As season ends, Glenora Inn and Distillery drinks to a 'banner year'

Anja and Andrew Steimler travelled from Frankfurt this fall to take in Nova Scotia's scenic beauty, its culture and its food and drink.

On a clear, crisp evening in October, they are midway through their trip and staying at Glenora Inn and Distillery in Glenville, Cape Breton. The couple sip single malt whisky and listen to live Celtic music at the Glenora Pub.

"We are fans of the Scottish single malts and it's the first time we tried these ones," said Anja Steimler. "We like it."

Growing fan club

The Steimlers are part of growing fan club.

"The whisky business is fabulous," said Daniel MacLean, master distiller at Glenora.

MacLean said the business is expanding and they've just finished construction of a new bottling plant.

"Our existing bottling plant can't handle what we are producing now," he said.

On average, Glenora produces and bottles 4,000 cases of whisky a year. That's 48,000 750-millilitre bottles of whisky aged in barrels for 10 to 25 years. Each year, MacLean said 10,000 people enter through two huge white pillars to take a tour, sample the goods or stay overnight.

'Banner year'

The Glenora Inn and Distillery will close for this season on Saturday and reopen May 4, 2017.

Inn manager Bertha MacLean said she has no final numbers yet, but she knows this has been a "banner year."

"Rooms are full almost every night. The tables are full in the dining room and pub both," she said. "We are very lucky."

Bertha MacLean attributes the increase to the publicity surrounding new golf courses in the area, the Cape Breton If Trump Wins tourism campaign and the Chase the Ace contest in nearby Inverness.

Glenora has just opened a new five-bedroom lodge to complement its nine-room country inn and six log chalets.

Only one downside

There was only one downside to this expansion, according to Daniel MacLean.

"Our sewer bed completely collapsed on us," he said.

A new septic field had to be put in, but Daniel MacLean said it should last for many years.

"We'll never have to touch it again, hopefully," he said.