Deuce Vodka: Country Star Brett Kissel Pivots into the Spirits World BY ELIZABETH CHORNEY-BOOTH
Brett and Cecilia Kissel
W
hen it comes to spirits, it’s a little harder for a vodka to stand apart from other brands on the market than it may be for a distinctive gin or whisky. Even if a brand claims to have a cleaner taste or uses a unique filtration method or grain mix, to the average person mixing a highball or cocktail, a vodka is a vodka is a vodka. Which isn’t to say that all vodkas are created equally or that the extra pains that a distiller goes through aren’t worth it, just that a fledgling craft vodka distillery needs to find an extra hook. And there’s no better hook than a legitimate celebrity endorsement. Just as Aviation Gin has Ryan
14 Culinaire | September 2021
Reynolds and Crystal Head Vodka has Dan Aykroyd, Deuce Vodka, a label run out of Big River Saskatchewan, has country music star Brett Kissel as an owner and spokesman. The product was actually developed by his business partner Matt Doucette, a youthful gogetter who started producing his vodka as soon as he was legally allowed to — he applied for his distilling licence on his 19th birthday, making him the youngest person in Saskatchewan to ever do so. As a young distilling wizard, Doucette had his formula and process down pat, but four years into the trade he needed to figure out how to get his vodka from his distillery in Big River to bars
and restaurants and into home liquor cabinets. Luckily, he had enough bravado to contact one of his favourite country singers via an Instagram DM to try to negotiate a sponsorship deal. Kissel looked at the small scope of Doucette’s business and thought that it was best to pass, but his wife Cecilia, an online influencer with an eye for diamonds in the rough, encouraged her husband to meet with Doucette and offer some mentorship. Kissel could smell that the COVID-19 pandemic was coming, but he had one last show in Moose Jaw in March of 2020 with Brad Paisley before the world shut down (Kissel estimates that it was the last pre-pandemic
