Crown Royal Canadian Whisky is currently produced in Gimli, Manitoba, at the Crown Royal Distillery. The distillery and the brand are owned by Diageo, and I think it is fair to say that Crown Royal is Diageo’s flagship Canadian whisky brand. In 1992, a premium version of Crown Royal was introduced as Crown Royal Special Reserve. In the fall of 2008, the name of the brand was tweaked and relaunched as Crown Royal Reserve Canadian Whisky.
According to the information I received from the brand owner (and gleaned from the Crown Royal website), this particular Crown Royal whisky is produced from selected casks which were tasted and monitored closely by their Master Blender. These ‘premium casks’ represented whiskies with special character, and they were allowed to age longer with the aim of producing a more premium whisky.
I guess that my tasting panel agrees that something more special has resulted from all this care and attention as the Crown Royal Reserve lands in my Top 25 Canadian Whisky Countdown in the Number 14 position.
Here is a link to my latest review:
#14 Canadian Whisky – Crown Royal Reserve
The Crown Royal Reserve is very appealing and complex. It does though, require a bit of time in the glass to reach its full potential.
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Note: You may follow my Countdown list of the 25 Best Canadian Whiskies here: The Rum Howler 2013 – Top 25 Canadian Whiskies
Although the 20 Year Old was originally intended to be a specialty bottling when it was first introduced, the whisky became a standard bottling when Beam Global acquired the Canadian Club brand. It remains a Limited Edition whisky with each bottle individually numbered. The Limited Edition Canadian Club 20 Year Old Whisky checks in at the Number 15 spot in my Top 25 Canadian Whisky Countdown. You may read my review of this fabulous whisky by clicking the following excerpt:
This whisky is produced from a rye forward mash bill (Canadian rye, rye malt and barley malt) using a slow copper pot distillation technique which was ‘fine-tuned’ to capture the very specific flavours and aromas during distillation. The new oak barrels used to age the resulting distillate were lightly toasted rather than heavily charred to help bring more of these specific flavours forward. The final results were obviously good as the Wiser’s Legacy was one of the key Whiskies which led the charge of Canadian Spirits into the Super Premium Category, and into the consciousness of collectors and connoisseurs.
When Mr. Hall makes his Forty Creek Double Barrel Reserve, one more step is taken in the maturation process. The final blend is set down in first run bourbon barrels for a final period of aging. This Double Barrel Whisky was introduced in the fall of 2008. As a collector, I purchased and saved a few bottles from the first release, and eventually selected one of those (Bottle number 0043 from Lot 240) to review. It is a few years later now and my Christmas Advent Countdown has given me a good excuse to review a more current bottling from Lot 247 (Bottle Number 05089). This is because Forty Creek Double Barrel Reserve is the Number 17 Whisky in my Top 25 Canadian Whisky Countdown.
This year a new bottle was unveiled for the Wiser’s Small Batch. Although the bottle changed, the quality inside seems to have remained intact as Wiser’s Small Batch is the Number 19 whisky in my Top 25 Canadian Whisky Countdown:
The Rum Howler Blog 