{"id":1432,"date":"2011-07-30T10:51:17","date_gmt":"2011-07-30T15:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/?p=1432"},"modified":"2012-05-01T10:14:05","modified_gmt":"2012-05-01T15:14:05","slug":"collingwood-whisky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/?p=1432","title":{"rendered":"Collingwood whisky"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Collingwood, the latest Canadian whisky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vice Admiral<\/a> Lord Collingwood (Cuthbert to his family) is a top-ranking hero in my personal Justice League. He was Nelson\u2019s second-in-command, subsequently C-in-C of the Mediterranean station, a career sailor who served the Royal Navy for 50 years, almost all of them at sea, and a wise and well-intentioned man. Collingwood Canadian whisky is not named after him directly (or one would drink it all the time) but there is a connection. The whisky is called after the Ontario town of Collingwood, the place where it\u2019s made, which was<\/em> named to honour the great naval hero, some 48 years after his death.<\/p>\n

To be honest, I never realized there was a distillery in Collingwood but it turns out this is the home of a blended whisky called Canadian Mist. The operation is owned by the firm of Brown-Forman, based in Louisville, Kentucky, which also owns Jack Daniel\u2019s and Woodford bourbon. Collingwood is a new product, proudly bannered as \u201cthe first new major Canadian whisky to hit the market in almost a decade.\u201d It\u2019s as smooth as a Perry Como ballad and has a full-bodied weight as if it were designed to be poured over ice \u2013 and indeed the press release accompanying its launch makes a specific recommendation that it \u201ccan be enjoyed on the rocks or mixed in a cocktail.\u201d In other words, this is not sippin\u2019 whisky.<\/p>\n

What makes it so smooth? It\u2019s triple distilled for one thing and it also undergoes a \u201ctoasted maplewood\u201d mellowing process. Brown-Forman are shy about giving any more details than that but my guess is Collingwood is filtered through maplewood charcoal \u2013 or at least exposed to it \u2013 the process the company uses to smooth out Jack Daniel’s. An alternative theory is that the whisky may also go into maplewood barrels, like the Masters Collection of Woodford Reserve bourbon, though that would be a pricey thing to do for a whisky that sells for $29.95. Besides, Collingwood makes a big deal about maturation in white oak barrels.<\/p>\n

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Admiral Lord Collingwood<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The press release is also a little vague about the grains used to make the whisky. Ontario corn is mentioned (the town of Collingwood is a centre for the corn-into-ethanol industry) but perhaps there is malted barley too, as there is in Canadian Mist. I don\u2019t taste the tang of rye at all, just the rich, placid sweetness of corn whisky and a pleasant blur of oaky vanilla and caramel. Such is the power of word association that I\u2019m quite sure I can taste maple as well, after reading about the toasted maplewood process.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t usually like to put ice into whisky but in this case it works, leavening the weight of the spirit a little and loosening up the clustered flavours. In those conditions it comes across as a friendly, tasty, not very complicated Canadian whisky at a very reasonable price. And if smoothness is what you seek above all other qualities, this is the baby for you. LCBO #244186, 750 mL, $29.95.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Vice Admiral Lord Collingwood (Cuthbert to his family) is a top-ranking hero in my personal Justice League. He was Nelson\u2019s second-in-command, subsequently C-in-C of the Mediterranean station, a career sailor who served the Royal Navy for 50 years, almost all of them at sea, and a wise and well-intentioned man. Collingwood Canadian whisky is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[98,100],"tags":[470],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1432"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1985,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432\/revisions\/1985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}