Lately I’ve been enjoying wild ales. For those not in the know, a wild ale is a beer that has used yeast or bacteria in addition to Saccharomyces cerevisiae for fermentation. It’s recently caught on in the US, with Lambics using the method for centuries now. So, when I was invited to try Glenmorangie’s newest release, which used their own strain of wild yeast, I … Continue reading Glenmorangie Allta – Exploring Wild Yeast
If you asked people what they pictured when you say Persian Empire Distillery, they probably won’t picture a craft distillery in Peterborough, Ontario – one of the first in Canada to open its doors in nearly 40 years! Since 2006, Bruce Khabbazi has been producing spirits of both european and middle-eastern heritage, and recently expanded to a new facility that shoudl more than triple their … Continue reading Distillery Spotlight: Persian Empire Distillery
When one says The Balvenie, there’s one of two reactions: Either you enjoy the floral, sometimes fruity Speyside, or you pass. I am of the first group, so when I was invited (in addition to other members of the Toronto Whisky Society) to a Balvenie tasting at The Caledonian, of course, I cleared my schedule. Heck, I may have gone so fast that I cleared … Continue reading A night of Balvenie
GlenDronach bottles and sells my favourite whisky. As much as I like peat, a well-aged sherry single malt just does it for me (Editor’s Note: Yes, we know that prior to 2002 GlenDronach was peated, but I think DistillAsian means very peated whisky here). So the first thing I want to do when visiting Scotland is hit up the GlenDronach Distillery. It’s not as hard … Continue reading GlenDronach Distillery Tour
I signed up for the last available Distillers Wares tour first thing Sunday morning. However two days before that I found myself driving right past the visitor parking lot and parking right outside of the of the Mash House after the distillery had closed to the public for the day. An acquaintance was able to get my wife and I a private tour of the … Continue reading Laphroaig Distillers Wares
My wife and I rushed through a lunch at a small bar in Port Askaig in order to make it to the 2 pm Cask Strength Experience at Caol Ila. Funny story: Turns out we didn’t need to rush that much and could have had a heartier lunch because we were literally 5 minutes away. Well funny to me at least. I had been drinking. … Continue reading Caol Ila Distillery Tour
All the rumours are true: Bunnahabhain feels like the most remote and difficult to get to of all the distilleries on Islay. The final stretch is spent driving a long way down a nondescript single lane road. What they don’t tell you is that the Bunnahabhain Distillery complex looks like something out of a nuclear fallout movie, with seemingly old and rundown industrial buildings. Any … Continue reading Bunnahabhain Warehouse 9 Tasting
After Lagavulin, we ate a lovely lunch at the Islay Hotel, where we ended up getting seated beside and chatting with an Australian that had made the trip to Islay on his own. Happily full and ready to go, we were off on the 40-minute drive to Bruichladdich. As this was my wife’s first time driving on this trip, I was understandably nervous and sober … Continue reading Bruichladdich Warehouse Experience
My wife was kind enough to indulge my whisky obsession and not veto my idea to make the trip to Islay, aka Whisky Mecca, during our trip to Scotland. She said that I could go to as many distilleries as I could fit into three days on Islay. Well, the joke is on her because the answer to that question is 7 in what turned … Continue reading Lagavulin Warehouse Demonstration
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
Our inaugural tasting’s single malt category was a highlight, and as primarily Scotch drinkers, we’re always excited to see the progress Canada is making in this category. We have a few repeats and a few new entrants in the category this year and were very excited to see how they stacked up. As always, these were tasted blind and are presented in the order in … Continue reading 2018 TWS Whisky Awards: Single Malts
Last year, one of the highlights of the TWS Whisky Awards was the opportunity to try some under-aged spirits from Canadian distilleries across the country. We decided to continue this category so our followers could follow the progress of young distilleries as their barrels age! The bottles are listed in the order we tasted them. We tasted them all blind, and our notes and the … Continue reading 2018 TWS Whisky Awards: Under-aged Whiskies
Toronto Whisky Society 