J.P. Wiser’s is rolling out a lineup of limited-edition Canadian whiskies; three different wood-forward flavour profiles from the rye whisky brand will be available over the next few months. The J.P. Wiser’s Wood Series was crafted by master blender Dr. Don Livermore, who has been experimenting with mixing white oak with various wood cask inserts. We sat down with him to chat about the delicious results. —Catherine Dunwoody
Is this new series the first of its kind from Wiser’s? How old are the whiskies aged usually?
Yes, this is the first release of new experimental whiskies aged using unique wood. For Canadian whisky, the minimum age requirement is three years by law. In the JP Wiser’s family of whiskies many of the blends are much older than that. Our flagship brand JP Wiser’s Deluxe uses a combination of once used American bourbon barrels and used Canadian whisky barrels in the blend and has a range of ages to consistently match our standard. For the age declared whiskies, we have a JP Wiser’s 10 year which just won gold at the World Whisky Awards for best Canadian whisky aged 12 years or younger. We have JP Wiser’s 15 year and JP Wiser’s 18 year.
When you refer to cask inserts, what do you mean?
We worked with one of our cask producers on this project. For whisky, white oak is typically used because of its structure. White oak is hard and can hold the whisky very well, without too much evaporation loss. Other types of wood species are more porous and prone to evaporation losses. Our cask supplier suggested taking our used Canadian white oak casks, removing the head (top of barrel), and lining the inside with different types of wood. The head was then put back in place and the casks were shipped back to us, where we refilled with a 10-year-old whisky. We tried many types of wood, and our favourites were the hickory, black walnut, and Japanese oak.
Are all three rye whiskies? Are all Wiser’s rye? Canadian whisky is often called rye—are the terms interchangeable?
Canadian whisky is not held to strict regulations like other whisky categories, where specific mash bills are required. This means the grains are mixed together at specific proportions at the start prior to the brewing process. For Canada the creativity is left up to the Master Blender. We can make a mash bill, or we can ferment, distill, and age each grain separately and blend together at the end using a specific recipe. For JP Wiser’s we separate the grains all the way to the end of ageing. This allows us to be adaptable and be able to make a diverse portfolio of whiskies after the ageing process. If we mixed the grains at the start, it is more difficult to create recipes. The grain rye is the spice to Canadian whisky. I will often use the analogy – the dish curry chicken. What is the main ingredient to curry chicken? It’s the chicken. However, the curry is what gives the flavour and the spice. When ordering the dish curry chicken, the spice or curry level can be changed based on the customer’s desire. The same thing with Canadian whisky. If we increase the content of rye, we can increase the spicy flavours. Hence, we often call Canadian whisky – rye whisky. Rye is the DNA to Canadian whisky. I’ll add one technical detail. We are brewers as well as distillers. Distilling shapes your whisky. We can concentrate up the spicy rye flavours by the method of distillation or we can completely remove the flavour. Each distillery will have its own house style rye whisky based on distillation method. Some can make their rye more concentrated in flavour profile than others. So, when asking a Canadian whisky producer about their recipes. Ask how much rye is in the recipe and how was the rye distilled. This will indicate how flavourful the rye whisky will be.
For the Scotch or Irish whisky fan, how would you sell them on giving rye a try?
Rye is the DNA to Canadian whisky. It can be very spicy and flavourful. I would point a single malt Scotch lover who likes peat to brand called Lot 40. Lot 40 is 100% rye that has been column and pot distilled and aged in brand new white oak casks. It has the flavour impact as a peated Scotch, but its spicey not smoky. For a blended Scotch or Irish whisky lover, I would point that type of drinker to JP Wiser’s family of products. These are blends with a hint of spicy rye, with good quality casks. This style of whisky is smooth and yet at a perfect flavour level.
They are being rolled out in increments over the summer, is that a strategy you can speak to?
The strategy is to continually push boundaries with our JP Wiser’s fans. We want to keep to our core flavour profile, but with twists. We view JP Wiser’s as the Canadian whisky category leader and a trend setter. We hope to continue with programs like the wood series into the future. Being a Master Blender, I continually explore new things. We hope to see more limited releases well beyond the summer.
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