Canadian Club Chronicles Issue 3: The Speakeasy – a
43-year-old whisky
"Canadian Club has unveiled Canada’s oldest aged Whisky,
the Canadian Club 43 Year Old. The new limited-edition expression is the third
edition of the Ontario-based distillery’s Chronicles Series and has been
dubbed “The Speakeasy” as a tribute to the brandy’s legendary role during
Prohibition.
Batched and barrelled in 1977, Canadian Club 43 Year Old
boasts notes of oak and leather on the nose, while delivering nutmeg and dried
fruit on the palate, with a lingering mouth feel. The spirit balances subtle
spice and sweetness.
“It is just incredible,” says Canadian Club Brand
Ambassador Tish Harcus. “When I tried Canadian Club 42 Year Old, I thought we
couldn’t do any better, but then I tried this – it is absolutely
stunning.” Spirited Zine, 2020
"The nose is glorious. It’s full of old leather,
dried fruit, berries, brown sugar, prune, beeswax, nutmeg, corn oil, vanilla,
and weathered oak. It’s a nose, indeed, that could hold me for 43 minutes –
most aged whiskies won’t. The palate is glorious – soft, with rich character,
light oak, molasses, beeswax, dried blueberry, clove, and white pepper. Very
delicate, yet very rich. Dried fruits hold the finish, coupled with lots of old
leather and a really nice dusty, dry spiciness on the finish. The whisky in
many ways reminds me of many of the scents of the furniture section of antique
stores." In Search of Elegance, 2020
Canadian Club Chronicles Issue 3: The Speakeasy – a
43-year-old whisky with its own tale. Throughout American Prohibition, dockmen
loaded crates of whisky onto freighters at Hiram Walker’s dock. If the
paperwork was in order, anyone could load a ship with alcohol and set sail.
Talented forgers would doctor paperwork, and the coastguard wouldn’t bat an
eye. The boat would make a quick pitstop off the American shore to unload. From
there the whisky quickly worked its way through underground distribution networks
to be poured in illicit speakeasies in Detroit, Gotham and beyond. In these
speakeasies, the already famous Canadian Club whisky gained even more renown.
The best part of this series is that the whisky
chronicles a flavour story even more delicious than its astounding historical
anecdotes. It’s a challenging task for a whisky to take you back to the future,
but each year, here we are, enjoying another extraordinary Canadian Club.
And The Speakeasy’s nose is precisely that. It speaks in flawless oak tones
and murmured caramels setting up an easy-drinking palate. A hundred subtle
flavours converge into a unified melting pot of orchard & dark fruits, and
toffee & peppery spices that sit atop mellow but sturdy oak planks. A long
finish then cascades from sweet to spicy to dry.
A tiny splash of eleven-year-old rye that was blended
into the whisky brightens it up, but without covering it in frills and glitz.
It’s an exercise in class where the integrity of the old whisky never waver.
