Gooderham and Wort's Little Trinity

This is one of the 2017 Northern Border Collection releases. Composed of corn, rye, and wheat whisky, it was aged for 17 years it is bottled at 45%. When I tried this at Spirit of Toronto in May 2017, my notes indicated “worth getting”.

When it finally hit stores last fall, I snapped one up to avoid missing out. When I checked just before writing this review, some 8 months later, there are 26 available online and 121 on shelves in 8 stores (5 of them in Ottawa) across Ontario.

@OdysseusUnbound was kind enough to give me a sample from his bottle so that I could put off opening mine. Good thing, because I brought that sample down to Maryland and to be blunt, it didn’t go over very well. In fact, the general consensus was that the less expensive Four Grain NAS expression, reviewed here (alongside this), was better:

connosr.com/gooderham-and-worts-four-grain…

About 20 cc of the sample made its way back up to Toronto and is reviewed here. I felt that to do it justice it needed to be tasted on a fresh palate, whereas we had tasted quite a few at the home of @Victor.

My 2 oz sample was poured on April 17 from a ¾ full bottle that was opened April 1. This expression is reviewed in my usual manner, allowing it to settle after which I take my nosing and tasting notes, followed by the addition of a few drops of water, waiting, then nosing and tasting.

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Nose: 20/25

Sweet, slightly fuity, green apple. A hint of baking spice. Slightly funky note. Dusty. Water tones down the “funkiness” (20.5/25).

Taste: 20/25

Sweet. A little thin. A little fruity. Some pepper on the development. Hints of vanilla. No appreciable difference with water.

Finish: 20/25

Bitter, slightly sour.

Balance: 20/25

Nose and palate complement each other but it’s not all that interesting.

Score: Neat - 80/100 With Water: 80.5/100

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I’m a little disappointed. It goes to show that first impressions can be deceiving. Maybe I wanted to like this more than I actually did. With Dr. Whisky in the room presenting, maybe the power of suggestion contributed.

It turns out that this is at the border of the line across which I would rather drink water. And on a hot day… maybe water would be preferable.

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I mixed this about 40:60 with the Four grain. The result is not worth describing. Adding a little Lot 40 CS improves it, but not enough.