When Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye made headlines for winning Jim Murray’s world whisky of the year in November, the responses – domestically and abroad – ranged from consternation and indignation to amazement and pride.
Like it or not, the buzz around Northern Harvest has turned plenty of curious eyes toward our huge and humble nation, which has been producing mass quantities of whisky for over two centuries without bellowing about it. Some realized for the first time that Canadian whisky isn’t just a light, cheap rye to mix with Canada Dry.
“It’s this hidden gem that people really didn’t know about and never gave a chance to,” says Davin de Kergommeaux, author of Canadian Whisky: The Portable Expert (McClelland & Stewart, $25).
“The good stuff has been in plain sight, but the brands have promoted the lower end because it sells like crazy. Now the market is moving away from that: people want to taste their whisky.”
The premium spirits sector, in whisky especially, is booming. De Kergommeaux notes that sales of connoisseur-level whiskies are growing annually by up to 18 per cent, and Canadian brands have become more aggressive about promoting premium homeland expressions, particularly to export markets.
Canadian-made whisky is contributing significantly to the U.S. rye renaissance. American brands like Jefferson’s, Masterson’s and WhistlePig are snatching up aged Canadian stock (likely from Alberta Distillers Ltd.) and bottling it to feed a growing demand for rye.
“You just can’t get that kind of whisky in the States,” explains de Kergommeaux. “And we have masses of it just sitting in our warehouses getting older and more flavourful.”
Part of what typifies a whisky as Canadian, stylistically speaking, is the method of blending separately distilled and aged grain whiskies made from corn and barley, sometimes with others made from rye and/or wheat to make a finished product. Many Canadian blends call for only a small amount of rye, which leaves the rest of it lounging around beautifying in warehouses, as de Kergommeaux notes. (It was the traditional addition of rye whisky to the blend that led the term “rye” to be applied to all Canadian whisky).
But not all of our rye is blended or sold to the States. Canada has been putting its best foot forward with rye bombs like Lot No. 40, which won whisky of the year for the second time since 2013 at the sixth annual Canadian Whisky Awards at the Victoria Whisky Festival two weeks ago.
Canadian Club Chairman’s Reserve 100% Rye was named sippin’ whisky of the year. Clearly, the panel of 10 expert judges, who tasted all 60-plus entrants blind, demonstrated a preference for the assertive complexities of true rye whisky.
“We’ve always had great whisky we’re just selling a lot more of it now,” De Kergommeaux said during his intro speech at the Canadian Whisky Awards.
So let’s get behind our homeland whisky and just give ‘er, eh? There’s plenty to be proud about.
