A former member visited the Spring Mill Distillery back in early 2020, very early on in its history before they’d even released a fully aged whisky, and in 2024, John Sleeman and his sons Cooper and Quinn invited a busload of whisky lovers to the distillery for a tour, tasting and dinner. Having family in the Guelph area, and an uncle-in-law that actually did some … Continue reading Spring Mill Distillery – Dinner with the Sleemans
West coast, best coast. I love the Maritimes, don’t get me wrong, but BC hits differently, and Vancouver Island may be my favourite place in Canada. I’ve been a few times, and one time back in 2019, I managed to convince my wife and some friends to drive up to Campbell River to visit Shelter Point Distillery. Why am I posting this now instead of … Continue reading Shelter Point Distillery – Vancouver Island, BC
Driving through Montreal in the spring is a frustrating experience – there’s construction happening on every other street, the traffic is backed up as you wait for the same stoplight for 3 cycles, and a single accident on the highways will have you sitting in stop and go for a very long time. But it’s incredible just how quickly all of that changes as soon … Continue reading Distillery Spotlight: Côte des Saints Distillery, Mirabel, QC
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
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
We had 6 malts that fit in this category, ranging from BC to the Yukon, to Alberta. The Laird of Fintry Red Label was finished in Black Sage Vineyards Port pipes and aged over 5 years! The Kirkinriola is a single cask release, aged in STR Portuguese port pipes. NCF and 46%. Diamond S from Rig Hand is a 5 year old malt aged in … Continue reading Sherry, Wine and other Finished Malts
In 2017 we first launched the Annual TWS Canadian Whisky Awards, handing out medals across multiple Canadian whisky categories. Our process was an in-person blind tasting of whiskies by category, collaboratively aligning on which were the best. We continued this in 2018 and 2019, with fantastic results. When COVID hit in 2020, our in-person process wasn’t feasible, so we cancelled the awards for that year, … Continue reading 2023 Toronto Whisky Awards – Canadian Single Malts
In September, TWS members visited the Hiram Walker Distillery in Windsor, Ontario. This wasn’t the first time for some of us, as the TWS founders visited in 2017. We toured the grain receiving, fermenters, the stills, the Pike Creek warehouses and then had a blending session with Dr. Don Livermore where we applied everything we learned (and tasted) to make our very own blends. Fueled … Continue reading Hiram Walker Distillery Visit 2023
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
