RYE
DAVIN DE KERGOMMEAUX
Honest Craft Whisky
Want to taste well-crafted whisky?
It’s easy. Go to LCBO and pick up a bottle of Canadian Club 100% Rye, Gooderham & Worts or Wiser’s Legacy. To watch the people at Canada’s
largest distilleries make whisky, is to witness true craftsmanship in action – impassioned, quality-obsessed, craftspeople taking genuine pride in their products. When you taste one of their whiskies, your tongue tells you it was crafted by passionate people. This is as good as whisky gets, big distillery or small. Recently, though, the word
“craft” has been co-opted by the micro-distilling sector to imply that somehow they are more authentic than larger distillers. So let’s be clear: Craftsmanship has nothing to do with size. Craft is strictly about consistent quality and innovation grounded in long experience. Unfortunately, some of today’s so-called “craft whiskies” just aren’t very good. At an American event recently, I
sampled about forty whiskies from a dozen U.S. micro distillers. Some were drinkable, one was good, but most were not. I decided then, that if craft whisky really means crap whisky, I would stop using that term to describe Canada’s micro distillers. Whisky has a special aura
60 BOUNDER MAGAZINE
earned through centuries of studied refinement. When people buy whisky they are confident they are purchasing something they will recognize and enjoy. Whisky makers work hard to
maintain this reputation. One way for us to help is to be honest about each whisky we taste. Don’t accept mediocre whisky just because we like the people who make it. Recently, I contributed to a U.S.
book about micro distillers. Micro distilling is so new in Canada that I had to assess some up-and-coming distilleries based solely on their potential. I want to encourage them, but do so honestly. Distilling contributes $5.8 billion
annually to Canada’s GDP, virtually all of that generated by the large distillers. The major distilleries are setting the pace globally, and new distillers should take note of that. We hear that micro distillers are innovators, but so far they are simply reinventing the wheel. Canada has been making great whisky for over 200 years and to date the micro distillers have done nothing that the majors haven’t already done well. If Canada’s nascent micro-distilling industry is to thrive, its practitioners must set their egos aside and learn to produce whiskies that are as well made as those coming from the large distilleries. Yes, some of Canada’s micro
distillers make good products. However, if they forget these are just the promise of better whiskies to come, their prospects are no better than America’s small distillers, many of whom crank out a barely palatable liquid then label it “whisky.” Critics there are beginning to lose patience,
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Photos By DAVIN DE KERGOMMEAUX
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