RYE
DAVIN DE KERGOMMEAUX
Red Letter Days Return For J.P. Wiser
‘Quality is something
you just can’t rush’ What could he could do with all that waste? This was J.P. Wiser’s first thought when he
arrived in Prescott to take over Charles Payne’s faltering distillery. A German-American cattle dealer, Wiser
knew about distillery residues; and, in solving a simple disposal problem, he turned a struggling distillery into a money-maker. He did this by fattening beef cattle on the protein-rich
distilling residues, and in the process he made his name a household word. Wiser’s superior beef was a winner long
before his whisky was, and his cattle empire soon stretched from the southern U.S. all the way to Great Britain. Although not much of a drinker, he
routinely gathered his distilling crew in his home on Saturday afternoons. There they would play cards and sample that week’s production. A perfectionist, Wiser couldn’t resist tinkering with master distiller Comfort Whitney’s recipes. “Needs a little more time in the barrel,” he
would comment one week. “Up the rye a bit,” he would suggest another time. Most famously, he declared, “Quality is something you just can’t rush.” Before long, J.P. was creating his own
whisky recipes, developing what would become his signature whisky and a best seller north and south of the border: Red Letter Rye. In 2007, Corby Distillers (today’s owners
of Wiser’s) released 6,000 cases of Red Letter as an ultra-premium whisky. At $150, it was expensive, yet it sold out quickly. Just in time for Christmas giving, Red Letter is once again in production. Packaged in a square-shaped decanter, and still an ultra-premium, the price is now in the $100 range − much less than you’d expect to pay for a single malt of equivalent quality. It’s no coincidence that one of the people behind the re-release of Red Letter is Ross Hendry, best known for his work in Scotland with The Glenrothes. A creamy, luxurious whisky, Red Letter
is bursting with typical rye spices – cloves, cinnamon, and ginger – all simmering in hot white pepper. Sweet vanilla and ripe black fruits balance a slightly sour essence of German rye bread. Typical of high-end Canadian whisky, it’s loaded with crispy clean oak that dissolves into a cleansing ebb of grapefruit pith. As the price of whisky soars (and painfully
so in Ontario) lovers of fine spirits are seeking alternatives. Sales of premium rum have climbed steadily in recent years, and over the past 12 months, sales of top-end Canadian
54 BOUNDER MAGAZINE
www.bounder.ca
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