Tastes

Colour is urine-pale, with spotty legs. Smell is barley sugar, lemon, unripe orchard fruits and slight stone fruits: a bit of pear or apple skin, slightly sugary. An initial spirity "white grape" kind of flavour I often associate with young malts. Taste has an initial sweetness, like watered down maple syrup, then lemon candies and more fruitiness. Crab apples? Slightly peppery. I don't quite get Distiller's insistence about "spice" here, though it does have a bit more kick than the standard 'fiddich/'livet "glens". A touch of black tea. Faint berries, maybe even a nuttiness. Short finish, but pleasant ( a nice green apple tart sweetness). Hard to rate--it hovers around the same price as a lot of entry level single malts and hits many of the same notes, though in a way that's different enough to at least change things up. I won't replace the bottle once it's done (there's just so much out there), but the profile and the price make it pretty darn drinkable. Craft presentation is a distinct plus, too.

Clearly sourced from Four Roses (like, for the time being, its younger sibling), the flavour profile is a bit of a drier, oakier version of some Four Roses Small Batch/Single Barrel hybrid. Nose and taste lean toward the "classic" bourbon notes: vanilla, caramel, a bit of peppery, rye spice, char, woody tannins, a bit of cola. Body is a bit a thin. It's a nice whiskey, at a pretty reasonable price (particularly in the face of some of the craziness that's going on now in the bourbon world). But it's also nowhere near as nice as the stuff Four Roses is bottling for themselves. Unfortunately, Four Roses has almost disappeared entirely from shelves in my local market (AB, Canada), so I suppose Bulleit 10 will do in a pinch.

Along with Lot 40, it's probably the pinnacle of the new breed of (American rye-esque) Canadian whiskies. Flavours of creamy, bright vanilla, butterscotch, caramel, natural (not fake syrupy) maple, big, big oak--fresh cut and toasted, with a bit of cedar, too. Wood-sap. Green apples, red apples, spicy rye, dusty rye, rye bread, pickles, sourdough, clove, cinnamon. . . . Velvety taste but with a nice rye spice, white pepper, granny smith, fresh bread and baking spices, faint citrus. Oak-y on the finish. Legacy is the star of the Wiser's line-up, and it's not even the most expensive regular offering (hell, it's not even the *second* most expensive regular offering, and it blows both the 18 year and the Red Letter away). Recognizably Canadian, but demonstrative of the fact that, if pressed, the Canadian whisky industry can do really interesting things without losing what makes the style unique. Delicate and light, and yet complex, too: balanced, lovely oak-spice flavours, and just a bit of sweetness. Take your Crown Royal Northern Harvest, this is--perennially--my Canadian whisky of the year.

Spirits journalists seem to have a thing for Highwood. Maybe it's the history, as there's an interesting story behind much of their whisky: hyper-aged corn whiskey that was included in their purchase of the (I believe) Potters distillery. But that's all it is: a good story. It's 100% corn whisky, and there's not much you can do, cooperage-wise, to make 100% corn whisky taste particularly compelling. Soft, smooth, honey, maple, timber. Sweet. Citrus zest, woodchips, toasted oak. Fragrant flowers, creamy. It's . . . Canadian whisky. It's mild. It's bland. It's not complex or interesting. About the nicest thing I can say about Century Reserve (and Highwood's other super-aged expressions, which are pulled from the same stocks) is that it's the most affordable 20+ year old whisky you'll ever get the chance to try.

Red Letter isn't sure whether it wants to be a member of the old guard (soft, sweet, vanilla, butterscotch, mild, maple) or the new guard (American rye-esque spicy, intense, grain-forward) of Canadian whisky, so it splits the difference and no one is happy about the compromise--particularly not at the $100+ price tag. On the nose: lots of cedar, cigar box, honeycomb, green apple, stewed fruits. A bit solvent-y, with caramel, vanilla, light wood-smoke, citrus, and maple. Taste is quite light, with wood spice, stewed fruits, green apple, vanilla, caramel, butterscotch, rye breadiness, clean wood flavours, some citrus pith and distant dill. Gingery, woody finish. It's a nice enough whisky (and kudos for being, to my knowledge, the ONLY non-chill filtered Canadian whisky on the market), it's just wildly overpriced: Wiser's Legacy is, at half the price, the far superior entry in the company's line-up.

Sourced (just if you're curious) from Alberta Distillers (makers of Alberta Premium and a host of 100% straight ryes being sourced and bottled by the likes of Whistlepig, etc.,.), which is handy since both CC and Alberta Distillers are owned by Beam-Suntory. And yet, surprisingly, the taste profile is not all that close to what I'm used to from Alberta Distillers. But, so: standard (artificial) colour; big, pungent bubblegum/clove on the nose, mint, dill and pickles, caraway, rye. Cinnamon, a bit of tobacco. Big licorice (which seems to--rather unpleasantly--take over the proceedings if you leave the bottle open for more than a week or two). Just a tiny bit of the maple/butterscotch sweetness you expect from Canadian whisky. Burnt caramel, dark rum? Taste strikes an interesting balance between what I expect from a straight rye and a Canadian whisky--peppery, spicy heat, bubblegum, dill, ginger, bread, brining spices, honeycomb, butterscotch, maple. A hint of sourness and the growing licorice. It would benefit from a bit more age and, say, a 5% or so ABV bump. And don't let it sit for too long or the whole thing gets overtaken by a rather aggressive, not-so-nice perfume-y, artificial licorice sweetness. But particularly for the price (sub-$30 in Canada), this is actually a pretty serviceable sipper and an even better cocktail whisky (though cut the sugar in your old-fashioned recipe). Definitely one of the "new breed" of Canadian whiskies that actually takes the word "rye" seriously, and that's worth something.

(From Cask #4, Bottle #279). Very pale colour. First whiff is young Highland single malt, but that's quickly overtaken by huge white grape and "grappa" nose. White Mr. Freezies, plaintains, sugar syrup, black tea, anise, barley sugar, apricots? Banana-flavoured medicine (like amoxicillin, I think it's called)? Slightly oily, waxy texture, good body. Soft at first but then the heat builds to a searing white pepper. Very juicy, lots of white grape/grappa, honey, raisins, tea, plums and prunes . . .Slightly herbal finish. It's clearly very young spirit, and still needs time to come into its own. But it's a solid enough demonstration of a work-in-progress (evidence that the ingredients and distillation process themselves are on-point), and hopefully as S&B grows we'll see some older, 8-10 year bottlings that bring everything together.

It seems a shockingly large number of the bottles of this stuff ever produced ended up on shelves in Alberta, Canada--it's still collecting dust in some places, selling for $50/bottle or less. It's a strange one, too. Apparently the brainchild of Bruichladdich, who released a first-edition and were told to cut it out by the Scotch Whisky Association. So future batches just sat in a vat for 8 years until Teeling Irish Whiskey came along and avoided the Scotch Whisky Association by taking the juice and bottling it in Ireland. Anyway. . . . It's quite light in colour. And I wouldn't say "big Islay" flavour, exactly. Recognizably Bruichladdich on the nose (lots of buttered popcorn/diacetyl and floral notes), Iodine, peat, smoke, licorice, sea salt, buttered toast, apple skins, wood sap, butterscotch, light citrus. Warm, white pepper, light smoke on the taste, peat, vegetal, butterscotch, pancake syrup, licorice, ginger and clove. Dry, leaning into bitter on the finish. Tasty and an interesting experience. Not worth overpaying for, but if you find a dusty at a reasonable price, it's actually probably a bit better than some of the newer, non-age-stated official Bruichladdich bottlings (and for cheaper).