Field Note 001: Sharpie Bottles, Side Ryes & Motel Mixers
Written & Photos by Reece Sims
Overview:
A sharpie-labelled whisky tasting that reminds us: the most memorable pours rarely come dressed up.
Date:
July 28, 2025 [3:59 pm – 6:30 pm EST]
Location:
The Kent Motel Lounge, Queenston, ON (Niagara region)
The People & Places:
Four online friends walk into a motel and somehow it’s not the start of a joke. Heather Storgaard, Julie Federman, Andrea Fujarczuk, and I meet in real life for the first time after years of internet industry friendship. Our home base? The Kent Motel: a boho-chic hideaway just south of Niagara-on-the-Lake with eclectic ‘70s energy, upcycled décor, and fireplaces we didn’t need (but immediately romanticized for future winter stays).
Flavors in Focus:
We joined distiller Josh Beach (formerly of Gretzky, now Spirit in Niagara) for a casual tasting tracing his past, present, and future at Gretzky Estates and Harris Beach whisky.
Reflections:
Flavor can anchor a moment in ways we don’t always expect. In this case, it tethered the newness of a place and the novelty of new friends to something familiar: good drams, a shared table, and a scribbled Sharpie labels that will be forever remembered as cask 4009… or was it 9009?
Field Note Tasting Rule No. 1:
Any labelled in Sharpie is probably delicious.
We pulled into The Kent Motel at 3:59 p.m., a detail that sticks with me because it felt like we arrived right on time, in more ways than one. Heather, Julie, and I had just met in real life for the first time after years of trading DMs, tasting notes, and work-life woes across the internet. But the second we got into the Uber at Pearson International Airport, it was as if we’d known each other forever. The conversation didn’t stop until the car door clicked shut outside the motel.
The Kent is not your stereotypical roadside crash pad. It’s got vintage record store energy crossed with a design-savvy lake house. Imagine boho-chic rooms with 70s flair, decorative mirrors, woven throws, and a fireplace that wasn’t necessary in the heat but added a cozy promise to return in the colder months. A few steps from the Niagara River and just minutes south of Niagara-on-the-Lake, the place hums with a kind of creative quiet. It smells faintly of sun-warmed cedar, fresh linens, and something green in the distance, maybe the vineyards a few blocks away.
The whole place feels curated, but not staged, like someone cool lives here and left the door open (I later found out that the Motel is in fact owned by a cool person named Josh).
Coming from Calgary’s unseasonably wet July (third on record, only 2016 and 1927 had more rainfall), stepping into 30°C heat and high-summer sun felt like arriving in a parallel universe. I immediately felt my nervous system reset.
We had about an hour to check in, freshen up, unpack our carry-ons, and drink a sensible amount of water before walking the few steps to the Kent Lounge for their intimate relaunch party for friends, family, and us: a ragtag trio who, at a glance, might pass more for a quirky bachelorette party than whisky-savvy media types. But looks can be deceiving. As per Field Rule No. 1, a bottle labelled in Sharpie might not have the aesthetic shine of an age-stamped single malt or wax-dipped limited release—but it’s almost always the most exciting pour on the table. And I can coyly say that on this trip to Niagara, we were the equivalent of a sharpied bottle.
Now, here’s where things got slightly confusing: there are two Joshes. One Josh owns the Kent Motel. The other Josh—Josh Beach—was our whisky guide for the evening. If you weren’t paying attention, you could easily find yourself thanking the wrong Josh for a dram or a duvet.
Josh Beach, formerly the master distiller at Wayne Gretzky Estates and now distilling for Spirit in Niagara, led us through a tasting of whiskies tied to his past, present, and future. From his Gretzky days, we sampled two releases: the 99 Proof blended whisky (malted rye, rye, corn, cab-sauv finished) and the Signature Rye, made from 100% Brasetto rye and aged five years in a mix of virgin and re-charred American oak.
I’ll gloss over those whiskies for now, only because I’ve got another Field Note coming dedicated entirely to the distillery itself. But I will say this: they were thoughtfully paired with small bites by the Lounge’s chef, Jen. The standout was a stuffed tempura-fried zucchini blossom filled with a wild leaf pesto, topped with spicy honey. The herbaceous pesto, creamy richness, crisp batter and hint of sweetness worked with just about every whisky we tried. Pairing it with a rye-forward dram made it sing.
Then came the present: Harris Beach Rye Fifty One. Named for Josh’s last name and his mother’s maiden name, it blends 51% rye with five-year-old corn whisky aged in virgin and used oak. It tastes like Cracker Jacks and dried apricots/dates, with light floral notes (jasmine? heather?) and a punch of rye spice that arrives late but lingers long. This is his own creation and “side rye” as I’m affectionately calling it while he serves as the Distiller at Spirit in Niagara.
Flavour Camp Taste Profile call:
Primary: Spiced.
Secondary: Baked & Dark Fruit
And finally, the future, a sneak peek of a just-over-3-year-old 100% Harris Beach rye from a cask… it was either cask 4009 or 9009. Oh, and the rye strain was Brasetto once again (Josh gushed over his love of this strain) paired with pinnacle yeast which is said to create a fruity, lighter style of aromatics.
The tasting wasn’t rigid or overly structured. It was conversational, aromatic, warm. The kind of evening where new friends meet old casks, and flavour becomes the way in.
That’s what makes a great bottle—Sharpie or not. Not just the taste, but the time and place it anchors into memory. And on this day, in this lakeside motel with four whisky writers, two Joshes and one perfect stuffed zucchini blossom, it did exactly that.
This Field Note is part of a series as we explore whisky producers in the Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada.