The Conversation List: Canadian Whiskies
What makes a bottle worth talking about? Is it the story behind it, the flavour in the glass, or the way it connects people?
The Conversation List is our round-up of remarkable spirits we’re putting in the spotlight. Each one earns its place here because it inspires conversation, challenges assumptions, and brings something fresh to the table.
This edition focuses on Canadian whisky, a category often underestimated yet filled with makers rewriting what it can be. These are connection bottles, meant to be shared, debated, and enjoyed together. They invite curiosity, spark storytelling, and remind us that flavour is best experienced in good company.
Here you’ll find the flavour notes, the context, and the conversation starters to help you pour with purpose and talk about these whiskies with confidence.
Macaloney Island Distillery Peat Project Single Cask Series Distillery Smoked Sugar Kelp Washington Peat Ex-Bourbon Cask
The Conversation Starter:
BC barley. Washington peat. Smoked sugar kelp. One cask that captures Cascadia in a pour.
Each bottle in Macaloney’s Peat Project range is an experiment in provenance — a chance to taste how different peat sources shape smoke, sweetness, and depth. This one, the Washington Peat & Sugar Kelp release, marries land and sea through craftsmanship that’s both meticulous and bold. Distilled and peat-smoked onsite in Victoria using Washington State peat infused with sustainably farmed sugar kelp, it’s a single cask bottling limited to just 250 bottles, matured in ex-bourbon oak, bottled at 46 per cent ABV, and left natural in colour and texture.
First Sip:
Macaloney’s Island Distillery is redefining what peat means in a Canadian context. This single cask brings together barley grown in British Columbia and peat sourced from the Washington Peninsula, two landscapes divided by a border but bound by the same Pacific air. To that foundation, the distillery adds sugar kelp farmed by Cascadia Seaweed in partnership with coastal First Nations, lending not just a thread of maritime sweetness but a layer of purpose-driven sustainability.
Why It’s a Connection Bottle:
Every element in this bottle reflects collaboration, from the farmers and kelp harvesters to the peat cutters and distillers. It’s a conversation between land and sea, between Scotland’s traditions and British Columbia’s ambitions. Together they tell a story of the Pacific Northwest in both flavour and philosophy: collaborative, wild, and deeply tied to land and sea.
Flavour Focus:
This single cask release brings together barley from Vancouver Island and peat sourced from Washington’s coastal lowlands, where salt air and heather meet damp earth and oakwood fire.
Don’t be misled by the numbers: though peat-smoked to 54 ppm, this whisky doesn’t shout its smoke. Instead, it carries it like a whisper that lingers, soft, maritime, and balanced by Macaloney’s signature fruit-forward style. The distillery’s copper pot stills yield a spirit described by the late Dr. Jim Swan as “the best I have tasted at this stage — super fruity.” That fruit core remains, wrapped now in gentle smoke and salinity.
Perfect Moment:
This is a whisky for collectors and explorers alike, one you can analyze, share, or quietly savour around a fire in the evening. It rewards curiosity: the kind of bottle you pour for someone who loves stories as much as spirits. Best enjoyed with slow conversation, open windows, and the soft hum of the ocean.
Sanctuary Single Malt Signature Edition (2026 Release)
The Conversation Starter:
If beer and whisky share the same roots, Sanctuary Single Malt is where they find refuge.
On Vancouver Island, the line between brewer and distiller is a thin one. Sanctuary Single Malt is what happens when a brewery with a taste for experimentation turns its attention to whisky. Made entirely in-house by Phillips’ Fermentorium Distilling Co., it captures the same creative energy that put the island’s craft beer scene on the map, reimagined through copper stills, local barley, and an unconventional mix of casks. Sanctuary is more than a place. It is a feeling, bottled.
First Sip:
The new Sanctuary Signature Edition is a small batch, limited-edition marriage of whiskies aged between five and nine years. Crafted from 100 per cent Vancouver Island barley, malted by Phillips’ own Maltworks, it rests in a combination of ex-bourbon, ex-Rosé wine, and ex-Phillips beer casks. Every batch tells a slightly different story, shaped by the nuances of the casks and the hands that blend them. The result is a whisky that celebrates change while staying true to its island roots.
Why It’s a Connection Bottle:
Sanctuary isn’t about crossing worlds; it’s about deepening one. Beer and whisky already share the same foundations of malt, yeast, and fermentation, and Sanctuary simply closes the loop. Malted and distilled under one roof, it captures the full arc of craft from mash tun to still. Each release reflects the collaborative spirit of Vancouver Island’s makers, creative, grounded, and unafraid to experiment.
Flavour Focus:
Sanctuary brings a brewer’s curiosity to whisky making. Malted and distilled under one roof, it highlights the natural brightness of locally grown barley rather than hiding it behind heavy oak. It’s a whisky defined by freshness and texture: cereal forward, subtly fruity, and shaped by the same creative energy that drives Phillips’ brewing roots.
Perfect Moment:
Pour Sanctuary when you want to share something distinctive and easy to talk about. It is bright enough for a summer afternoon, layered enough to linger over neat, and versatile enough for a cocktail. Sanctuary is for those moments when you want a whisky that feels like exactly where you are: calm, connected, and a little bit different.
Bearface Triple Oak
The Conversation Starter:
Ever wonder what whisky tastes like after being elementally aged outdoors, then tamed by three different oaks?
Bearface doesn’t make whisky the easy way. Its casks aren’t sheltered in quiet warehouses but left to wrestle with the wild climate of the Pacific Northwest. Inside repurposed shipping containers, temperatures can swing from searing heat to freezing cold in a single day. This process, called Elemental Aging, turns steel, wood, and weather into collaborators. Every barrel expands and contracts with the rhythm of the land, creating a whisky shaped by wilderness rather than routine.
First Sip:
Bearface Triple Oak is the result of relentless experimentation. This single-grain whisky is made entirely from corn and shaped by three different oaks. Charred American oak is used for classic notes of vanilla and caramel, tight-grained French oak casks previously used for fine Bordeaux-style wines create layers of dried fruit. Finally, virgin Hungarian oak, air-dried for three years, lends spice, structure, and a rye-like depth.
Why It’s a Connection Bottle:
Bearface doesn’t just defy convention, it rewrites the rules of what Canadian whisky can be. Take for example the Wilderness Series, which transforms the Pacific Northwest’s raw landscape into a flavour palette, turning local elements into liquid storytelling. Each release captures a different facet of the region’s wild ecology: Matsutake mushrooms that grow deep in British Columbia’s forests; maple-smoked saltwater made from sea salt harvested near Mitlenatch Island; birch bark charred in ex-Viognier casks; and maple syrup brûlée barrels proofed with water drawn fresh from tapped trees. Together, they create whiskies that express a living biome rather than a single recipe. Bearface creates spirits that taste of forest floor, sea air, and smoke carried on mountain wind. In doing so, they shows that terroir isn’t just for wine. It belongs to whisky too.
Flavour Focus:
Triple Oak is bottled at 42.5 per cent ABV, a balance that allows its layered oak character to shine. The whisky’s boldness comes not from age but from masterful blending and exposure to the elements. Matured in repurposed shipping containers under British Columbia’s extreme temperature swings, the whisky expands and contracts with the climate, pulling flavour from the casks in overdrive.
Perfect Moment:
Bearface Triple Oak is as comfortable in the wild as it is behind a polished bar. It’s the whisky you pour into a metal mug while camping under a cold sky, or the one a Michelin-starred bartender reaches for when building something bold and oak-driven. Versatile, dynamic, and unapologetically Canadian, it proves great whisky doesn’t need ceremony, just curiosity and good company.
Reifel Rye
The Conversation Starter:
Rye has never been an easy grain, but in 1946 George Reifel decided it was worth mastering. His experiment with a stubborn grain became the foundation of Alberta Distillers’ legacy.
Rye is notoriously difficult to work with, but Alberta Distillers has spent nearly eight decades mastering it. Reifel Rye is a nod to the man who started that legacy — George Reifel, a brewer-turned-distiller who helped transform a problem grain into a national hallmark. At a time when others were struggling to tame rye’s wild nature, he refined the process with a meticulousness learned abroad, setting the foundation for a distillery now known around the world.
First Sip:
Few distilleries have done more for rye whisky than Alberta Distillers. Tucked away in Calgary since 1946, they’ve been quietly perfecting a grain that most others treat as unruly. Reifel Rye was crafted in honour of George Reifel, the distillery’s first master distiller, whose technical precision helped Alberta Distillers become one of the world’s foremost producers of rye. It’s a whisky built on know-how, not hype, and proof that Canadian craftsmanship can rival anyone on the global stage.
Why It’s a Connection Bottle:
Because it hits that sweet spot between quality and accessibility. Reifel Rye has enough depth for sipping but enough versatility to hold its own in a cocktail. It’s the kind of whisky that invites experimentation. It’s something you can pour for a newcomer without apology or mix into an Old Fashioned without guilt. Dynamic, versatile, and honest, it connects people through what it does best: being genuinely good whisky at a fair price.
Flavour Focus:
Built from 91 per cent pot-distilled rye and aged in a mix of charred white oak and ex-bourbon barrels, Reifel Rye showcases the high-altitude grain character that defines Alberta Distillers. Bottled at 42 per cent ABV, the rye spice drives the bus, but it’s balanced by warm oak, dried fruit, and a soft, grain-to-glass texture that speaks to the kind of discipline only decades of experience can bring.
Perfect Moment:
This is the rye that fits every setting, from a kitchen-table pour after a long day to the quiet backbone of a beautifully stirred Manhattan. It’s whisky for the curious and the practical alike: polished enough to impress, priced to enjoy often. Reliable, unpretentious, and quietly brilliant, it’s what you pour when you want substance without spectacle.
Ploughman’s Single Malt Finished in Spínola PX Casks
The Conversation Starter:
What happens when local Alberta malt, high-altitude aging, and nearly three centuries of rare Pedro Ximénez craftsmanship come together?
From Alberta’s rolling foothills to the soleras of Jerez, Ploughman’s Single Malt is a story of two extremes: dry prairie air and the dark, velvety richness of Pedro Ximénez sherry. Its finishing casks come from Ximénez Spínola, one of Jerez’s oldest and most idiosyncratic bodegas, where the same family has been cultivating PX grapes since 1729. Their wines are produced from just sixteen hectares of organic vines in the prized Pago Carrascal vineyard and bottled only when deemed exceptional by a family tasting committee. Eau Claire’s partnership with these rare solera casks brings that history halfway across the world to Alberta’s high-altitude plains, where Chinook winds push eighty-degree seasonal swings that accelerate aging and intensify flavour. Bottled in a small batch of fewer than one thousand bottles, available only in Alberta, BC, and Manitoba, it is a whisky forged by weather, craft, and quiet persistence.
First Sip:
Eau Claire’s Ploughman’s Single Malt takes its name from Alberta’s horse-powered farming heritage, the same fields that grow the two-row barley at its core. But this release refuses to follow expectation. As Master Distiller Danny Gowrie explains, “It doesn’t drink like a classic PX cask finished single malt.”
Why It’s a Connection Bottle:
Every detail links two worlds of craftsmanship. The barley is cultivated by horse in Alberta’s thin mountain air, the PX casks come from a nine-generation family bodega in southern Spain, and the whisky ages at high altitude under the sweeping Chinook winds that concentrate its flavour. Together they create a dialogue between farm and vineyard, distiller and vintner, earth and air. It is a whisky that connects patience, precision, and place.
Flavour Focus:
A seven-day fermentation builds a bright, fruity distillate with notes of banana, honey, and biscuit. It is first matured in a combination of ex-bourbon and new European oak (char 3) with toasted heads. The best casks are then selected, vatted, and refilled for an additional eighteen months in Ximénez Spínola PX casks drawn directly from their living soleras rather than seasoned barrels. Bottled at 46 per cent ABV, it is refined rather than forceful, offering depth that unfolds slowly rather than announcing itself all at once.
Perfect Moment:
The bottle to open when you want to slow time. Best enjoyed after dinner, when conversation lingers and the air cools, with a dark square of chocolate or a good cigar. It rewards quiet appreciation, offering warmth that feels earned and elegance that never tries too hard.
Lot No. 40 Oloroso Cask Strength
The Conversation Starter:
What happens when 100 per cent rye meets the patience of sherry and the power of cask strength?
Each edition in Lot No. 40’s Rye Explorations Series has pushed the boundaries of what Canadian rye whisky can be. The fourth release ventures into new territory with an Oloroso sherry cask finish, transforming one of the country’s most respected whiskies into something darker, richer, and more layered. Crafted by Dr. Don Livermore, a microbiologist turned master blender who has been shaping Hiram Walker’s whiskies since the mid-1990s, this release blends precision science with sensory intuition.
First Sip:
Distilled from 100 per cent rye in traditional copper pot stills, this seven year old cask-strength whisky (53.4 percent ABV) starts in new American oak before a final rest for 200 days in Oloroso seasoned casks. It’s unmistakably Lot No. 40. Think spicy, structured, and unapologetically rye-forward, but the sherry adds warmth and roundness, giving the edges a little polish. Strength, here, is measured in finesse, not force.
Why It’s a Connection Bottle:
Lot No. 40 Oloroso proves that evolution doesn’t require abandoning identity. The sherry finish doesn’t disguise its rye roots, it amplifies them. Oloroso’s nutty depth and dried-fruit richness elevate the grain’s natural spice into something expansive and complex. It’s a bridge between the classic and the contemporary, between Canada’s rye heritage and its global future.
Flavour Focus:
The nose opens with dark chocolate, new oak, and black forest cake, followed by red fruits, cherries, prunes, and date richness. Notes of ginger, nutmeg, leather, and violets add intrigue, while cinnamon and black pepper keep it grounded in classic rye character. On the palate, milk chocolate, marzipan, and vanilla lead before tobacco, black tea, and toasted sugar emerge. A touch of nutmeg and new oak spice lingers alongside Glosettes and crème brûlée sweetness. The finish is long, creamy, and warming, yet astonishingly smooth for its strength.
Perfect Moment:
Best poured when the night calls for something bold but elegant. This is the whisky you reach for when a dram should fill the room before it even hits the glass. Powerful yet polished, it holds its own beside dessert, conversation, or the quiet satisfaction of knowing you’ve opened something special.