Special canadian whisky is extremely hard to come by here in Europe. If you ask 10 people what country makes Canadian Club, I am sure a few will answer either Scotland or USA !
1. Forty Creek Barrel Select 40%
The nose is gentle, as is very common for me with canadian whiskies, it really is a laid back light style of whisky (usually, not always). There's a hint of rye in nose and and a slight touch of dried fruits. The palate is dominated by the sherrywine touch with a nice combo of sherrywine and distant rye. The combination works really well. The standard low 40% canadian ABV makes this whisky extremely easy to drink, but the whisky is still quite oily. The dominant flavours for me is fruity raisins and rye.
Forty Creek is a blend of single grain corn, barley and rye whiskies aged 6 to 10 years, then vatted together and finished in sherry barrels for 6 months
Rating 84/100
2. Hirsch Selection Canadian Rye Whisky 20yo 43%
Hirsch is an american independent bottler and the provenance of this whisky is unknown to me. Quite typical, for an aged canadian whisky, I don't really get any added wood impact of this very old whisky. It is just smoother. It's a single barrel, column distilled canadian rye. Flavourwise the rye is not that dominant, not compared to other high rye whiskies I have tasted. It has a lot more rye impact than the Forty Creek Barrel Select. This is a rather simple, clean, smooth and crisp rye whisky, easy drinking. The rye is not overpowering but still present and I reckon this will be a gentle introduction to the rye catagory for a newbie
Rating 84/100
1. Stalk & Barrel Barrel#2 61.3%
Still Waters Distillery
This is one of the first bottlings from the Canadian micro distillery Still Waters in the suburbs of Toronto in Ontario
The nose is light, spicy and a hint of newmake. It doesn't have anything in common with the first two whiskies. Despite its younger age, there is more wood impact and the whisky is fullbodied, but I would have expected that as there is no water added, as far as I know.
The palate is young and fruity, the kind of pleasant fruityness you smell in the stillhouse. Newmakey esters.
Beside being young, I pick up a meaty context and vanilla. A bit of water brings out malt and grains of this
This is still too young for my taste, but it's a promising spirit from a new distillery with no off notes that often makes young whiskes a pain to try. And belive me. I have tried a few!
I like the possibility to try a distillery where the spirit is not hidden behind peat, sherry or rye, which for me is "The easy way" for a distillery to bottle their young products. Not the case here
Rating 78/100
Thanks to Johanne, also known as whiskylassie for the sample
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