TWS’s Holiday Gift Guide / Best Whiskies under $100 at the LCBO

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

TWS CANADIAN SINGLE MALTS OF THE YEAR

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

Single Cask Malts

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

Under-aged 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

2023 Toronto Whisky Awards – Canadian Single 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

Lucky Bastard 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

Distillery Spotlight: Central City’s Lohin McKinnon Single Malts

Central City Brewing has been a stalwart in the craft brewing scene in BC since 2003 with their Red Racer line, and entered the distilling game in 2013. Brewmaster Gary Lohin and Head Distiller Stuart McKinnon used their collective expertise to develop an innovative line-up of Lohin McKinnon single malts. The regular Single Malt did very well in our inaugural Great Canadian Whisky Tasting in 2017, as did their … Continue reading Distillery Spotlight: Central City’s Lohin McKinnon Single Malts

Balvenie Tasting – Event Recap

In March, we had a tasting event with Jamie Johnson (@bourbonthing), the Balvenie Brand Ambassador for Canada. Jamie blew everyone’s expectations out of the water, bringing us 9 different expressions to try, including some unicorn bottles, as well as new make and barrel-seasoning rum! The drams were tasted were: Balvenie 12 Doublewood Balvenie 14 Caribbean Cask Balvenie 17 Doublewood Balvenie 21 Portwood Balvenie 12 Single … Continue reading Balvenie Tasting – Event Recap

Toronto Whisky Society Do Good Distillery Reviews

Toronto Whisky Society were privileged enough to be sent bottles and samples of Do Good distilleries offerings. We’d like to start out by thanking Do Good for these samples, and for being patient while we waited for someone to legally bring them back from the US. Do Good Distillery is built upon the ideal of making unique, wonderful craft spirits. Their emphasis is on whisky. They use … Continue reading Toronto Whisky Society Do Good Distillery Reviews