Great Canadian Whiskies to Celebrate Canada's 150th Anniversary

Wiser’s has been producing popular, reasonably priced Canadian whisky since the mid-1800s. Also sold as “Wiser’s Very Old,” this blended, mixed grain whisky is a limited release bottling totaling only 3500 bottles for each batch produced.

This release from Canadian Club is a first for them; a 100% rye release. This rye is distilled at Alberta Distillers then bottled in Walkerville, Ontario. It bears no age statement and is bottled at 40% ABV. Note: This product is sold in Canada as Canadian Club Chairman's Select 100% Rye and was made available there at the end of 2014. This product was released to the U.S. market in June 2016.

This straight rye whiskey is comprised of 100% rye from the Pacific Northwest. Produced in Calgary, this Canadian whiskey is aged in white oak and aged for a minimum of 10 years. William Masterson, the whiskey's namesake, was Canadian born and made a name for himself in the Wild West era as a lawman, gambler, saloon keeper, and friend of Wyatt Earp.

Purchase this whisky in its homeland and you’ll get a product with a 10 year age statement. The version available in the U.S. however, is aged for an average of 7 to 8 years and finished in used port barrels. This whisky was initially produced in the 1990s, then discontinued. With the growing interest in small-batch, craft Canadian whisky, it was recently reprised.

Still Waters spent a lot of time working on this blended Canadian Whisky which contains a high percentage of their own single malt and rye whiskies for flavoring. This release coincides with their Stalk & Barrel Blue Label. Red Label is the higher end of the two blended at 43% alcohol. It also means their 1+11 Blended Canadian Whisky will be retired and hitting the golf course while these two new whiskies fill the roll as their ambassador blends.

The mash bill starts with two rye whiskies making up 91% blended with 8% bourbon (Old Grand-Dad) and 1% sherry wine. The first rye whisky is a high-proof column-still whisky that is aged in used bourbon barrels for twelve years. The second rye whisky is a lower-proof pot-still whisky aged for six years in new oak barrels. The ryes were produced at Beam Suntory's Alberta Distillers, the largest producer of 100% rye whisky in North America and one of the few distilleries in the world capable of distilling from an all-rye mash bill. Incidentally, this is the US release of their Alberta Premium Dark Horse Whisky. A name change was necessary for this market.

Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye whisky is a blend made from a 90% rye mashbill. A natural line extension for Crown Royal given the craze for rye and Canada's reputation for producing rye whisky. Crown Royal currently has approximately 2 million barrels of whisky maturing in 46 warehouses in the area around Gimli, Manitoba, Canada.

Lot No. 40 Canadian Rye Whisky is distilled at the Hiram Walker Distillery in Windsor, Ontario. Its production is overseen by master blender Dr. Don Livermore. The whisky is made in a 12,000 liter copper pot-still and is 100% rye--90% Canadian rye and 10% malted rye. This whisky is a bit of a re-make of a re-make. Originally distilled at Joshua Booth's farm near Millhaven, Ontario at the end of the American Revolutionary War, Lot No. 40 was created as a tribute to Joshua by Mike Booth his great-great-great-great grand-nephew back in the 1990s. Lot No. 40 is bottled without an age statement at 86 proof.

Hochstadter's Family Reserve Straight Rye is a 16 year old 100% rye whiskey. It's a sourced product from Canada's Alberta Distillers, released by The Cooper Spirits Company. The barrels were selected by the late Robert J. Cooper, founder of Cooper Spirits. Bottled at a robust cask strength of 123.8 proof, the limited release includes 7,500 bottles.

This 100% rye mash whiskey debuted in May 2016 and is the oldest expression to date in WhistlePig's lineup. While waiting for the distillery's own whiskey to finish aging, they use juice sourced from Canada to bottle as their own. It has spent 15 years maturing in three types of casks: new, charred American oak barrels; former bourbon barrels; and new, charred Vermont white oak. It was developed with terroir in mind as the star of this show is the white oak grown on the Vermont distillery's estate in Shoreham. It is bottled at 46% ABV.