Canadian whisky

[7] The base whiskies are distilled to between 180 and 190 proof which results in few congener by-products (such as fusel alcohol, aldehydes, esters, etc.)

This early whisky from improvised stills, often with the grains closest to spoilage, was produced with various, uncontrolled proofs and was consumed, unaged, by the local market.

[a] While most distilling capacity was taken up producing rum, a result of Atlantic Canada's position in the British sugar trade, the first commercial scale production of whisky in Canada began in 1801 when John Molson purchased a copper pot still, previously used to produce rum, in Montreal.

Henry Corby started distilling whisky as a side business from his gristmill in 1859 in what became known as Corbyville and Joseph Seagram began working in his father-in-law's Waterloo flour mill and distillery in 1864, which he would eventually purchase in 1883.

[11] In the 1880s, Canada's National Policy placed high tariffs on foreign alcoholic products as whisky began to be sold in bottles and the federal government instituted a bottled in bond program that provided certification of the time a whisky spent aging and allowed deferral of taxes for that period, which encouraged aging.

The growing temperance movement culminated in prohibition in 1916 and distilleries had to either specialize in the export market or switch to alternative products, like industrial alcohols which were in demand in support of the war effort.

[12][13] With the deferred revenue and storage costs of the Aging Law acting as a barrier to new entrants and the reduced market due to prohibition, consolidation of Canadian whisky had begun.

Hatch was successful enough to be able to also purchase the Walker distillery, and the popular Canadian Club brand, from Hiram's grandsons in 1926.

Samuel Bronfman became president of the company and, with his dominant personality, began a strategy of increasing their capacity and aging whiskies in anticipation of the end of prohibition.

When that did occur, in 1933, Seagram's was in a position to quickly expand; they purchased The British Columbia Distilling Company from the Riefel family in 1935, as well as several American distilleries and introduced new brands, one of them being Crown Royal, in 1939, which would eventually become one of the best-selling Canadian whiskies.

As proximity to the shipping routes (by rail and boat) to the US became less important, large distilleries were established in Alberta and Manitoba.

Also in the west, a Calgary-based business group recruited the Riefels from British Columbia to oversee their Alberta Distillers operations in 1948.

The company became an innovator in the practice of bulk shipping whiskies to the United States for bottling and the success of their Windsor Canadian brand (produced in Alberta but bottled in the United States) led National Distillers Limited to purchase Alberta Distillers, in 1964, to secure their supply chain.

[12][16] After decades of expansion, a shift in consumer preferences towards white spirits (such as vodka) in the American market resulted in an excess supply of Canadian whiskies.

[17] While this allowed the whiskies to be aged longer, the unexpected storage costs and deferred revenue strained individual companies.

[18] Schenley was acquired in 1990 by United Distillers which would go on to become part of Diageo, though Gibson's Finest was sold to William Grant & Sons in 2001.

Despite the consolidation, the Kittling Ridge Distillery in Grimsby, Ontario, began to produce the Forty Creek brand, though it was sold to the Campari Group in 2014.

Hiram Walker's distillery in Windsor, Ontario, directly across the Detroit River and the international boundary between Canada and the United States, easily served bootleggers using small, fast smuggling boats.

The Gimli Distillery is responsible for producing Crown Royal, the best-selling Canadian whisky in the world with 7 million cases[b] shipped in 2017.

A distillery in Waterloo was operated by Seagram to produce Crown Royal until 1992; although the company still maintains a blending and bottling plant in Amherstburg.