Stalk and Barrel 100% Rye

Despite its name, Vaughan, Ontario's Still Waters Distillery has been making waves since they first fired their still in 2009. Run by the 'two Barry's;' Barry Stein and Barry Bernstein, this distillery forged the trail toward craft brewing in Ontario through dogged determination. As one of the first craft distillers in the province, they ran headlong into the web of outdated regulations surrounding distilling and alcohol sales. And while far too many of those regulations continue to hamper Ontario distillers, the tireless work of the Still Waters team blazed a path that is slowly getting clearer. 

The distillery is now also home to a large contract distilling operation for some well known vodka and gin brands, and proprietary 'Purtrak' software they've developed is employed by numerous other Canadian distilleries. 

In terms of their whiskies, though, they're already a decade into doing special things. Their single malt has won loads of plaudits and their cask strength ryes the same. Initially, these high end single cask releases were augmented by two classic Canadian blends, but they helpfully added this single rye at a lower strength and price point. A recent switch to a less weighty bottle design helped the distillery bring prices into the range where you could casually pick up a bottle for everyday sipping. And this whisky brings quite a bit to the table when compared to its shelf mates at under $40. 

It's still bottled at an elevated 46% which notably allows for the use of non-chill filtration. This is a less invasive filtration method in terms of preserving subtle flavour complexities.  There's also no added colour, so what you see us what you get, and the flavour isn't unduly diminished. The liquid itself is a mix of malted and unmalted rye aged for a little over three years in ex-bourbon barrels. 

Stalk and Barrel 100% Rye

46% alc./vol.

$36 at the distillery

The nose on this whisky - incredible! Waves of new oak and hard, dry rye spice wash over deep, jammy red wine. Dried apple rings, green grass, freshly dried hay, they're all here. There's some maple hiding underneath alongside honey, prunes, sultanas, and oatcakes. There's also underlying bitterness and sliced almond. The oak influence is massive and pulls you into the glass yet brilliantly balanced with the spice and deep sweetness. Wow, if you could bottle the scent it would be a great perfume. I simply want to keep sniffing this but my mouth is watering.

The palate doesn't have the same complexity, but is pleasingly tannic. The bourbon influence from the cask presents first with a sweet, corn profile. There's lots of oak alongside, though it's held in nice balance, without overpowering the grain. Throughout, a pronounced citrus bitterness grows and persists into the finish.

The higher bottling strength yields a rich, oily mouthfeel and there is a fulsome warming character even though this isn't a particularly spicy dram. What spice there is comes from a youthful, slightly alcoholic heat. Though that heat isn't too overpowering, it does momentarily drown out some of the grain character and subtlety. As the heat subsides, there's some dry straw and also mint, not unlike Lot 40. Lovely grainy rye and spices - caraway and clove - round out the palate. 

The finish is very clean and 'foresty.' Lots of mint and resinous, earthy pine. There's a bit of spice at the start as well as the bitterness, but what lingers for some time is the very clean, green spearmint profile, alongside the grainy rye. This is quite pleasing; the oaky warming sensation on the palate has been replaced by a profoundly fresh cooling sensation on the finish. I feel as though I've just had some mouthwash and everything is light and clean. 

Quite a nice dram at this price. The nose carries such tremendous complexity that the palate can't entirely match (though it is quite good in its own right), but all is redeemed by the wonderful warm-cool progression.

I'm very excited by the thought of trying this whisky, and it's cask-aged siblings, as they age some more. The intriguing green, almost alpine freshness through the finish is delightful; a departure from expectation. At its sub-$40 price, this is a very, very smart buy. If nothing else, it's a great after-dinner mint, but when tasting this whisky you'll feel you're drinking something in a higher price range. It's easy to see why this distillery has garnered so much praise in its first decade.

Heatseeker Score: 87

Category Score: 92

Characteristic: Fresh

Small Talk

We're branching out a little today, with a look at a BC craft single malt. It's not a rye, but playing a little fast and loose with the rules has long been the Canadian way to make whisky, and it might as well apply to this blog as well. Rye or not, this is one of the now many Canadian single malts forging a new tradition for an original whisky style.

Phillips Brewing, on Vancouver Island, joined the British Columbian distilling boom that came about after the province slashed red tape and taxes for craft distillers. Their distillery side operates under the cheeky name 'Fermentorium.' Unsurprisingly, BC now has the most distilleries of any province by far. Using local barley, Phillips' skill in brewing translates to some neat practices in whisky making. For one thing, they malt their barley in house. This entails heating to induce germination, and then arresting that process. The barley then becomes 'malted' and can provide the enzymes to convert starch to sugar in mashing. Most single malt distilleries in Scotland and elsewhere abandoned onsite malting decades ago, so it's refreshing to see a craft producer imparting some more control and customisation into their recipe.

The first whisky release from Fermentorium is Small Talk. It come in at 41% in an attractive bottle.

The artistic label design doesn't contain too much about the aging process but this whisky features a blend from Pinot Noir casks and ex-Bourbon casks that were briefly 'soaked' with Phillips' beer, presumably their cask aged Imperial Stout. The whisky spent five years in these casks according to a description on their website.

In terms of the bottle itself, the whisky comes only as 375mL. This can actually be a good thing as these small batch craft whiskies tend to be expensive. Indeed, the half size bottle is half the price (though a pricing mixup on The Strath's website led me to believe I had obtained a 750mL bottle for under $50 - that would really have been a steal). One thing I've noted is the cork seems to be quite high quality and is snug in the bottle, providing a satisfying pop as it's removed from the neck. 

This small batch release isn't available everywhere, and in fact can only be found on Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland. If you're in BC or (like me) you carefully cultivate friendships in provinces with better alcohol retail regimes than Ontario, this is a bottle that will stand out on your bar. It's a conversation piece for whisky lovers and a fine dram indeed, one that can compare favourably to any midrange single malt. 

Fermentorium Small Talk

41% alc./vol.

~$40 at The Strath bottle shop in Victoria

The nose is compelling, with pronounced sweetness in the form of apricot, fig, and honey. There's also an interesting briney smokiness I associate with Laphroaig 10 and describe as permanent marker. There's bourbon-y sweet oakiness and vanilla, but without the cloying corn sweetness that sometimes accompanies bourbon. A sweet grain note that to me recalls Cheerios takes over after a couple minutes in the Glencairn alongside dill. 

To taste, the youthfulness of this whisky is on display, though not to the detriment of the dram. It's very warming and in this regard is more like a rye than many single malts. The classic Canadian feel continues with caramel and butterscotch sweetness, and more honey, though there are intriguingly bitter citrus, caraway, and aniseeed notes that grow prominent on the palate. Sweet orange is also there in good measure as is some cinnamon heat. The mouthfeel is viscous and oily without much ethanol burn.

On the long finish, a number of flavours burst forward in an orderly procession. First up is a hot spice that gives way to more anise bitterness and a pronounced caraway flavour. This whisky departs very much like an akvavit! Dill and yeasty, malty notes come up alongside some very sweet orange and butterscotch. The Pinot cask now exerts its influence with a distinctive wine note. Finally the whisky leaves a lovely tongue-coating dryness that lingers for ages, just asking for another sip. Wow, this finish is one of the most intriguing and complex I've tried in a long time. It evolves continually, a beneficiary not only of its slightly higher bottling strength but of some thoughtful cask finishing. 

This is a lovely single malt. It gently suggests Speyside but has some of the smokiness of Islay, along with a spicy liveliness that reflects its origin in the land of rye. This whisky pairs well with the mild climate of the Pacific coast but for those of us outside BC who can get some, it is a bottle you'll want to show off. 

I'm excited to see what else Fermentorium will turn out in the future. Hopefully there will be lots more Small Talk in years to come, and some to share with the rest of the country. It's a real winner of a malt and one I definitely recommend!

Heatseeker Score: 86

Category Score: 82

Characteristic: Grain-forward