Whiskeyheads,
Yours truly attended the first ever Toronto Whisky Global whisky show held here this past Saturday Oct. 19th at the Liberty Grand here in Toronto, Canada. The show has been running for a number of years out west in Vancouver, BC and Calgary, AB but this is the first time the show has ventured to Central Canada and the Center of the Universe, aka Toronto. My friend Brad Kent acquired VIP tickets for us online and we were ready to go to. This was my first time attending an event at the beautiful Liberty Grand and I immediately understood why this is such a popular wedding venue. Definitely has the feel of an southern Atlanta estate mansion and ballroom.
As part of the VIP tasting, we had 1 hour to go around and sample exclusives brought by every provider. After the first VIP hour, none of the special offerings would be available for sampling. As such, careful selection of the booths and whiskies dominated in the first hour. Here’s what Brad and I went after:
FAR NORTH SPIRITS ROKNAR – A craft distillery from Minnesota that grows their own grains on their own farm before distillation. This Bourbon is aged for 16 months in 15-gallon charred oak barrels and finished in Cognac casks. Mash bill of 80% rye, 10% corn and 10% malt barley. Quite good and drier and spicier than standard bourbon.
FAR NORTH SPIRITS HAZLET – A single varietal straight rye with loads of dry spiciness. I was asked to return to the table and try this after sampling other bourbons and the table was impressed that I actually followed through on the promise to. This is a lot drier and more nuanced than most ryes which use the barreling to mask a flawed spirit by sweetening it up. Nicely done.
WOODFORD RESERVE MASTERS COLLECTION SONOMA TRIPLE FINISH – Woodford Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey that has been finished in Sonoma County Pinot Noir, Brandy, and former Bourbon barrels used to age red wine. The result is a strong fruitiness you don’t usually get out of a strong bourbon. You can view this as either a fruity bourbon or almost a bourbon tinged cognac. Very nice, but can’t beat my first true love the Woodford Reserve Masters Chocolate Malted Rye.
LAGAVULIN OFFERMAN EDITION 11 YEAR OLD RUM CASK SCOTCH WHISKY – Classic peated Lagavulin that despite being younger is much smoother than the classic 16 year old. That probably has to do with the rum casking.
FORTY CREEK MAPLEWOOD SELECT – I have a long time fondness for Forty Creek as I have had several interactions with former owner John Hall when I used to blog for the iYellow Wine Club. Their annual Special Editions are the best of the best and their standard Confederation Oak Reserve is pretty darn good as it is. The Maplewood Select has been finished with kiln-dried Maplewood staves, but don’t expect maple syrup sweetness here, this is a dry and fruity Canadian whisky with the trademark Forty Creek smoothness.
FORTY CREEK VICTORY – This out of stock 2019 Special Edition release was brought just for the show. It uses vanilla wood staves for the finish this time. Again, don’t expect vanilla syrup sweetness here, instead you’ll get a smooth and fragrant take here that definitely has vanilla aromas.
ANGEL’S ENVY BOURBON – Finished in Port wine wood casks. This is a famous and arguably divisive Bourbon I’ve been meaning to try for a while and I’m glad I got a chance to here. The most notable and interesting aspect is that it’s quite light-bodied for a Bourbon. The taste is sweet and smooth with some cola undertones due to the combination of classic Bourbon flavor mellowed out by the Port wine wood. Very likeable but I can also see why Bourbon purists take exception with this. It’s like a more sophisticated take on Maker’s Mark. Very drinkable and pleasing.
BENROMACH 40 YEAR OLD SCOTCH WHISKY – This was the only whisky with a lineup and rightfully so. How often do you get a chance to sample a 40 year old Scotch valued at over $CAD 5000? Certainly well worth the wait, very complex and dense and delicious. Ever soak a fruitcake in whisky and not rum? This is what that would taste like.
WRITER’S TEARS COPPER POT INNISKILLIN ICE WINE CASK IRISH WHISKEY – Triple distilled Irish whiskey which was aged for a year in icewine casks from Inniskillin here in Ontario, Canada, which in and of itself is a rarity as icewine isn’t normally cask aged and the rare bottles that are understandably fetch a very high price. The smooth triple distilled whiskey perfectly carries the sweet apricot fruit flavors from the icewine.
ARDBEG SPECTACULAR – Aged in Port Wine casks. This is really interesting in that it has more of a chocolately accent than a fruity accent on the finish. Very interesting take.
GLENMORANGIE 18 YEAR OLD SCOTCH WHISKY – I used to be quite a fan of both the Glenmorangie Nectar D’Or and Quinta Ruban whiskies but fell out of them as I started to feel that the sweet wine casking was being used to cover up whisky that was too young and raw and undeveloped. So I was very curious to try this when I saw it. Much to its credit, it is quite elegant and refined with noticeable notes of honey and orange peel. Not quite spectacular enough to make me a fan again but I have great respect for this.
KUJIRA 15 YEAR OLD – Straight up, the absolute Whisky of the Night. This is a 15 year old Japanese whisky from a distiller I’ve never heard of before and it absolutely blew both me and Brad away. Clean, smooth, loads of florals and umami and fruit. This was actually refreshing, both literally and figuratively, for a whisky. When have you ever thought to yourself that a whisky was actually refreshing on the palate? Incredible. The two keys in the process that make the difference here: they use the same yeast to ferment the grains that they do with Sake and it is aged in virgin Japanese white oak barrels. They also make a 24, a 25, and a 30 year old. I’d give a left kidney to try any one of those. Your left kidney, BTW, not mine.
THE DALMORE KING ALEXANDER III – An assemblage of six carefully curated cask finishes: Bourbon casks, Matusalem Oloroso Sherry casks, Madeira casks, Marsala casks, Port pipes and Cabernet Sauvignon wine barriques, from what is rumored to be 15 year old Scotch whisky. A beautiful presentation and quite a flavorful whisky. Well balanced, no burn, rich, and not one cask finish note stands out above the others leading to pretty much a perfect harmony.
JURA 18 YEAR OLD – Jura is a bit of a divisive Scotch, with many feeling it is too geared towards “modern palates,” i.e. that is too sweet. I can understand where this sentiment is coming from now that I’ve tried it, but by no means does this make this a bad whisky. In fact, bourbon lovers should appreciate where this is coming from, with a nice mouthfeel and pleasant vanilla and caramel notes yet still distinctly Scotch whisky.
WELLER ANTIQUE 107 – This is a wheated Bourbon and wheaters tend to be sweeter and fruitier than more traditional corn and rye heavy Bourbon. And this in fact fits that bill. However, as with the standard Weller I personally find this quite average.
CANADIAN CLUB INVITATION 18 – What happens when a Canadian whisky makers takes the infamous Buffalo Trace Antique Collection approach to turning their whisky into rocket fuel? You get the Canadian Club Invitation 18, an 18 year old Canadian hisky bottled at 58% ABV. Surprisingly, this approach works really well and didn’t burn my tongue off. I actually didn’t even realize that the proof was so high until I got a good look at the bottle. Quite intense and flavorful, but may throw off Canadian whisky lovers who are used to smoother and lighter drams.
INDRI SINGLE MALT WHISKY – The only Indian whisky at the event. I really haven’t had enough exposure to Indian whisky. It was alright, but it had a bit of a tough time standing out at the event due to the insanely high quality of the other whiskies present. Still, they did far, far better and garnered way more interest than the Jack Daniels booth.
MEUKOW XO COGNAC – I had to try this just because I was so impressed that they had the balls to show up at a Whisky show. You know how I said people complain about Angel’s Envy and Jura being built for “modern tastes?” This is the equivalent Cognac. However… this worked spectacularly well in the case of Cognac. This was noticeably off-dry, fragrant and quite fruity in flavor. Really easy to like and drink, and certainly gave me pause to think as a Cognac and Armagnac lover. I feel sometimes that Cognac and Armagnac drinkers try too hard to be Scotch whisky equivalents instead of embracing their uniqueness. I’m not saying they all have to be as sweet and fruity as this one, but just the fact that Cognac can even attain this flavor profile is quite unique. I think more French distillers should embrace this and see what they can come up with.
J.P. WISERS DECADES SERIES 28 YEAR – Oh yeah. This decadent Canadian whisky has been aged 28 years and is richly succulent, loaded with dark flavor but still incredibly smooth.
WAYNE GRETZKY NO. 99 MAPLE CASK – Remember the Forty Creek Maplewood and how I said people should not expect a maple sweetness to it? This is the whisky they want for that. This is aged in barrels that aged maple syrup and has a pronounced maple whisky that works very well with the smooth Canadian whisky base. Very good stuff, but this said I honestly feel I could produce the same results simply by adding some good quality maple whisky to good quality Canadian whisky.
Whew. That was a lot of whisky. Once Brad and I got the good stuff out of the way, we relaxed and went around trying the whisky cocktails and the other standard entries of the Whisky producers product lines. Some standouts in no particular order were: the Benromach 21 Year Old, the Kujira NAS, 5 and 10 year old whiskies, and the three special whisky cocktails that were mixed just for the show which were all very refreshing and helped cleanse our palates.
This was a great experience and opportunity to be exposed to whisky expressions that I’d either never seen or heard of before or were high rollers that were simply out of my league. It was worth it alone for the discovery for the mind-blowing Kujira 15 year old and I have in fact already ordered a bottle for myself. I look very forward to next year’s show.