Which Canadian Rye...?

In which province are you headed? That's the most important factor in what you can bring buy. In Québec, the Canadian selection is rather limited: we don't have many of the best ones. In that case, I would recommend Forty Creek Double Barrel Reserve.

If you go in Ontario, I would pick Alberta Premium and Wiser's Legacy. That's what I'm planning to buy when I go to Ottawa.

I agree with Matthieu - Forty Creek and Alberta Premium.

Alberta Premium is a 100% rye whisky - if your friend can find one, there may still be some bottles left of the 700 case limited bottling of the Alberta Premium 30 YO ($50 at the LCBO). Otherwise the 5 YO is only $23.

In Ontario, there are four different Forty Creek options available - the Barrel Select ($25), Double Barrel Reserve ($60), Confederation Oak Reserve ($70) and John's Private Cask #1 ($70). Forty Creek whisky is a blend of three grain whiskies - barley, corn and rye. John Hall, the whisky maker, takes a different approach to making whisky. Instead of using a mash bill, each grain is milled, mashed, fermented and distilled separately in copper pot stills as individual "single malt" whiskies and then matured in oak barrels with toasting degree matched to enhance the attributes of the grain whisky they will contain. Each barrel is matured until it is deemed ready for selection. Selected barrels are ten blended and married until the desired taste profile is attained. A secondary maturation occurs in sherry casks (Barrel Select), bourbon barrels (Double Barrel Reserve) or custom-made Canadian oak barrels (Confederation Oak Reserve). Go to www.fortycreekwhisky.com for more details.

The White Owl clear whisky ($40) might also be interesting - $40. The LCBO has these tasting notes: "clean and clear watery white in colour; soft aromas of spring flowers and morning dew; soft and round with a sweet mouthfeel and notes of citrus and floral and a touch of vanilla".

I find the White Owl to be too young and a little harsh for drinking neat - works better as a mixer. But the whisky taste is definitely there, so substituting White Owl for vodka in a mixed drink will change up the flavour of the drink.

Collingwood whisky ($30) is distilled & matured in Ontario, and during the vatting process toasted maple staves are added to the vat. However, the aged whisky is trucked to Kentucky for bottling, and then brought back to Canada for sale...

Finally, there is a Canadian single malt whisky, Glen Breton, distilled in Cape Breton. Go to www.glenoradistillery.com for details. The Glen Breton Rare 10 YO ($87) is the standard release, but there is also a 15 YO, "The Battle of the Glen", and a 17 YO Glen Breton Ice (finished for 4 months in ice wine barrels -$46 / 250ml). Have not seen the 15 YO in the LCBO, so no $$.

(prices noted above are for 750ml in C$, except for the Glen Breton Ice)

For some excellent reviews of Canadian whiskies, check out these sites:

Canadian Whisky: www.canadianwhisky.org

Rum Howler Blog: therumhowlerblog.wordpress.com/whisky-revie…

My friend is skiing in Calgary and Vancouver, so BC as the province. Is that correct? Silly Wikipedia blackout.

Vancouver is in BC, on the west coast. Calgary is in AB, on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains.

British Columbia has a provincial liquor retail distribution network, with online inventory and store location: www.bcliquorstores.com

Alberta has privatized retail liquor store sales... so no government operated distribution network. There is a liquor locator web site to assist customers in locating products sold in the province and where to buy them: www.liquorconnect.com

@Shrike, two other very very good Canadian whiskies are Crown Royal RESERVE and Gibson's Finest Premium 18 years old.

It has already been mentioned, but I would draw your attention very strongly to Alberta Premium. This is a fine tasting drop, is ridiculously well priced, and has the distinction of being one of a very small number of 100% Rye whiskies available. Legislation only requires that a whiskey be 51% Rye to carry the name, so with many Rye whiskies you are getting up to 49% corn whiskey in your rye.

With the Alberta Premium (which is starting to sund like a great choice), it looks like there are many different ages. Because its only my friend going over seas, I dont want to hold up his holiday to much. What ages should be readily available?

Also, maybe I should get two bottles based on the prices Ive seen, and if carry-on luggage will allow it :)

@Shrike The regular Alberta Premium without an age statement is 6 years old if I'm not mistaken. It's the most common. The other Alberta Premium releases are usually more or less special or limited edition releases and aren't very common. You could check the liquor stores in Alberta and BC and see if they have any remaining bottles of last year's 30 year old release.

@Victor Is the Gibsons Finest Premium 18yr you mentioned the same as a Gibsons Finest Rare 18yr you've reviewed on this site, because Im enraptured beased on your description

The Canadian Whisky Awards have just been announced: canadianwhisky.org/news-views/…

@Shrike, yes, I was in error in the recent post in referring to it as 'Premium'. It is the Gibson's Finest Rare 18 yo, as in the review of it which I posted.

For those of you who took interest in this, my friend finally handed me two bottles of rye today - Forty Creek Barrel Reserve and Wisers 18 y/o. Thanks all, [canadian equivalent of slainte]