recently, Devoz visited the Hiram Walker/Corby/Pernod Ricard/Wiser’s facility (that’s a lot of names and I’m honestly not sure which one is correct!) in Windsor ,Ontario and got a private tour of the operations. He also was very kindly given a personalized 200ml Lot No. 40 Cask Strength edition bottle to his own enjoyment, and generously put samples out to members of the Toronto Whisky Society so we could taste/review and hopefully convince the LCBO that it would be a good idea to list it (spoiler: it is and i’ll forever hate you LCBO if you don’t list it). I poured a bit of the standard bottling from 2012 to compare it to while reviewing. Thanks Don Livermore from Corby, thanks Devoz for the sample, thanks taste buds and brain for allowing me to enjoy this.

Lot No. 40 Cask Strength – 55.8% ABV

• Appearance: pinky-orange. Looks similar to the standard bottling. Tells me it’s coloured sadly, but possibly due to the virgin oak used.
• Nose: oak, freshly cut wood, pepper, banana, dill pickles. Stronger nose than the 2012.
• Palate: tons of dill. Tastes more like an American Rye than a typical Canadian one. Tons of oak, but with a freshness to it. Almost has a cedar-like complexion to it. Has that same youthful nature as its watered-down brother. Pepper, tons of spice, cinnamon, caramel. Fairly hot, but it’s quite young so that’s expected. Less banana than the 43% version.
• Finish: long, spicy, oak
• Score: 90

this is an American-style rye. Doesn’t have the typical Canadian profile at all, and I love it for that. It’s bold and strong and unapologetic. The regular Lot 40 was already a really nice bottle, but this turns the dial up a notch or two. It loses a little bit of fruitiness but more than makes up for it in bold rye spice and flavour. It’s my highest rated Canadian whisky yet, and the only thing holding it back from being among my highest rated whiskies overall is age. With another few years in the barrel, this would be absolutely incredible. LCBO, I’ve already gotten tons of comments on Reddit about this and the demand would be sky-high. List it now!