The third and final category of the 2019 TWS Awards is the Single Malts! Canada’s single malt history dates back to the opening of the Glenora distillery on Cape Breton Island in the early 90s, and since then many others have taken up the torch from coast to coast. We always anticipate great things from this category, and this year didn’t disappoint! The bottles were … Continue reading 2019 TWS Whisky Awards: Canadian Single Malts
The second category in this year’s TWS Whisky Awards are the Single Grains, which include ryes, wheat, and other prairie grains. This year we received 8 bottles for this category, and evaluated them in the following random order: The Lineup: Stalk & Barrel 100% Rye: A 3 year old 100% Ontario rye whisky bottled at 46% with no colour or chill filtration. Black Fox Distillery … Continue reading 2019 TWS Whisky Awards: Canadian Single Grains
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 … Continue reading 2019 TWS Whisky Awards
We were surprised last year when we only got a few bottles that qualified for this category, (and even some of those could have been put in multiple), and then this year we were overwhelmed with the sheer number of entrants! We split this category randomly into two sessions, took our top 3 from each group of 8 and then put those head to head … Continue reading 2018 TWS Whisky Awards: Canadian Whiskies
Our inaugural tasting’s single malt category was a highlight, and as primarily Scotch drinkers, we’re always excited to see the progress Canada is making in this category. We have a few repeats and a few new entrants in the category this year and were very excited to see how they stacked up. As always, these were tasted blind and are presented in the order in … Continue reading 2018 TWS Whisky Awards: Single Malts
Last year we didn’t receive any true rye-based whiskies, and so we were excited to get a bunch of them this year enabling us to create this category for 2018! Some are bottles that have long been commercially available while others are new releases or barrel samples, but it was great to see many distilleries producing the essence of what defines Canadian whisky. Here are the ryes … Continue reading 2018 TWS Whisky Awards: Ryes
Last year, one of the highlights of the TWS Whisky Awards was the opportunity to try some under-aged spirits from Canadian distilleries across the country. We decided to continue this category so our followers could follow the progress of young distilleries as their barrels age! The bottles are listed in the order we tasted them. We tasted them all blind, and our notes and the … Continue reading 2018 TWS Whisky Awards: Under-aged Whiskies
A year ago, the Toronto Whisky Society founders decided to commemorate Canada’s 150th birthday with a competition dedicated to Canadian whisky from across the country and various categories. The feedback we got on it from distilleries and readers was so positive that we decided to make it an annual event! For 2018, we made a couple of improvements, based on the feedback we got: We … Continue reading 2018 TWS WHISKY AWARDS – Intro
This is the fourth and final category in our TWS Whisky Awards: Cask Strength Canadian Whiskies. In our previous three parts, we covered 1. under aged & non-whiskies; 2. Canadian Single Malts; and 3. Canadian Whiskies. There were only two bottles in this category, and you’ll find the notes and rankings below, along with a wrap-up of the series. Black Fox Spirits Wheat Spirit Cask Strength … Continue reading TWS Whisky Awards 2017: Cask Strength Canadian Whiskies & Wrap-up
In this, the third part of our TWS Whisky Awards, we look at some whiskies that fall within the more classical Canadian Whisky category. In Part 1, we looked at some under-aged spirits and non-whiskies, and in Part 2 we evaluated some Canadian Single Malts. Here are the bottles, descriptions, tasting notes and rankings of the five Canadian Whiskies we evaluated: Last Mountain 100% Wheat … Continue reading TWS Whisky Awards 2017: Canadian Whiskies
In the first annual TWS Whisky Awards, we evaluated four categories of Canadian whiskies and spirits. In Part 1, we looked at under-aged spirits and non-whiskies. In Part 2, we’re evaluating four Canadian Single Malts. Maison Sivó L’Essence du Single Malt – Franklin, QC This bottle from Sivó is an in-progress single malt made from Quebec malted barley, which undergoes a 4 day fermentation before … Continue reading TWS Whisky Awards 2017: Canadian Single Malts
As mentioned in the intro to the TWS Whisky Awards, we wanted to give new distilleries and those with under-aged spirits a chance to participate in a group evaluation, as they don’t typically participate in whisky awards. We received bottles from a number of young distilleries, and you’ll find the descriptions, collective notes and the winners of those bottles below. Park Distillery Glacier Rye – … Continue reading TWS Whisky Awards 2017: Non-Whiskies & Whiskies in Progress
Toronto Whisky Society 