Up on Forty Creek, the whisky sends me
Charles K Cowdery explores a Canadian distillery that can lay claim to making a true small batch bourbon – and a quality one, too
In American whiskey circles, the term âsmall batchâ has been generously defined to cover any whiskey selected, bottled and sold in small batches. In most cases, there is nothing âsmallâ about the way the whiskey itself is made. Until it goes into the barrel it is identical to the companyâs âlarge batchâ products.
Since that is what âsmall batchâ means, we need a different term for Canadaâs Forty Creek whisky: âitsy bitsy batchâ perhaps. Forty Creek Canadian whisky is just about the only widely available, honest to God âboutiqueâ whisky made in North America. John Hall, Forty Creekâs distiller and president, makes his whisky in two small pot stills. His âbigâ one is 5,000 litres (1,320 gallons), his other one is 500 litres (132 gallons).
In those stills, Hall makes individual corn, rye and malt whiskies â he malts his own barley â and ages them in American oak; some of it new, some not, some charred, some not. He puts his corn whisky into used bourbon barrels. Hall personally tastes each barrel and does all of the blending. So he can finish some of his whisky in sherry or port casks, he makes his own sherry and port.
The oldest whiskies in Hallâs blends are about 12 years old. That makes it 1992 when this seasoned wine maker, well into middle age, decided to try his hand at making whisky. His wife marvelled that a man in his 40s should begin an enterprise that would not even bring a product to market for a decade.
As a wine maker, H.....
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By Charles K. Cowdery
Section : Canadian Whisky
Page number : 52
