RYE DAVIN DE KERGOMMEAUX Rye,Ginger and J.P. Wiser When I was writing my book about whisky


I endured endless good-natured jokes from friends and family, all too eager to help with “the research.” Were they talking about the weeks holed up


in dusty archives? No. Endless fact checking? No. Deciphering unreadable notes and fading photocopies? No, again. Sampling the subject matter first hand was


where they wanted to pitch in. True, I did taste quite a few Canadian ryes while


writing Canadian Whisky: The Portable Expert – hundreds, actually. Among all of these whiskies, one stood out above all the rest − as much for the experience as for the whisky itself. That experience? Sitting on the banks of the


gentle Moira River, sipping whisky that had been distilled on that very spot more than 60 years earlier. The whisky? Wiser’s 18-year-old, also known


as Wiser’s Oldest. J.P. Wiser was a German-American cattle dealer


who moved to Prescott, Ontario in 1857 to take over Charles Payne’s whisky distillery. It was cattle that lured him there, since Wiser knew that the grainy left-overs from making whisky are so rich in protein that you can practically watch cattle grow as you feed it to them. J.P., as everyone called him, possessed that rare


combination of traits that so often lead to great achievement: He was an ideas man and a lateral thinker with a keen eye for the tiniest of details. And if he was going to make whisky, even as a cattleman’s sideline at first, it would be the best whisky anywhere. To accomplish this, he hired the most-skilled craftsmen in Prescott and the surrounding area. Brewers, distillers, coopers, coppersmiths, woodworkers, all found well-paid employment in J.P.’s distillery and its adjacent cattle feedlot. At that time, most distillers in Canada


made whisky from wheat. Ontario was Canada’s wheat belt where nearly every


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town had a flourmill and many flour millers had stills to turn their milling waste and leftover grain into whisky. Some of Ontario’s first commercial recyclers, they converted their milling waste into profit. And as often as not, once they had made their


whisky they then sold the distillery waste for profit, too, as local farmers eagerly hauled it away to feed it to their cattle and hogs. Eventually, manure from the barns and byres would find its way back onto the fields where it completed the cycle, richly bolstering a new crop of wheat. J.P. Wiser was born into a close-knit German


family that settled in Pennsylvania and Upstate New York. They enjoyed the tastes of their homeland: bitter, spicy rye breads and the flavours of rye grain in their whisky. It was only natural that J.P. would add a bit of


rye grain to his wheat whisky, too; he was not the first distiller in Canada to do so. Along with Joseph Seagram, Henry Corby, and Hiram Walker, he was instrumental in establishing Canadian rye as its own unique style of whisky. By adding small amounts of rye grain to whisky mash, these whisky pioneers quickly put an end to the more common wheat whisky. Consumers now demanded “rye” – wheat whisky spiced up with a little bit of rye grain. In the late nineteenth century Canadian distillers


shifted again, using corn, rather than wheat, for their whisky because corn produces much more alcohol than wheat. But if Canadian whisky is made from corn, why


is it still known everywhere as “rye”? Simple: distillers today add a small amount of


rye-grain to maintain that traditional and distinct Canadian rye whisky flavour. J.P. Wiser died on April 30, 1911, leaving


behind a thriving distillery in Prescott and a stellar reputation for making great whisky. But within six years, his sons had sold their father’s distillery to Mortimer Davis. He owned Corby’s distillery on the banks of the Moira River in Corbyville, Ontario. Davis was careful to maintain Wiser’s approach and recipes, but sales plummeted, forcing


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him to close the distillery. He shifted the production of Wiser’s whiskies from Prescott to Corbyville, Ont., where my research led me to sip that most memorable of drams. In the 1980s Corby’s distillery also


ran into difficulties and closed, creating fears that Wiser’s whiskies might be lost. However, they soon found a new home at the Hiram Walker distillery in Walkerville, Ontario, where they are still faithfully mashed and distilled today, according to J.P.’s original recipes. Wiser’s 18-year-old is whisky quite


unlike any other. An austere and elegant balance of crispy oak flavours, with cloves, cinnamon, searingly hot ginger, and white pepper, it offers a subtle complexity rarely experienced in a glass. This crispy-clean, old-style Canadian


rye begins with the fragrance of fresh- sawn lumber and then meanders through vanilla and butterscotch into the unlit cigars and ancient leather chairs of men’s clubs from times gone by. Lush sweet prunes and tart kiwis lead into that ultimate Canadian whisky trait: a cleansing, refreshing, citrus-pith finish that simply calls for more. Sitting on the banks of the burbling


Moira River in Corbyville, Wiser’s 18 transported me to two very different places at once. Its dry grass, fresh water, and vague hints of pine recalled fall days on the Canadian Shield, while its leathery redolence of burley tobacco brought to mind the late-August fragrance of the kilns in Tilsonburg, Ontario. Wiser’s 18 year old remains a


testament to the quality of early Canadian whisky, and to a pioneer distiller whose influence was fundamental in establishing what we now know as the Canadian whisky style.


Wiser’s 18 year old. Crispy oak


and tingling rye spices mingle with butterscotch, vanilla, cedar cigar box, sour-dough, and dark fruits before finishing with a tangy citrus zest. $65.95 at LCBO.


Davin de Kergommeaux is the author of the book Canadian Whisky: The Portable Expert published in May 2012 by McClelland and Stewart.


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