Canadian Whisky Awards

Back to back awards posts, both Malt Maniac related.

Today, the worlds best (only?) dedicated Canadian Whisky Website has announced the winners in The Canadian Whisky Awards 2010.

Canadian whisky is without doubt the least respected of the world's whiskies. Crown Royal is the 4th biggest selling spirit in the world but you rarely hear anyone bragging about their recent Canadian whisky purchase. To be fair, there hasn't been much variety over the years with the big boys establishing prohibitive laws back in their heyday so there aren't as many distilleries as there could be. But recent years have shown us that the likes of Gibsons, Forty Creek, and Caribou Crossing have been attracting a modest amount of critical acclaim.

And so Malt Maniac Davin de Kergommeaux has really tapped into something that has been long overdue, a conscious appreciation of Canadian whisky. When I moved to the US back in 2008 I was admittedly surprised by the availability and consumption of Canadian whisky. Most interesting was that those ordering it had no idea it was Canadian and, obviously affected by their beverage of choice, almost apologised for liking it. Weird.

Hopefully awards like these will bring due attention back to Canadian whisky and even help innovation and motivate development within the industry. The press release says, "Virtually every Canadian whisky introduced in Canada or the U.S. in 2010 was tasted. The best was chosen in one of three categories: the Canadian market, the
export market, and multiple markets. Awards of Excellence were also conferred for accomplishments in innovation, brand extension, and notable success in raising the profile of Canadian whisky in general."

The Connoisseur Whiskies:
Best Canadian Whisky – Domestic Market: Wiser’s Legacy

Best Canadian Whisky – Export Market: Caribou Crossing

Best Canadian Whisky – Multiple Markets: Forty Creek Confederation Oak Reserve

The Awards of Excellence:
Innovation of the Year: Highwood Distillery, White Owl Whisky

Award of Excellence - Brand Extension: Crown Royal Black

Award of Excellence - Canadian Whisky Profile: Canadian Club

For more info, head over to Canadian Whisky.

Maniac launches Canadian Whisky Website

I got an email from friend, fellow Canuck, and Malt Maniac Davin de Kergommeaux to inform me of his new site Canadian Whisky dedicated to, you guessed it, Canadian Whisky.

With more and more hip US bars carrying Canadian ryes and other whiskies and, most significantly, with Dave Pickerell's Whistlepig demanding a second (or third?) look at Canadian whisky while asking a significant price tag, the world needs Davin to share musings on the spirit of the north.

This expat looks forward to following you from south of the 49th parallel... with a chocolate bar, back bacon, pop, a mickey and a two-four close to hand. Happy trails, eh?

Malt Mission 2008 #311

Gibson's Finest 12yo
Canadian Whisky
40% abv
$26(CAD)

Selling about 300,000 cases per year, Gibson's is a popular whisky in Canada and available almost exclusively in its home market where it is number 3 premium Canadian whisky nationally. We had the Finest Rare 18yo in my last post so I thought I would follow it up with its younger brother.

Now, people often refer to Canadian whisky as 'rye', and while it is true that at one time or another almost all of the whisky produced in Canada was made with a mash bill (mix of grains) of predominantly rye, many spirits we use this description for today are not regulated by any legal directive as the term is in the USA, for example. The law does dictate that, like with Scotch whisky, the Canadian whisky must be produced in Canada, and matured in oak casks IN Canada for at least 3 years.

Other big Canadian whiskies are Crown Royal and Canadian Club. For all Canadian whiskies had on the Malt Mission, click HERE.

TASTING NOTES:

Intensely sweet, toffeed with firm graininess keeping that sweetness in check. Maple syrup, honey, coca-cola, vanilla and a touch of envelope glue.

Waxy with a strong grain presence, slighly piney, rye kick. Buttery. Very gentle with a big vanilla-ed oak finish. Caramelly and soft throughout.

SUMMARY:

Really nice stuff that goes down easy. Lots of pleasant flavours, not overly complex, but very moreish and fairly priced.

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Malt Mission 2008 #310

Gibson's Finest Rare 18yo
Canadian Whisky
40% abv
$49.95 (CAD)

A classic distilling company whose bottles have probably decorated the shelves of every Canadian home at one time or another. Apparently not this particluar expression as I could barely even find a pic online to use, which is probably why when I saw this behind the bar at the Robbie Dhu center at Glenfiddich distillery I just had to sit down with a dram.

I was very surprised by their website. Very much targeted at a particular demographic, and although I think I am a part of that group, I had to mute the damn music player. And the suggested serves included such ViSiOnArY cocktails as rye and coke and rye and ginger ale. Yowza.

I have always enjoyed the Gibsons 12yo, easy, mellow, affordable, and pleasant to sip and/or mix. Let's see how this 18 year old is. Tasted with RH in a couple of really comfortable chairs. His notes appear in quotes.

TASTING NOTES:

Rum, tropical fruit, milk chocolate. Coconut, tropical, and generally estery/fruity. Increasingly sweet and “happy to sip at a bar on ice”

Generic chewing gum, salty and sweet, and flat like old Coca Cola. Sweet and increasingly pleasant with subtle spice and gentle toffee and vanilla.

SUMMARY:

Easy and gentle, well-rounded and pleasant but all verging on boring. I think most folks who spend fifty bucks on a bottle of whisky want to EXPERIENCE flavours, not just consume comfortably. I think. But maybe not. I mean, I brought a Balvenie 21yo PortWood to a couple of gents at a fancy steakhouse where I was hosting a tasting last night and one of them took a sip and grimmaced before saying some really stupid and ungrateful shit. I managed to remain polite and asked him what he enjoys to drink and he said "expensive wine." Idiot. Nothing like choosing your wine based on price. He continued, "In fact, give me Ketel One on ice with a bit of lime and I'll sip that all night." Mmm... flavour country.

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Malt Mission 2008 #301

Alberta Premium 25 yo
Canadian Rye Whisky
40% abv
$30 (CAD)

In the first week (which now means 5 whiskies, not necessarily 7 days) back on the mission since the Malt Mission #300 landmark I want to have whiskies that start with the letter "A". Why?

1) because I have them
2) because I held a tasting for friends in Toronto recently with "The Letter A" as its theme (the Letter B will be next)
3) because the beginning of the alphabet can symbolise the beginning of our new lives in NYC and the new shape(s) this blog will take over the next little while.

No, I don't know where we're going with this, but it'll be fun so long as I can make it so. When that stops, well, then this stops.

I also hope to really dive in to the world of bourbons within the next 100 Malt Missions, but first I have to plow through my remaining Scotch whiskies. Maybe even explore the world of Tequila! Oh, Freedomland...what can't you offer me?

Some of you might also be wondering why I didn't do a big "thank you" post and "top picks" post, etc. this time (new additions would probably have been Greenore and Benromach Organic). Well, what is the point in celebrating anymore? The first 100, 200; okay. 300? Nah. Maybe 500 will get a retrospective. I mean, shit, Serge over on Whiskyfun hit 3000 (!!!) tasting notes in August 2007. Who the hell am I? (who the hell is he!?!!)

Usually the terms "Canadian Whisky" and "rye" are synonymous but this is not necessarily an accurate partnership; in fact, Alberta Premium is one of the last whiskies in Canada to be produced using 100% rye and is made by Alberta Distillers in Calgary, Alberta.

TASTING NOTES:

Rye, clearly. Caramel and generally sweet, corn syrup. Burnt and sweet, butterscotch flavouring like from an ice cream truck.

Easy. Corn sweetness. Doesn't bite, but is certainly boozy. Sweet and a little bit laundry-like. Corny, again.

SUMMARY:

Really, very much what you would expect and most reactions around the room proved this. Like nail biting or teeth grinding this spirit annoyed at least half of the room. My own mouth would have trouble drinking this neat for more than one dram. Did you notice the startling price of 30 bucks? Its fricking 25 years old, man!!! Good value? Maybe. Ginger ale? Yes please.

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Malt Mission 2008 #236

Forty Creek Barrel Select
Canadian Whisky
40% abv
$23.95(CAD)
$20(USD)

It's Monday and we're going to have a week of international/non-Scottish whiskies here on the Malt Mission. We'll start with a drop that is up for a Bang-for-Buck award in the 2007 Drammies. These are the final few days to vote, so get busy! And don't forget to vote in all categories or your vote may not be counted.

By law, Canadian whisky must be made in Canada, matured in oak casks for at least three years, and be bottled at AT LEAST 40% abv. Typical, but not mandatory, ingredients are rye, corn and barley, and even though the whisky is usually not >50% rye, Canadian whisky is often widely referred to as "rye". There is also an old law that stipulates distillers may add 9.09% "flavouring ingredients" to their final product. Kind of hard to respect a product that allows such "additives", although in most cases it probably is improved by these flavourings. Sorry, but after 5 years of serious 'study' of whisky, I am pretty comfortable to admit that Canadian whisky is little more than a popular mixer for ginger ale around the world. In recent years Canadian Club and Crown Royal have released small batch, extra-aged and special releases, but with 60+ years of standardisation and lack of innovation (since the boom period of bootlegging during prohibition era America) there is still a lot to be done.

For over 30 years, John Hall has been making wine at Kittling Ridge Winery in Grimsby, Ontario. For 15 of those years he has been distilling various spirits using a copper pot still. His innovation and experimentation is to be commended. His whiskies have recently won accolades from critics who know their grain-based, oak matured spirits. Why? Let's taste.

Reviewed by the folks at Whisky Magazine twice over the past few years with slightly different reactions, HERE (editor's choice) and HERE. Listen to John Hall on Whisky Cast Episode 118 HERE.

TASTING NOTES:

Sumptuous and sweet with a spicy rye core. Nutmeg, melted vanilla ice cream, egg nog, buttered corn.

Texture is thin and silky in the mouth, spicy with a lot of toasted oak character. Corn syrup, toffee, vanilla extract, cinnamon and cloves, crepes, grilled cheese on white bread, stewed stone fruits (apricots, plums) and a touch of pepper.

SUMMARY:

Very pleasant drinking whisky, pleasantly sweet with good complexity if not much flavour development. Very well-priced. Innovative, resourceful, and proudly Canadian, John Hall's whisky may single-handedly save the tarnished name of Canadian whisky.

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North American Adventure #2

Crown Royal XR (Extra Rare)
Canadian Whisky
40% abv
$175.20 (CAD)
$145 (USD)

Crown Royal is currently distilled at Gimli in Manitoba. This is a limited release made from the last batch of whisky distilled at the Waterloo distillery which closed in 1992. Shortly after closing, a fire destroyed most of the mothballed distillery and warehouses. Some of the whisky was saved and released in summer 2006 in the strictly allocated Crown Royal XR. Master Blender Andrew MacKay set out to try to create the finest Crown Royal ever to be bottled, and whether he achieved it or not, it is certainly among the rarest and most precious releases from Crown Royal.

Tasted this at the LCBO with Inder Marwah.
Special guest tasting contributor's notes will be in quotation marks.

TASTING NOTES:

Marachino cherries, or just the brine. Vanilla ice cream. "Lots of raw sugar, bits of chocolate. Iodine? A little rubbing alcohol."

"Burnt toast, blackened Naan in a pan." Marzipan, banana flavoured liquid penicillin. Compact in a way that I found charming and Inder found boring("Sweet, bitter, nuthin"). Lots of creamy oak and a whiff of smoke.

SUMMARY:

Inder was not impressed, but I really enjoyed it. It was sweet but well offset by the slightly puckering oak and fired bread flavours. Yeah, it's expensive, but you are really paying for the history and small batch blending craftsmanship that no other Crown Royal has.

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Malt Mission 2007 #56

Canadian Club Premium
Canadian Whisky
40% abv
£16
$23.15(CAD)
$15(USD)

Today it may be hard to believe, but there was a time in Canada's history when there were dozens of whisky distillers spread out across the country.

When Upper and Lower Canada were united in 1841 as The Province of Canada, taxes were introduced that put great strains on the little distillers. The expanding rail links meant whisky needn't be produced locally anymore as it could be hauled long distances. Into this changing environment came Hiram Walker in 1856, closing his distillery in Detroit under threat of state-wide prohibition. The distillery was founded in Windsor, and as it housed his distillery, a dairy farm, a cooperage, brick and timber yards, and housed all the employees, the area came to be known as Walkerville. Although his family still lived in Detroit (yes, he commuted to work 3 hours each way by ferry) the whisky grew in popularity on both sides of the border and Walker's "Club" whisky was officially born in 1884.

The word 'Canadian' came to appear on the label because of a ill-advised plan by the U.S. government. Under the encouragement of American distillers, the government tried to curb Canadian whisky imports (and thus, they thought, consumption) by introducing legislation that demanded the whisky clearly indicate country of origin. This had the opposite affect as Americans were attracted to the whisky from Canada. Hiram Walker saw this appeal and capitalised on it. Thus, "Canadian Club" was born.

Queen Victoria loved the stuff. And so did Al Capone who saw to it that Canadian Club flowed into the US via Windsor to Detroit by car and truck, but also strapped to smuggler's legs, hidden by their boots, coining the term "bootlegging".

Canadian Club is a blend of rye, barley and corn/maize whiskies, pre-blended before maturation and put to cask to marry for 5 years. There are (at least) 7 varieties of Canadian Club, only 4 of which are widely available in Canada.

TASTING NOTES:

Tough to explain and I dont have the posh terminology that I am certain exists in the wine world, but this has a nose with aromas that are 'up high'; light and perceived behind the eyes rather than the back of the skull. To put it in context, I had similar impressions with the Isle of Arran, Buchanan's, and Johnnie Walkers Green and Red. Perfumy. Cotton candy, raw corn, plastic bags, shoe polish, make-up remover.

Very watery in the mouth, tastes of flat cream soda, green apple peels, toothpicks, and some white pepper. The flavour is simple and straightforward while being neither unpleasant nor exciting.

SUMMARY:

Fine to drink this neat, I suppose, but really screams for a mixer. Pass the Canada Dry. And ice, please.

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