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
We’re going to be honest here… when we first saw the J.P. Wiser’s Alumni Series get released, we assumed it was simply a marketing gimmick that would in all likelihood take existing whiskies and re-brand then with famous players’ names to up-sell the hockey fan market. We even told the folks at Corby this and that we didn’t feel these would appeal to the whisky … Continue reading J.P. Wiser’s NHL Alumni Series
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
2017 was a great year for the Toronto Whisky Society (TWS), between hosting a number of wonderful tastings, visiting distilleries, reviewing whiskies, and of course all the great social events with members. It would be a waste to have all these great whisky lovers and not ask them for their whiskies of the year! Read below to see what whiskies were the highlights for a … Continue reading Toronto Whisky Society’s Whiskies of the Year 2017
We’ve written a few times about Corby’s recently released Northern Border Collection here, and that’s for a couple of reasons: It’s damn good whisky that is a bit of a paradigm shift for Canadian whisky Corby has been really good about reaching out to whisky lovers and groups like ours, letting us taste it and tell its story. So since by now you’ve heard it … Continue reading TWS Northern Border Collection Tasting
A few weeks ago TOmodera and I were invited by Corby Spirits to attend an event in Prince Edward County for bartenders and whisky media to try out the new Northern Border Collection bottlings they’re releasing nationwide in October. Naturally, we obliged after some arm twisting… but actually we were pumped, having tried some of these before and knowing how good they are. The day … Continue reading Corby’s Northern Border Collection – Reviews of all 8 Expressions
Recently some of Corby’s representatives reached out to members of the Toronto Whisky Society to attend a tasting event they were having with bartenders and whisky media at the Drake Devonshire in picturesque Prince Edward County. TOModera and I were fortunate enough to be able to go. We looked forward to the opportunity to try the soon-to-be-released Northern Border Collection Limited Releases! It was TOModera’s first … Continue reading Northern Border Collection tasting event at the Drake Devonshire
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
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
Occasionally one of our members will pick up a bottle and give out samples to a number of Toronto Whisky Society (TWS) members to review individually. These reviews are amalgamated into a single multi-person review like this one. This time around both Bryan Vanderkuk and Devozwhisky were lucky enough to purchase bottles of the new Wiser’s release, Union 52 from British Colombia. Originally Devozwhisky and … Continue reading Toronto Whisky Society Union 52 Group Review
2016 was a fantastic year for the members of the Toronto Whisky Society, for many reasons: We launched our website and social media presence after existing primarily on Reddit for the past few years We held a number of highly successful events in homes, at pubs and at distilleries We made connections with a ton of distilleries to set up future events, AMAs and tastings … Continue reading Toronto Whisky Society’s Whiskies of the Year 2016
Appearance: 1.3, Russet Nose: Very much a bourbon nose; vanilla, caramel, toasted oak. I also get a fair bit of fruitiness and almost some floral notes too; white grapes, pear, mango, and fresh linens. Taste: Hits with a slightly astringent bitter oak note, developing with lots of wood spice, black pepper, cinnamon, clove. I also get vanilla and caramel, unsurprisingly, with some apricot and banana. … Continue reading Review: Wiser’s Last Barrels
Toronto Whisky Society 