JP Wiser’s Guy Lafleur

40%

10 years old

Aged in ex barrels of Scotch (Speyside), Bourbon and rhum

100% corn mashbill

.

Canadian whisky has somewhat been resurrected in the past years, with distilleries paying much more attention to the details, marketing, and their aging stock. The renaissance of rye, combined with the improvement of consumer’s taste (in general anw…hello the 80s 90s), has helped distilleries like JP Wiser’s come back with better, older, and fancier bottles. JPW released a lot of special edition bottles in the last 5 years (they are the Canadian Highland Park in that matter :p ), including a 35 years old regular and the Alumni Series.

The Alumni Series, as this one is part of it, consists of a release of 6 limited bottles celebrating Canadian most emblematic culture : hockey *. Each release sports the name of famous hockey player from a different Province. These bottles are only available in the Provinces their celebrity were born.

This particular edition aims to celebrate French_Canadian legend Guy Lafleur, one of the most famous and electrising player to ever play the game. He was smooth on the ice, had much flow (or swag for our younger reader’s), was tough and had an unlimited talent.

* For our American readers, hockey is NOT an American sport…sorry to let you know ! You can keep basketball, we like hockey better 😉

.

Color : honey.
Nose : a nose typically corn, vanilla, cinnamon, and a little alcoholic.
Palate : Unfortunately, what we notice first is the texture is too watery … I guess it’s the smooth side claimed by JP Wiser’s. Otherwise flavors, we stay in vanilla and cinnamon, and a caramel is felt more pronounced over time.
Final : slightly pungent but refreshing, rather short, languid.
Comments : the first sips are frankly disappointing. One feels only the texture too diluted (which remains throughout the tasting) and not great flavors.
By cons, with time, it improves a lot, especially with the nose is not bad and a frankly good caramel that takes up more space.
Roughly, for 45 Canadian dollars, you get :
– not bad but lacks complexity;
– texture too diluted;
– will satisfy the brother-in-law who finds Scotch (and he thinks Scotch is different than whisky) too strong but still wants you to open your best bottle
– for a CH fan proud of its history and Quebec … well it’s worth it 😎