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 we didn’t receive any true rye-based whiskies, and so we were excited to get a bunch of them this year enabling us to create this category for 2018! Some are bottles that have long been commercially available while others are new releases or barrel samples, but it was great to see many distilleries producing the essence of what defines Canadian whisky. Here are the ryes … Continue reading 2018 TWS Whisky Awards: Ryes
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
A year ago, the Toronto Whisky Society founders decided to commemorate Canada’s 150th birthday with a competition dedicated to Canadian whisky from across the country and various categories. The feedback we got on it from distilleries and readers was so positive that we decided to make it an annual event! For 2018, we made a couple of improvements, based on the feedback we got: We … Continue reading 2018 TWS WHISKY AWARDS – Intro
Review: Glenfiddich Experimental Series Fire & Cane 43% ABV No age statement Peated malt Finished in Latin rum casks First and foremost, we would like to thank Glenfiddich and their Canadian ambassador Beth Havers for letting a couple Toronto Whisky Society members try the new Glenfiddich Fire & Cane release. Below are the combined notes and scores of the three TWS members who had a … Continue reading Review: Glenfiddich Experimental Series Fire & Cane
Kinsip House of Fine Spirits (Prince Edward County, ON) is a relative newcomer to the Canadian distilling scene – at least as a corporate entity and brand. The distillery itself has been around since 2012, and was formerly known as 66 Gilead Distillery (named for its street address), making unique, crafted white and brown spirits. When the former owners decided to sell the business, a … Continue reading Distillery & New Release Spotlight: Kinsip House of Fine Spirits & Cooper’s Revival Rye
We recently had an event with Cameron Millar, the brand ambassador for Edrington in Eastern Canada and tasted some fantastic drams. We both brought a few bottles we had gathered, leading to a great tasting including a number of limited editions and since delisted bottlings including: The Naked Grouse The Macallan Edition No. 2 The Macallan Edition No. 3 The Macallan Classic Cut Highland Park … Continue reading Event Recap: Macallan & Highland Park tasting with Cameron Millar
A couple of years ago, Corby Spirit and Wine started their Rare Cask Series of whiskies – a collection of one-off bottlings with unique characteristics, production methods and stories – highlighting the innovative potential inherent in Canadian whisky and their warehouses. The first three releases were Last Barrels (a bourbon-style mashbill whisky), Dissertation (comprised of whiskies from Dr. Don Livermore’s PhD experiments), and Union 52 … Continue reading New Release Spotlight: J.P. Wiser’s Seasoned Oak 19 year
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
On April 18, we had a tasting event with Matt Jones (@whisky_chef on instagram/twitter), the Beam-Suntory brand ambassador for the company’s Scotch and worldwhisky portfolios. Matt brought us a number of expressions from both of these Islay distilleries and regaled us with tales from that beautiful island, and the people who live and work there. He also brought some great swag for everyone to take … Continue reading Laphroaig / Bowmore Tasting – Event Recap
I recently had the wonderful opportunity to meet with Ger Buckley, fourth generation Head Cooper at Jameson Distillery, and Steve Beauchesne of Beau’s Brewery and ask questions about their respective companies, roles and upcoming collaboration. Jameson shots are virtually synonymous with St. Patrick’s Day in North America, along with green beer and other things the Irish likely find abominable about our celebration of their holiday! … Continue reading Perfect St. Patrick’s Day Pairing – Jameson Caskmates and Beau’s Strong Patrick
Glenmorangie is proud to announce their newest Private Edition release, the ninth in a long line of annually released limited edition malts. Each edition explores new innovations and how they affect whisky. However before we get into the details of this new malt, first we should go back. Back to 1949. Why? Because Glenmorangie was the first Scotch malt maker to release a whisky that … Continue reading Introducing Glenmorangie Spios
Toronto Whisky Society 