Time to give Canadian rye whiskey another look
The whiskey hype machine is dominated by Scotch, bourbon, American rye and even, on occasion, Japanese whiskey. Canadian rye, meanwhile, gets lost in the shuffle.
In part, that’s because when most of us think of Canadian whiskey, we think of a light spirit better for mixing than imbibing on its own. That’s largely a legacy of the relative looseness of Canadian whiskey regulations; Canadian law enables a whiskey to be labeled “rye whisky,” “Canadian rye whisky” and “Canadian whisky” (Canadians drop the “e” in whiskey) even if the percentage of rye in the mash is small.
That’s a stark contrast from U.S. law, which requires that spirits called rye whiskey have at least 51 percent rye in their mash. As a result, many Canadian ryes have traditionally been blended whiskeys made up of a light “base,” often made from corn, and a “flavoring whiskey” with a high rye content. Those blended whiskeys typically are light mixing whiskeys, while American ryes have been sharp, bold and complex spirits.
But it’s time to give Canadian rye another look. A slew of new whiskeys have ar- rived over the last few years that are every bit, if not more, interesting and complex as those that garner attention.
Take Masterson’s Straight Rye, a 10-year-old whiskey distilled in Canada that features intricate clove and ginger notes that meld with dry herb notes and vanilla. Or Tap 357 Rye Port, made from rye aged up to eight years and finished in port barrels, giving the whiskey hints of nutmeg, cinnamon and dark berries. Or Lot No. 40, a whiskey produced by Corby Distillery based on an 1869 recipe, which combines sharp, earthy rye flavors with hints of clove, ginger and dark fruits.
The reason that more Canadian distilleries are experimenting and producing bolder, more interesting ryes than just a few years ago is that more drinkers are ready and willing to challenge their palates with spicy, heavier whiskeys, says Don Livermore, Corby’s master blender.
You don’t have to go too far back to get to a time when the demand wasn’t there, he says.
Take Lot No. 40, which Corby initially released in 1998. While the whiskey had some fans, it failed to gain enough traction to make production worthwhile so the recipe was abandoned after a couple years. But since the distillery reintroduced Lot No. 40 in 2012, it has “been on fire,” Livermore says.
“We were ahead of our time,” he says. “People weren’t ready yet.”
But now they are, and the timing is right to give Canadian rye another look.