Why you should be drinking Canadian whisky

Canadian whisky has an image problem. Or rather, it has a lack of an image. It is the most accommodating of whiskies, a sweet, mellow blend of grains with a hint of spicy rye. It’s an easy-to-drink sipper, lovely on its own and perfect in cocktails. And, at less than $30 a bottle, it’s the bargain of the whisky world.

Yet, even though brown sprits have once again become fashionable, Canadian whisky’s popularity has lagged behind the others.

That’s just wrong. Canadian whisky is a high quality spirit with a long history, and it deserves a whole lot better recognition.

Canadians have been making whisky since before there even was a Canada. The country won’t be marking the 150th anniversary of Confederation until 2017, but brands such as Wiser’s and Walker’s Canadian Club are celebrating their 150th birthdays right now.

Over that century-and-a-half, Canadian whisky has been drunk everywhere from cowboy camps to gentlemen’s clubs to trendy cocktail lounges. Millions of gallons poured over the border during and after U.S. Prohibition, making it the dominant spirit in North America for years. Then in the 1950s and ’60s, tastes turned to vodka, wine and beer, and whisky became the choice of an unfashionable older generation.

But in the last decade, whisky has made a significant comeback, especially among connoisseurs who prefer spirits with rich, complex flavours.

Thanks to improved marketing and new premium products, other whiskies have found their audiences: Scotch single malt is the sophisticate’s choice, while bourbon is for hipsters and Irish whiskey is the friendly allrounder.

Meanwhile, Canadian whisky has developed a reputation as the pleasant but slightly boring nice guy of the whisky world. But this “nice guy” has some unique characteristics that make it worth a second look.

Canadian whisky is typically a blended whisky that by law must be distilled from a fermented mash of cereal grains, such as rye and corn, and aged at least three years in wooden barrels.

It’s the rye that gives Canadian whisky its distinctive taste, which is why it’s so often simply called rye. However, most Canadian whisky rarely contains enough rye – 51 percent – to be labelled as such under U.S. laws. (Two notable exceptions are Alberta Springs and Alberta Premium 100 percent rye whiskies.)

That well-balanced blend of grains is both the whisky’s strength and its weakness.

A blend allows for great consistency and reliability, and for decades, that’s all most Canadian distillers focused on. As a result, while sales of other whiskies soared, the Canadian whisky market simply remained steady.

In the last few years, though, things have begun to ferment once again in the industry.

For the first in a long time, distillers are actively promoting their products with campaigns such as Canadian Club’s clever retro-style advertising blitz aimed at young men, its first multi-layered advertising in two decades.

More importantly, Canada’s distillers have begun releasing their own extra-aged and handcrafted whiskies at prices well above their usual bargain rates.

Among them are the Gibson’s 18-Year- Old, Walker’s Canadian Club Sherry Cask and Crown Royal Special Reserve, a spicy blend of aged whiskies that is called a “classic” by Jim Murray in his Whisky Bible 2008.

These may not reach single-malt-Scotch prices, but Wiser’s Red Letter Canadian Whisky certainly does. It’s an all-natural (no added flavour, no chill filtering) whisky aged 150 days in new white oak and introduced last year as a limited-release 150th anniversary tribute to founder J.P. Wiser.

But perhaps the most exciting new development in Canadian whisky has been the growth in artisanal distillers from coast to coast.