Wiser’s Red Letter was introduced to Canadians in 2007 to pay homage to the 150th anniversary of John Philip Wiser’s distillery in Prescott, Ontario 1857 – 2007), as well as to the original Red Letter Whisky which John Phillip produced in the late 1800s.
In 2009, when I reviewed the inaugural 150th Adversary Edition (see review here), I was told by my contacts within Corby, that the spirit contained various blends of whisky which (although they ranged in age) were all ten years old or more. After these mature whiskies were blended they were then finished in virgin white oak barrels for 150 days. Once the final characteristic of flavour had been achieved, the Red Letter was bottled at 45 % alcohol by volume (non chill filtered). In developing the spirit, the folks at Wiser’s apparently researched the original J.P Wiser’s Red Letter 19th century recipe using it as a guideline to construct their celebratory whisky.
In 2013 Corby, once again in a tribute to their founder J.P Wiser released Wiser’s Red Letter Whisky 2013 Release. As with the 150th Anniversary Edition, the whisky was finished in virgin white oak casks and then bottled without chill filtering at 45 % alcohol by volume. In 2015 Corby began a re-branding of the entire Wiser’s lineup adding the initials of John Philip Wiser to the brand name across the portfolio.
Here is a link to the Rum Howler #6 Canadian Whisky in my list of the 100 Best of 2017:
Review: J.P. Wiser’s Red Letter
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Note: To follow the countdown list of the Top 100 Canadian Whiskies of 2017, you should follow me on twitter (Rum Howler on Twitter) using the hashtag #Top100CanadianWhisky.
Alternatively you can view the list as it grows by viewing my Reveal Page here on this website:
The Rum Howler – Top 100 Canadian Whiskies of 2017
Wiser’s Legacy Canadian Whisky (a 
John Philip (J.P.) Wiser, purchased a distillery in Prescott Ontario in 1857, and began to produce 
John Philip (J.P.) Wiser, purchased a distillery in Prescott Ontario in 1857, and began to produce 
J.P. Wiser’s Union 52 Canadian Whisky is a blend of mature 16-year-old Canadian whiskies with an extremely old single malt whisky that was distilled in the Highlands of Scotland. (Eighteen barrels of this whisky had been stored and aged at one of the J.P. Wiser’s warehouses in Canada since 1964. Apparently, if you go poking around in the aging warehouses in Canada, you can find all manner of strange spirits lurking around.)
The Rum Howler Blog 