Tag: cask strength

Distillery Spotlight, Whisky Musing

An Interview with Master Blender, Bill Ashburn | Forty Creek Distillery (Grimsby, Ontario, Canada)

This year has been quite a challenging one for many distillers, but potentially even more so for Ontario distillers. It’s been a hard 18 months of pandemic restrictions with not a lot of payback on the governmental side of things. Yet, whisky keeps flowing to the mouths of Canadians willing to support their domestic industry. Among those distillers are one of the big players in … Continue reading An Interview with Master Blender, Bill Ashburn | Forty Creek Distillery (Grimsby, Ontario, Canada)

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Review

Alberta Premium Cask Strength & 20yr Limited Editions

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

Bryan Vanderkruk2 Comments
Event Recap, Review

2019 Northern Border Collection Rare Range Tasting

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

TorontoWhiskySociety3 Comments
Review

Redbreast 12 Cask Strength

Redbreast 12 Cask Strength, Batch No. B1/16, 57.2% ABV, $110 CAD. Malted and unmalted barley. Triple distilled in copper pot stills. Matured in sherry casks. Non chilled filtered. Nose: Very fresh nose with apples, apricots, creme brulee, fudge, figs, raisins, and chocolate. Taste: Chocolate fudge, malt, barley grain, toasted wood, cantaloupe. Finish: Long. Chocolate, burnt wood, malt and grain notes linger. Thoughts: Everything works well … Continue reading Redbreast 12 Cask Strength

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Review

Macallan Cask Strength (My 50th Review)

Macallan Cask Strength, 58.2% ABV, $300 USD Nose: Walnuts, almonds, marzipan, figs, grape jelly, very slight oak, little bit of chocolate-orange, fruit punch flavored Kool Aid powder, Flintstones Vitamins, strawberry and grape bubble gum. Taste: Grape bubble gum, marzipan (big time), cherry syrup, slight oak, strawberry jam, orange marmalade. Finish: Very long, very viscous. Grape bubble gun, slight oak, and chocolate-orange linger. Thoughts: The best … Continue reading Macallan Cask Strength (My 50th Review)

jeremy2 Comments
Review

Arran-mageddon: 12 reviews of Arran single casks, LEs and crazy finishes

So I’m at the precipice of hitting both 300 scotch reviews and 500 total whisky reviews on reddit and plotted out my path to those milestones. Inspired by /u/tomodera‘s recent Arran-pocalypse posts (Part 1, Part 2), I decided to do a smaller multi of the Arran drams I haven’t posted here in the past. It’s kind of like the B-movie version of his post… it’s Piranha … Continue reading Arran-mageddon: 12 reviews of Arran single casks, LEs and crazy finishes

Bryan Vanderkruk1 Comment
Review, TWS Whisky Awards

TWS Whisky Awards 2017: Cask Strength Canadian Whiskies & Wrap-up

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

TorontoWhiskySociety7 Comments
Review

Wiser’s 18 Cask Strength

Thanks to /u/devoz for this sample. I have a little bit of a confession, as a Canadian whisky drinker. I prefer Wiser’s 18 over Wiser’s Legacy in blind taste tests. I’m a bad person. I’m an okay otter. So when members of the TWS recently visited Wiser’s for a very special tour. Wiser’s were nice enough to give parting gifts, including samples of Wiser’s 18 Cask… Continue reading Wiser’s 18 Cask Strength

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Review

Some NDP Bourbon Reviews

My wife and I recently had a great weekend in Windsor visiting the Hiram Walker Distillery, Canadian Club Brand Centre, Wolfhead Distillery and just hanging out with good company! We spent the weekend with some friends and he has a fantastic, growing collection of whiskies that he picks up in his business travels. Our weekend also involved a lot of great food including  flaming cheese at Santorini’s … Continue reading Some NDP Bourbon Reviews

Bryan Vanderkruk2 Comments
Distillery Spotlight, Event Recap

TWS visits Hiram Walker Distillery – Part 2

In Part 1 of the Toronto Whisky Society’s visit to the Hiram Walker Distillery we covered how they handle their grain, the mashing process and fermenting process. Next we move on to: Distillation Distillation is essentially selective evaporation to concentrate a substance and remove unwanted portions. In the spirits world, there are two types of stills: Continuous or column stills, and pot stills. At Hiram … Continue reading TWS visits Hiram Walker Distillery – Part 2

TorontoWhiskySociety4 Comments
Distillery Spotlight, Event Recap

TWS visits Hiram Walker Distillery – Part 1

On March 24th, a few founding members of the Toronto Whisky Society were given the opportunity to tour the Hiram Walker Distillery and we want to share that experience with you in a few posts over the next few days. For any of you who don’t know, the distillery was built in 1858 by Hiram Walker, an American businessman who helped grow Canadian whisky to … Continue reading TWS visits Hiram Walker Distillery – Part 1

TorontoWhiskySociety7 Comments