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 had 3 peated entries for 2023 from the Yukon, BC and Sask: Macaloney’s Peated Mac na Braiche (son of malt) is a single malt spirit, as it’s under 3 years of age. We first tasted MNB at an event in 2017 and saw some real potential already then. This peated malt from Two Brewers, release 38, is over 10 years old! This Smokey Single … Continue reading Peated, <50% ABV
The Classic single malt is primarily ex-bourbon barrel, regular range proof, and we received 5 malts that fit in this category. They hailed from coast to coast to coast, representing the Yukon, Newfoundland, BC and Alberta! Two Brewers Release 35 was built from 8 and 11 year old liquids, this was a Gold Medal Winner at the Canadian Brewing Awards 2023. This <3yr malt was … Continue reading The Classics: Unpeated, <50% ABV Malts
Visiting Black Fox Distillery was a real treat, as we had tried their spirits in the 2018 Canadian whisky awards where they won in the under-aged spirit category! Compared to the industrial/roaring 20s feel of Lucky Bastard, Black Fox was quite the change – this is a huge, legit farm! Gorgeous grounds, stone building, rolling hills, farm activities for kids. It had it all! John … Continue reading Black Fox Distillery – Saskatoon
Shortly before the pandemic, I left the company I had been with for about a decade for a new job, but a project that was underway needed to be finished before I left. Finishing that project meant accompanying a customer to our plant in Saskatchewan, one of the only provinces I had yet to visit! So of course before heading out there, I called up … Continue reading Lucky Bastard Distillery – Saskatoon
Travel – something we haven’t been able to do a lot of in the past 18 months or so, but when restrictions within Canada were eased, jumping at the first opportunity to visit a new place was a priority and thus a trip to Newfoundland was planned. Of course, no trip is complete without visiting whatever distilleries exist in the location, so a call to … Continue reading Distillery Spotlight: The Newfoundland Distillery Co.
2020 has been quite the year, and your Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus celebrations are likely to look a little different than normal, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be buying whisky for your friends and family! We’ve put together an updated 2020 Gift Guide to help you find the best options at the LCBO! WHISKY $61 AND UNDER Wild Turkey 101 – a great bourbon for $38 currently … Continue reading 2020 Holiday Whisky Gift Guide
Alberta Premium has long been that diamond-cut bottle of rye on the bottom shelf at the LCBO – a decent Canadian rye that has a loyal following, but little attention paid by the connoisseur community. Many in the know were aware that a lot of AP’s older barrels were sold south of the border to companies like WhistlePig and others. In 2019, either due to … Continue reading Alberta Premium Cask Strength & 20yr Limited Editions
Many of our members have been fans of the Northern Border Collection all the way back to when it was just a twinkle in Dr. Don Livermore’s eye, and we’ve had the good fortune to try each of the rare range releases over the past three years. For the inaugural line-up, we had Dave Mitton come in and introduce them to us. Last year, we … Continue reading 2019 Northern Border Collection Rare Range Tasting
We’re going to be honest here… when we first saw the J.P. Wiser’s Alumni Series get released, we assumed it was simply a marketing gimmick that would in all likelihood take existing whiskies and re-brand then with famous players’ names to up-sell the hockey fan market. We even told the folks at Corby this and that we didn’t feel these would appeal to the whisky … Continue reading J.P. Wiser’s NHL Alumni Series
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
Toronto Whisky Society 