Lot No. 40 Canadian Rye

Nose: Rye spice first, fresh baked bread with a caramel and vanilla. Palate: Oily mouthfeel. Sweetness comes in with well balanced oak. Spice and slight bitterness forefront, masking a subtle sweetness that balances this drink out. Finish: Long and spicy. Residual flavors lingering on the soft palate.Lingering oak. Overall: Truly an amazing rye whiskey, one of my favorite. I like everything about it from the price tag to the nose and its finish. A solid 9. It's a bottle that I always keep in my bar.

On Canada Day eve (can't that be its own holiday, eh?), I thought it appropriate to break open a newer Canadian rye in my collection: Lot 40 Rye Whisky. It has a maple nose with oak and charred orange zest that makes me feel downright patriotic. This rye has an initial sweet vanilla oak flavour that morphs into a baking spice-meets-pepper burn amidst damp, tannic wood. It has a moderately drying rye spice and savory finish that politely waves goodbye. It's not as nuanced as some of their earlier expressions, but is a decent basic rye on your bar over ice or for within a cocktail. I do find myself missing its previous iterations that had a bit more character and intrigue. Until then, O' Canada.  6.75/10

It definitely has that rye character, but it isn't too strong. Like the Caribou Crossing Single Barrel, there is a lot of juniper in here, making it taste a bit like an aged gin. The catch though is that that flavor is a lot more palatable here. There's black pepper, ginger, and a lot of maple. It tastes a bit on the young side and doesn't have that mature complexity that I would really like from a whiskey. As an aged gin though it's pretty good. I could sip this, but it isn't terribly enjoyable. The things it does have going for it though are its clarity of character, clean finish, and refreshingness. It gets a pass, but barely. The vanilla mixes well with the other herbs, avoiding a gross, bitter outcome. There are hints of fruit that tend a little toward punchy cherry, but they sit in the background.

I don’t know what happened to my bottle, but this is awful. Almost nondiscernable flavor... very weak vanilla, no spice, slight generic ETOH. I’m really disappointed after all the incredible reviews, both here on Distiller and elsewhere. Obviously something has changed in a BIG way. I won’t give this another chance... it’s the second worst, most watery rye I’ve tasted.

Spicy and bitter, "tobacco"