Lot 40 Review

Here's a whisky I don't know a lot about and normally wouldn't have sought out but it was bequeathed to me in /u/tvraisedme's gigantic whiskey dumpster give away before he moved out of town. I've read a lot of hoopla about the 2012 batch of this product but my bottle does not bear the "2012 Limited Release" distinction that I've seen in those reviews. All I know is that it was given to me in 2015 so I am guessing it is that release of the product. I did find some information that stated the 2015 release was basically the same distillation run as the 2012 only aged a little longer. If that's true, that makes this a Canadian rye whiskey distilled from 90% rye and 10% malted rye but I've found conflicting reports about the age so we'll just safely assume it's a NAS blend.

No Age Statement; 43% ABV; Currently retails here at $55

Nose: Sweet, spicy, and a little mellow. Molasses, vanilla, honey. The rye spice is rather herbal, like eucalyptus and menthol. I'm used to much more higher proof whiskeys and this doesn't bowl me over but it does have a surprising amount of aroma for only 43%.

Taste: Very sweet forward - mostly brown sugar and honey. The spice seems way dialed back from the nose and is washed out by the sweetness. It's thin on body and I can't help but feel like there is a weird artificial note to the sweet flavors that lingers in the back palate. The finish is a bit dry and short which seems to be the 86 proof rearing its ugly head. 

Thoughts: I'm not crazy about this. If the palate carried through all those spice notes from the nose I would be more of fan. Also the weird artificial sweet note I can't quite place is not helping things. For my money when it comes to ryes, I prefer a more wood and spice forward profile like the higher proof WhistlePig bottlings sourced from Alberta.

Rating: C+ / C

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Wiser’s Last Barrels Review

This is a review I did as part of the /r/worldwhisky series of community reviews.

J.P. Wiser's Last Barrels is named as such because it was the last product of former Hiram Walker master distiller Jim Stanski before he moved on to become VP of Production. This product is interesting because the source of this whisky came from grains that were combined before distillation. While that's a pretty common technique used in American Whiskey, it's unusual for a Canadian Whisky where grains are usually distilled individually then batched later. Another oddity here is the use of a sour mash process that came from soured milk. While the sour mash process is uncommon in Canada, it is common in America though it typically involves using left over mash from a previous distillation run. Finally, while most Canadian whiskies I know of tend to be heavily rye based, the mashbill here is 80% corn grist, 11% rye, and 9% barley. All of that makes this product very bourbon like in nature and I expect it to taste like one. 

Aged 14 years; 45% ABV; $65 (CAD)

Nose: Smells a lot like bourbon with typical corn, vanilla, and caramel notes. There's a lot of fruity green apple as well.

Taste: Upfront is all of the same notes from the nose with a lot of added honey. It tastes like honey covered caramel corn apples. In the finish though some bitterness like old wood, unpleasant ethanol like nail polish or young distillate, and pepper notes come out. 

Thoughts: Definitely the most unusual Canadian Whisky I've ever had as it's very bourbon like and the fruit notes are very nice. I love the nose and the front to mid taste is great but things go all wrong in the finish. If only those initial notes carried through or the bitterness was toned down I'd like this a lot more. 

Rating: 75/100

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating. Thanks to /u/Jolarbear for the sample. 

Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye Review

This is another review I did as part of the Reddit whiskey network series of community reviews. This particular review was for /r/worldwhisky.

Every year whisky critic Jim Murray releases a “Whisky Bible” in which he will name a “World Whisky of the Year”. Despite the fact that his picks are sometimes mocked in the educated enthusiast community, it doesn’t seem to matter much because a recommendation from him will skyrocket sales. For his 2015 edition he bestowed this honor on Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye and true to form it instantly started flying off the shelves (especially in Canada). Like many others, I suspected this whisky to be his craziest selection yet but I hadn’t actually tried it so I reserved at least a little judgement. Earlier last year I tried a cask strength single barrel of Crown Royal that was enjoyable. It was nothing groundbreaking but it was a nice combo of proof, spice, and sweet. My hope was that this was something more similar to that than to the standard Crown Royal product which I gave up a long time ago in favor of better things.

No age statement; $18 for 375ml; Thanks to /u/dannyg483 for the photo and samples.

Nose: The nose is thin with with a lot of the flavor being masked by solvent alcohol. Underneath the ethanol there is some sweet banana. Overall, it smells really immature and I would liken this to a young American craft whiskey.

Taste: A lot like the taste. There is less ethanol dominance with some sweet banana taffy, apple, and rye bread flavors coming through. It’s really lacking on rye spice except in the finish which has some slight spiciness, raw alcohol burn, and more banana. Overall, it’s really muted.

Thoughts: It’s drinkable but not much beyond that. I’ve had 2 year old craft whiskeys that are way better than this.

Rating: 65/100

Value: I don’t factor factor price into my ratings but this is a rip off even it were half the price.

Alberta Dark Batch Review

Alberta Dark Batch is a Canadian blended rye whisky that became available in the states within the last year. Canadians will be much more familiar this product under its original name “Dark Horse” but due to an existing distiller in the United States already using that name Beam Suntory is offering it under a different label here. What is really interesting about Dark Batch to me is how it takes advantage of the more relaxed whisky regulations of our neighbors to the north. Chuck Cowdery has an excellent writeup that delves deeper into that subject but the TLDR; version is that Canadian whisky can contain a small percentage of spirits from other sources and doesn’t have to be aged in fresh charred barrels. Given that flexibility, what we end up with here is a blend of 45.5% Canadian rye whisky aged 6 years in fresh charred oak barrels, 45.5% Canadian rye whiskey aged 12 years in used bourbon barrels, 8% Old Grand-Dad (no age statement) bourbon, and 1% sherry. While all of that sounds exciting on paper, with so much going on there’s also there’s a chance it could be a complete mess.

No Age Statement; 45% ABV; $28

Nose: Menthol, eucalyptus, red wine, brown sugar, pine. It’s spicy, sweet, and fruity as expected.

Taste: Tastes a lot like it smells. Menthol, pine, and anise spice are very noticeable even from the start of the palate. The spicy notes taper off a little in the middle to give way to some softer brown sugar and red wine fruity notes. The spice comes back stronger in the finish but I find things start to fall apart a bit at the end. The spice takes on sharper, more aggressive peppery characteristics which overpower some of the fruit and sweet notes I would expect to linger.

Thoughts: I like it but it’s not for everyone and certainly not something I would want to reach for every day. At a recent blind rye tasting I participated in this took second place only to the very beloved Smooth Ambler Old Scout Rye Cask Strength. That’s not very surprising as there’s a lot to love about this. Judging purely on uniqueness this one ranks well and also scores a lot of points in the value department as sub $30 is a great price considering all of the individual components. I can’t help but to compare this to High West’s Midwinter Nights Dram which blows this out of the water but in the absence of that bottle Dark Batch is a nice affordable and accessible substitute.

Rating: B / B-