Wiser's De Luxe

Near the bottom of the Wiser's line, sort of an entry level mixer that isn't too much of a sipper.

Nose: Vanilla, brown sugar, some fruit-loaded rye with some dried plums and a touch of stale bitterness. I find as it sits some notes of apricot emerge as well as some fresh pumpernickel bread and malt loaf. It's also quite a grassy nose, and it is amidst this that I think the rye rises. 77%

Taste: Quite clean and reasonably sweet, until there is a bit of nagging bitterness which emerges from the background. There are some decent flavours of brown sugar and rye bread throughout, along with some underlying vanilla and toasted oak - the rye is quite nice within it as well. It's quite light and simple, but some of the bitterness I find to be undesirable. As I sip more I notice more apricot and dried fruits coming through. However, overall it's quite light and pleasant. 73%

Finish: light, with some rye bitterness and fruit. There is some spice - mostly cloves I would think. And I find fruit emerges more as well - the same notes of apricot and dried fruits. It can seem a little simple - but there's nothing really in it that is significantly bad. It appears to increase significantly in weight and volume as you drink more of the glass. It then has a fantastic mouthfeel but seems a touch empty 80%

Intrigue: interesting - it's another whisky which is enjoyable, and there aren't major flaws other than that of omission, I think. The flavour could be fuller in both depth and breadth...and some of the nagging bitterness is just a touch too much at times I think, though it is slight throughout. 78%

Weighting the nose 25%, taste 35%, Finish 15%, and Intrigue 25% the overall grade is 76.

*I realized I would never have time to upload all my Canadian whisky reviews to connosr properly, so I've been importing the tasting notes in bulk to expand the whisky base on connosr. For more info on the whisky (with similar tasting notes), see my post at whiskywon.wordpress.com/2014/02/…

The Wiser's whiskies are currently distilled at the Hiram Walker & Sons Distillery in Windsor, Ontario. Wiser's De Luxe is the most common, widespread, and 'standard' of the products in the Wiser's line. Wiser's brand also includes Wiser's Special Blend, Wiser's Small Batch, Wiser's Legacy, and Wiser's 18 yo. Hiram Walker also distills, among other products, the family of Canadian Club whiskies, which descended from Walker's original whisky, which had been named Walker's Club Whisky

Nose: mild intensity sweetness with a touch of wine and fruit

Taste: mild sweet sherry-wine, caramel, light and easy. Wiser's De Luxe demonstrates the classic quintessential generic blended Canadian whisky flavours. This is pleasant and understated, with very little definition to the flavours, and very little noticeable flavour deriving from wood aging

Finish: the sweet wine-caramel flavour profile continues a medium length of time in a consistent way

Balance: This is a pleasant easy-drinking whisky which is just fine if sweet, fruity, and non-demanding are what you are looking for. Don't expect finesse, complexity, or well-defined flavours here. This would make a good mixer, in which case the fuzziness of the flavours would actually be an advantage

After 3 bottles, I can say the first two were smooth, but the older bottle was sharp. Light smokey taste. This one gets worse with age instead of better, but seen as the Distillary does not exsist any more it doesn't matter.