the Black Fox whisky is aged outdoors? The adjudicator asked if they created their whisky in a rickhouse, which is a specialized warehouse used to age whiskey barrels. Stefanyshyn-Coté explained to the adjudicator that they didn’t use a rickhouse, they just brewed their product outdoors with no roof.

“He was shocked,”‘ said Stefanyshyn-Coté. “Nobody does that, he said.”

It turns out that what had actually happened was a blessing in disguise. Because they had run out of money and couldn’t afford a warehouse, they had chosen to store the barrels outside. The results were surprising — and exceptional.

“Research now shows that whisky doesn’t get its flavor from time in a barrel, but from the interaction between whisky and wood — caused by temperature changes,” says Stefanyshyn-Coté. “ When whisky heats up, it expands into the wood; when it cools, it contracts and comes out. With our wide daily and seasonal temperature variations in Saskatchewan, this happens constantly — and that’s where flavour develops. We’re even working with the Saskatchewan Research Council. We’ve inserted probes into barrels and connected them to a weather station to monitor the temperature every 30 minutes. No idea what we’ll do with all that data yet, but it’s fascinating.”

It was a tremendous breakthrough on Canadian soil that provided a deeper understanding of what gives whisky flavour that even caught the experts by surprise. And in case you are wondering, the answer is no – the expert who called them charlatans never apologized. But that’s just fine by the Black Fox entrepreneurs.

“You want to always continuously improve something. It’s always been part of the way we farm, but now we incorporate that into just everything we do. The biggest part about sustainability is that you have to have the realization that you may not be perfect today—and we realize that—so every day you try and keep doing something better,” Stefanyshyn-Coté says.

Some of the best kudos they have received came from Canada’s leaders when Prime Minister Mark Carney and all the premiers of the provinces and territories gathered at Black Fox on June 1, 2025 for an intimate dinner celebrating Canadian unity and excellence. The leaders had a gift waiting for them that Black Fox had been aging in barrel for seven years.

“We were thrilled to host the premiers here at Black Fox when they visited in 2019,” says Stefanyshyn-Coté. “That day, my husband made a barrel of whisky, and they all signed it. We told them that when the whisky was ready, we would gift them a bottle. It was really fun. The whisky is now ready. We bottled it and called it Ductus Exemplo, which means ‘leadership by example’ in Latin. When [Ontario Premier] Doug Ford arrived this year he walked right up to us, shook our hands, and immediately asked, ‘Where’s my whisky?'”

Don’t Ever Make Bad Whisky

Stefanyshyn-Coté says Black Fox grows the ingredients that go into its bottles, explaining that they handle everything from “crop to connoisseur.” It also explains why she and her husband chose Saskatchewan to plant their distillery.

“I love ‘crop to connoisseur’ because this is where our expertise really lies,” says Stefanyshyn-Coté. “John and I were born on the farm. It’s in our blood. We’ve studied and worked in agriculture on five different continents. So we really felt that we could take advantage of our agricultural expertise and the terroir we have, and create something special. That’s what the distillery is based on—our ability to grow exceptional ingredients and create something different from everyone else in the marketplace.”

Stefanyshyn-Coté explained that only about 50% of what is distilled is of the quality they allow to be put into a barrel to become whisky. The rest is either discarded or re-distilled — which is how they make their gin.

What’s Next For Black Fox?

The couple’s goal is to continue to establish their distillery as the upmarket Canadian whiskymaker. They are also focused on building partnerships with different locations, like the Four Seasons in Abu Dhabi.

“You know, we are really establishing ourselves as the Canadian luxury whisky. That’s what we are really working hard at now. It is a work in progress, because we need to do that here at home, and we need to do it globally,” Stefanyshyn-Coté points out.

Another blessing is that this wife and husband duo continue to work together. Stefanyshyn-Coté says they offset each other’s weaknesses and are focused on creating some of the world’s best whisky and gin — at their home in Saskatchewan.

MORE ABOUT BLACK FOX FARM AND DISTILLERY

Website: blackfoxfarmanddistillery.com
Address: Comp 117 Site, 245 Valley Road, 319 RR3, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (see map below)