Canadian Whisky News by Davin de Kergommeaux – Canadian Whisky News
Canadian Whisky Awards 2016 – Results
Lot No. 40 is Canada’s best whisky
Lot No. 40 is Canada’s best whisky
Corby’s Master Blender, Dr. Don Livermore accepts the award for Best Canadian Whisky of 2015 from Davin de Kergommeaux and Dave Broom at the Canadian Whisky Awards, held January 14 at the Hotel Grand Pacific in Victoria B.C.
This is the second time Lot No. 40 has been named best whisky.
VICTORIA, Jan. 15, 2016 The jury has decided. A whisky distilled in Windsor, Ontario, is the best Canadian whisky of 2015. A panel of ten independent whisky experts named Lot No. 40 the Canadian Whisky of the Year at the sixth annual Canadian Whisky Awards. They announced the results of this annual blind tasting competition Thursday evening, January 14, at the Victoria Whisky Festival in Victoria, B.C.
Chairman of the judges, Davin de Kergommeaux, described Lot No. 40 as: “A rye whisky sensation. Interest in rye is surging globally and here is proof that Canada makes the best all-rye whiskies in the world.”Other top winners include Canadian Club 100% Rye, Gooderham & Worts, Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye, Crown Royal Hand Selected Barrel, and Masterson’s 10-Year-Old Rye.
“Canada’s whisky makers have responded to skyrocketing interest in Canadian whisky with a wealth of new high-end releases,” said de Kergommeaux as he revealed the winners. “For example, for the first time ever, a major legacy brand, Crown Royal, has bottled single barrel Canadian whisky at high proof.”
Canadian distillers released more small-batch and luxury whiskies in 2015, than ever before. Corby Distillers, for instance introduced four new whiskies including the highly innovative Wiser’s Hopped Whisky.Forty Creek, Centennial, and Sortilège continued to maintain a strong presence for flavoured whiskies as well.
The Winners:
Canadian Whisky of the Year – Lot No. 40
Sippin’ Whisky of the Year – Canadian Club 100% Rye
Award of Excellence – Best New Whisky – Gooderham & Worts
Award of Excellence – Innovation – Wiser’s Hopped Whisky
Award of Excellence – Canadian Whisky Profile – Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye
Award of Excellence – Line Extension – Canadian Rockies 21
Award of Excellence – Artisinal Distillery of the Year – Still Waters
Connoisseur Whisky of the Year – Domestic – Gooderham & Worts
Connoisseur Whisky of the Year – Export – Crown Royal Hand Selected Barrel
Connoisseur Whisky of the Year – Multi-market – Lot No. 40
Sippin’ Whisky of the Year – Domestic market – Canadian Club 100% Rye
Sippin’ Whisky of the year – Export – Crown Royal XO
Sippin’Whisky of the Year – Multi-market – Forty Creek Copper Pot Reserve
Value Whisky of the Year – Domestic – Alberta Premium
Value Whisky of the Year – Export – Canadian Mist
Value Whisky of the Year – Multi-market – Highwood Canadian Rye Whisky
Flavoured whisky of the year – Domestic market – Forty Creek Cream
Flavoured whisky of the year – Multi-market – Sortilege Maple Cream
Does Ontario Have A Secret Plan to Eliminate Over 6,000 Jobs?
A news story in the National Post last Friday quotes a lawyer representing the Ontario Government’s agency, the LCBO, as confirming “Government policy does not want to proliferate distilleries.”
In oral arguments before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Post says LCBO’s legal counsel, Ms. Margaret Jill Dougherty, went further and explained the policy was due to perceived health risks associated with higher bottling strength Spirits versus either wine or beer.
The public revealing of the Ontario Government’s objective also may help explain previous decisions that imposed excessive LCBO mark-ups on Spirits and excluded Ontario-made spirits from wine sales in farmers’ markets and beer sales in grocery stores.
“The Government appears to have embarked on a systematic strategy to further squeeze Ontario Spirits manufacturers and shrink the Industry’s Ontario footprint”, explained Jan Westcott, Spirits Canada President & CEO. “We reached out to numerous senior officials in the Government but, to date, there has been no public denial of the statements attributed to Ms. Dougherty”, added Mr. Westcott.
The Government’s view of potential higher health risks associated with distilled Spirits is totally inconsistent with the best medical evidence available and with the consensus of health and alcohol policy experts, including the findings of Canada’s National Alcohol Strategy.
Modern, progressive alcohol harm-reduction policies are largely anchored on the basis of a standard drink, defined as any alcoholic beverage containing 17.05 ml of pure alcohol. Examples of standard drinks include a 341 ml of 5% a.b.v. beer, a 5 ounce glass of 12% a.b.v. wine, and a Spirits Cocktail containing 1½ ounces of 40% a.b.v. spirits. When asked whether beer and wine are safer to drink, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention categorically answered “No.”
A 2010 OMAFRA study concluded that the local manufacturing of Spirits in Ontario supported over 6,000 full-time jobs and contributed $1.5 billion to the economy annually. Relying on imported spirits to serve Ontario consumers will lead directly to the elimination of all this manufacturing-based economic activity.
The Ontario Government’s apparent decision to target Spirits manufacturing facilities follows the closing of nearly 60 food processing plants shut down in Ontario between 2006 and 2014 and the loss of thousands of hectares of land dedicated to agricultural production.
In addition, elimination of Ontario’s Spirits manufacturing capacity will undermine the Ontario Government’s goal of doubling exports of Ontario agri-food processors as well as adding 120,000 new jobs to the sector by 2020, since Spirits annually fully account for over 2/3 the value of all of Ontario’s beverage alcohol exports.
Ontario Spirits manufacturers source 100% of its grain from local farmers. In addition, thousands of small and medium-sized Ontario businesses providing critical goods and services are dependent on Spirits manufacturing for their livelihood.
“We hope Ms. Dougherty was freelancing, or was misquoted, but given the silence emanating from Queen’s Park for 3 days”, we must assume that Ontario is shifting from its historic slow strangulation of Ontario Spirits manufacturers to one of expediting the demise of the remaining plants in Amherstburg, Brampton, Collingwood, Grimsby, and Windsor and, consequentially, converting tens of thousands of acres of corn fields to other non-agricultural uses”, said Westcott.
Canadian Whisky: The Portable Expert
The world’s first in-depth book about Canada’s national spirit.
WINNER, 2013 IACP BOOK AWARDSWINE, BEER AND SPIRITS
Canadian Whisky: The Portable Expert is published by McClelland & Stewart and distributed by Penguin Random House. It is available from most book shops and on-line book sellers.
