Blending Canadian Whisky – A Review

Political events and technological advances caused the evolution of blending Canadian whisky. The American civil war naturally created an environment for Canadian whisky to become popular. The distilleries in the United States closed their facilities and the Canadian distillers took advantage of the situation. Canadian whisky production became quite profitable. This led to government control over the distilling industry, which required meticulous record keeping by excise officers. Canadian distillers took the opportunity to invest in their own infrastructure by adding tanks, bottling, and ageing facilities. These technological advances naturally lead to blending recipes. Blending was simple at first, combining a prescribed number of barrels as per formula, but through industry regulation and innovation blending evolved to become a very precise science that considers grains, fermentation parameters, distillation method, cask type, age, and strength of alcohol.