Two years ago we set out to try whiskies from across Canada to celebrate our great country’s 150th birthday. Interest grew in the second year and now in our third annual kick at this particular can, we’ve decided to re-brand the Great Canadian Whisky Tasting to the annual TWS Whisky Awards! We find it more befitting of what we’re doing here, and yet despite the change of name, our goal and intent remains the same: to showcase and highlight the best that Canadian whisky has to offer, no matter how big or how small or how historic or how new the distillery it comes from is.
Another thing that hasn’t changed is our methodology. Our top reviewers tried all of these bottles blind and compared/contrasted them within their categories. We collectively shared our tasting notes and our individual rankings. These were collated and result in the awards you’ll find in the pages linked below.
This year we received 29 bottles from 12 distilleries that showcase that breadth that Canadian whisky has to offer. We have the largest and oldest Canadian distillery and one of the smallest represented. We have bottles from both the Westernmost and Easternmost Canadian distilleries in the 10 provinces (didn’t get anything from the Yukon)! And we also have a variety of styles ranging from Single Malts, to Ryes and single grains, to classic Canadian blends. Those are the three categories we grouped the bottles into, and the results are below.
We hope you enjoy the reads and seek out both the 2019 whisky award winners, and all of those who participated this year! The future continues to be incredibly bright for Canadian whisky makers and drinkers!
Toronto Whisky Society 