Tag Archives: canadian whisky

Collingwood Whisky

collingwood whisky

I’m going to jump right in to this: Collingwood is unlike any other whisky I’ve tasted.

A Canadian whisky (which explains excluding the “e” from whisky), Collingwood is distilled from corn, rye (a staple of Canadian whiskys) and barley, finished in oak barrels, then rested additionally with toasted maplewood staves.

It must be this final step of the aging process that adds the uniqueness to Collingwood’s flavor profile. I’ve passed it around to friends who are whisky fans, and the results and preferences have been mixed. The nose of Collingwood is sweet, but the flavor and finish are unexpectedly sweet and sharp, and we gathered it’s the maplewood finish that’s contributing to that (oak is far-and-away the wood preference over maple when it comes to whisky). I felt it tasted like a quick-aged whisky, which usually involves smaller barrels or additional wood added to the aging process. Friends noted the unusual finish, too.

What we did learn at about the halfway point of the bottle, and after several weeks of trying it out, is that Collingwood seems to go better in cocktails than as a straight sipper. The flavor profile never quite delivered with the whisky-drinkers in my camp, but a Manhattan, Old Fashioned and Whisky Sour with Collingwood were some tasty cocktails that tended to be incrementally sweeter than their bourbon or rye counterparts. The Sour in particular seemed a great fit for this whisky.

Collingwood retails for about $30 per bottle.

Still Waters Whisky and Vodka

Still Waters Whisky

I’ve hated the sour, watery Canadian whiskies that I’ve tasted previously (Crown Royal, I’m looking at you). When I poured my first glass of Still Waters Blended Canadian Whisky, that changed. As you drink it, you’re met with a pretty complex mix of sweet and spice. The grain base for this whisky is corn (sweet), rye (spicy), and malted barley (earthy), and it works through your mouth in that order. On your first tasting, you could mistake it for a bourbon, and I’ve found it to be really tasty every time I pour a glass. Still Waters Blended is light and refreshing, extremely easy to drink straight, and should run you about $35 a bottle.

Still Waters Single Malt Vodka

Still Waters Single Malt Vodka is a good buy as well, similar in price to the blended whisky. It’s base is 100% malted barley (the stuff scotch is made from) which gives it a smooth, earthly, sweet finish that I initially experienced in Don Quixote Blue Corn Vodka.