High River Canadian Whisky

Thanks to @Nelom for the sample. It has been something like a year since my last review, nice to have a minute to drop another one.

High River is a blended Canadian Whisky, from whisky sourced from sazerac. Once sourced, the whisky is blended and bottled at Buffalo Trace by (or perhaps overseen by) Drew Mayville, the BT master blender, who used to work for Seagram.

It is coming in at a low price, and since it is sourced, I wouldn't expect the whisky to be that old. I've tasted quite a few 3 year olds from the big guys that are clean enough to go into products right away, and I expect this is not a whole lot older than that. But, that's speculation. A whopping 1/3 of Hiram Walker's (massive) production is 3 year old 100% corn whisky (with an orange peel and piney profile - quite flavorful) which largely goes to US based producers like Sazerac. I've tasted this corn whisky before - and I can also say that it is the key flavoring component in this whisky (based on my own taste rather than any inside source). But I am pretty confident....

The nose is full of the dried orange and pine notes distinctive of Hiram Walker corn whisky. There are some wheaty cereal notes, clove, anise seed, maple and menthol. The palate is quite sweet, with a good kick of vanilla and a mixed bag of grain notes which are not clearly defined (something like a light mixed porridge). There is a bit of tannin and some sweet oak notes as well, along with some charred wood notes. A light finish with light spices, cedar, fresh wood, and fading sugar. Slightly bitter.

Sweet, somewhat simple, and a bit boring...it's not bad, but it's not particularly good either.

And on to my comments - this isn't where Canadian whisky has been going, or has seen success. This is a fruit forward style (without much rye, if any) that isn't bad, but isn't interesting or big. The Canadian whiskies that have been gaining recognition of late are ones with a more dominant rye characteristic and, typically, more new oak in lines with a modern palate that tends to go big and oaky. Even Wiser's has seen a decline in their bottom shelf products but a growth in their premium, saying consumers in general are much more willing these days to spend more on a bottle (well, it's also true that we have to with price increases). In addition to their Royal Canadian and Caribou Crossing lines, they have added a fruit forward and somewhat more traditional whisky - but to me it's not anything new nor particularly worthwhile at this price point compared to the releases in that price range or a bit cheaper from Canadian distillers (at least in Canada; I know selection elsewhere is more limited). I would think if Sazerac wants to compete more effectively, they should be looking to Buffalo Trace for inspiration and not Seagrams...