We teamed up with Kilchoman and Noble Estates, a distillery we hadn’t yet featured in any events before, and had a great line-up of whiskies. These were presented by James Wills, son of the founder of of Kilchoman, and he shared amazing and hilarious stories and anecdotes of his experience working with his family to found, run and grow the distillery into the well respected … Continue reading Kilchoman Tasting with Noble Estates
We brought back an old favourite theme for 2024 – Oddballs! Devon picks out some weird/unique/unusual bottlings and we drink them blind and try to guess what they are. This year had some really interesting ones, which are listed in order that we tasted them (and for those who couldn’t come in person and got samples, this is the order 1-5, avoid if you don’t … Continue reading Oddballs 2024
A couple years ago now we acquired some old malts from the 80s and 90s. We’ve previously tasted some of these at an Ardbeg/Glenmorangie tasting, a vintage blends event and our recent Bruichladdich tasting. We still had 10 vintage malts left and so we decided to throw a huge tasting with half ounce pours of each so our members would have a chance to try … Continue reading Vintage Malts Tasting
In Feb 2024 we held a tasting with a brand we had long hoped to work with – Bruichladdich. Reed Pettit brought a few bottles and we acquired a Laddie 10 from the 90s, along with two experimental bottlings courtesy of a member of the club. The tasting was incredible, the stories and insights Reed shared were equally phenomenal and everyone had an amazing time. … Continue reading Bruichladdich Tasting
Diony Distillery from Red Deer Alberta reached out recently asking if we’d be interested in trying their whiskies and of course, we said … of course! The whiskies recently arrived and we gave them a shot, so here’s a little about the distillery, their core expressions, and our thoughts on them. Diony refers to Dionysus, the creator of wine from Greek mythology, which we aren’t … Continue reading Distillery Spotlight: Diony Distillery
We held our AGM as usual in December 2023 and it was a great one, highlighted by amazing food (including a brisket smoked by member Sheps and Canada goose jerky hunted, prepared and cured by founding member and re-elected exec member Bryan. In addition to great food, we had some great whisky, including the leftovers from the 2023 TWS Canadian Single Malt awards, and a … Continue reading 2023 TWS AGM
We don’t know if it’s general inflation or just increased demand (spoiler: it’s inflation), but it seems that every time you turn around, the price of whisky has increased. It’s remarkable how many bottles, including ones well loved and formerly reasonably priced, have become priced out of the “every day” category. Since the holidays are fast approaching, at a recent TWS event, we asked the … Continue reading TWS’s Holiday Gift Guide / Best Whiskies under $100 at the LCBO
So after a full day of tasting, finding winners of 4 categories and 2 sub-categories, We had to determine our overall winners. 7 finalists were compared blind head-to-head and re-ranked to find our winners for the year. Congratulations to Macaloney’s, Two Brewers and Okanagan for having multiple entries each in the finals! Here are the winners: HONOURABLE MENTIONS RUNNER-UP 2023 CANADIAN MALT OF THE YEAR … Continue reading TWS CANADIAN SINGLE MALTS OF THE YEAR
These malts participated in other categories but were distinct in that they came from a single barrel before release. You can see the full details of this single STR Port barrel Macaloney’s release in the finished whisky category. the LMD release was a single barrel Islay cask finished whisky, which participated in the peated category. The Two Brewers Release 37 single cask was the big … Continue reading Single Cask Malts
Either by happenstance or intentional permanent release, there are some great malts out there that are under 3 years of age, and technically not whisky. Our entries in this sub-category this year were produced about as far apart as possible from the shore of Newfoundland to the coast of Vancouver island! This young malt also participated in the Classic malt category and as of writing … Continue reading Under-aged Malts
