According to the Sazerac website, their company is a direct result of the famous cocktail which bears the same name. It began in 1938 when Antoine Peychaud created a special drink for his guests to enjoy in the evenings at his apothecary in the French Quarter’s Royal Street. He would mix brandy, absinthe and a dash of his secret bitters for his guests. This special drink became quite popular and began to appear in the various coffee-house’ establishments in New Orleans. One such establishment, the Sazerac Coffee House became so popular serving their version of the drink (made with Sazerac de Forge et Fils Brandy) that it became known as the Sazerac Cocktail.
In 1869, Thomas H. Handy purchased the Sazerac Coffeehouse, and by the 1890′s the coffee-house and its growing business interests had become chartered as the Sazerac Company. Although, the company is based in New Orleans, its holdings include many of North America’s most popular distilling companies, the Buffalo Trace Distillery, A. Smith Bowman, the Glenmore Distillery, and more.
Canadian whisky by volume is the best-selling whisky in North America. Despite the spirit’s obvious popularity, the perception of this class of whisky (among many spirits writers and whisky critics) is that the Canadian spirit was in the past thin and uninteresting. The landscape however, appears to be changing rapidly, especially at the premium end of the whisky market, where the Canadian spirit has seen strong growth in market share. Recognizing this trend, the Sazerac Company has recently made a push towards the premium end of the Canadian Whisky market with many new brands put forward over the past several years. Caribou Crossing is one such premium brand.
Caribou Crossing is what is known as a Single Barrel Whisky. From the company’s inventory of over 200,000 barrels of Canadian whisky, Sazerac’s whisky making team selects what they deem to be some of the very finest barrels. Each of these chosen barrels is bottled individually capturing its unique flavour. This means that each individual barrel offers a unique taste experience for the Canadian whisky connoisseur.
Here is a link to my recently revised review of this wonderful Single Barrel Whisky:
Review: Caribou Crossing Single Barrel Canadian Whisky
Please enjoy the review, Chimo!
Jack Daniel’s is produced in Lynchburg, Tennessee, by the Jack Daniel Distillery (currently owned by the Brown-Forman Corporation). The flagship brand Jack Daniels Old No. 7 is produced in much the same manner as bourbon, from a corn heavy mash and aged in new charred white oak barrels. However, the Jack Daniel’s distillery has always resisted the use of the bourbon classification, and instead prefers to label their spirit as Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey. In the advertising and upon their website, the company highlights the fact that Jack Daniels Whiskey undergoes a filtering process (not typically used by bourbon producers) known as the The Lincoln County Process. This Process involves filtering the whiskey through a column of charcoal (or steeping the whiskey in charcoal chips) to remove unwanted flavours and contaminants prior to cask aging. The Jack Daniel’s Distillery produces its own charcoal pellets for the Lincoln County Process from sugar maple timbers. These charcoal pellets are packed into 10-foot (3.0 m) vats, where they are used to remove the impurities from the distilled Jack Daniel’s whiskey.
Greg Lipin and Jody Miall are both avid rock climbers who regularly travel to Kentucky on climbing trips. It was there that the two friends developed a passion for ‘brown spirits’ which led them to opening their own Micro-distillery (North of 7) in Ottawa, Ontario. They currently produce several styles of Canadian Whisky, two versions of dark rum, as well as both gin and vodka.
Greg Lipin and Jody Miall are both avid rock climbers who regularly travel to Kentucky on climbing trips. It was there that the two friends developed a passion for ‘brown spirits’ which led them to opening their own Micro-distillery ( North of 7 Distillery) in Ottawa, Ontario. They currently produce several styles of Canadian Whisky, their Leatherback Dark Rum (57 % abv.) Triple Beam Gin and Illuminati Vodka.
Sazerac
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