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Day 4 - KWM 2025 This Is Still Not An Advent Calendar

Posted on December 7, 2025

The recap tasting video for Days and Doors 1 thru 5 is up on YouTube and can be found here.

by Evan

Canadian Club Whisky Is one of the best known and best-selling Canadian Whisky brands around. Only Crown Royal is known more and sold more world-wide. It is also the oldest Canadian Whisky brand in use today. It was first launched by Hiram Walker in 1882 as ‘Club Whisky’, with the ‘Canadian’ part of the name amended in 1888.

Historically, Canadian Club has always been linked with the Hiram Walker Distillery of Windsor, Ontario. However, the Canadian Club brand and the Hiram Walker Distillery have been owned by separate companies for two decades now. In 2005, French company Pernod Ricard acquired Allied Domecq, owners of The Hiram Walker Distillery and the Canadian Club Brand. This was also when and how Pernod Ricard acquired Scapa distillery, which we talked about yesterday, along with the Ballentine’s whisky Brand as well as the Miltonduff, Glenburgie and Tormore distilleries.

Fat and bloated with indigestion and excess brands from the acquisition, Pernod Ricard had to parcel and sell off some of the excess brands and distilleries to avoid competition regulation issues.

One of the brands Pernod Ricard parted ways was Canadian Club Whisky; choosing to focus on Wiser's as the flagship Canadian Whisky brand of the distillery.

The buyer of Canadian Club Whisky was called Fortune Brands. Fortune Brands split off its liquor division in 2011, which was dubbed Beam Inc. As in Jim Beam. Beam Inc was acquired by the Japanese company Suntory Holdings in 2014 for a cool 16 Billion dollars. The company that owns Canadian Club is now called Suntory Global Spirits. The only distillery owned by Suntory Global in Canada is Alberta Distillers, right here in Calgary, Alberta.

Canadian Club whisky has some... difficulty when it comes to being honest about how and where the whisky is made - at least if you go by what is shown on the canadianclub.com website.

Case in point: check out this image from their website below, which shows an impressive row of copper pot stills.

The problem is: I am pretty damn certain that those stills have absolutely nothing to do with Canadian Club Whisky.

From what I can tell, the still house in that photo does not even reside in Canada. My best guess from a bit of Google searching is that is a picture taken of the interior of Ardmore Distillery's still house in Kennethmont, Scotland. Ardmore Distillery is owned by Suntory Global, who also own the Canadian Club Whisky brand.

That is where the Ardmore and Canadian Club connection ends as far as I can tell. I doubt the Scottish Ardmore Distillery is producing whisky for Canadian Club, though. So what gives?

This is only the second time we have featured a whisky from the Canadian Club brand in the 12ish years of making annual KWM Whisky Advent Calendars and tasting kits. Funnily enough, it is also the 2nd oldest Canadian Club we have featured as well, because the Canadian Club 45 Year Old was selected for Day 11 in the UBER Edition of the 2023 KWM Whisky Calendar.

Both that bottle and this 41 Year old are actually part of the the same series, called the Canadian Club Chronicles. There are a total of five releasees in this series (so far?), with each release coming from the same parcel of casks that were filled in 1977. The whisky itself is made from 100% Corn, and it was distilled at the Hiram Walker Distillery in Windsor, Ontario.

The first release in the Canadian Club Chronicles series was the Canadian Club 40 Year, released in the spring of 2017. From 2018 to 2022, the company released the Canadian Club 41, 42, 43, 44, and 45 Year Old – roughly a year apart. The Canadian Club 41 Year Old we are tasting today was first released in 2018.

From the sounds of it, not all the barrels from that 1977 batch were sacrificed to create the Canadian Club Chronicles series 40 to 45 year olds. Some of that stock was held back to age further. Perhaps we will see a 50 year old Canadian Club in 2027 or 2028 then? Only time will tell.

Hold on a second. The 41 Year Old was bottled released in 2018?!? Isn’t this the 2025 KWM Still Not An Advent Calendar? Is this an archive/library release or something? It kind of is, from what we can tell. We had been sold out of this 41 Year Old Canadian Club for at least a few years, and then all of a sudden more stock came into the province with zero fanfare, and at a lower price than it was originally. How often do you get old whisky releases without inflation being factored in? Maybe this is just a sign of the times?

Whatever the reason, the whisky was available and at a good price, so why not give it a taste once more?

Canadian Club Chronicles 41 Year Old – 45%

Producer Description

“Introducing Chronicles Edition 41 Years Old, the inaugural release from 2018. Dubbed "Water of Windsor," paying homage to Canadian Club's birthplace in Windsor, Ontario. Crafted from a 100% corn recipe, with undisclosed traces of Cognac, rye, and sherry blended in (allowed by Canadian law). At launch, it held the title of the oldest Canadian whisky ever. Explore its depths.”

Evan’s Tasting Note

Nose: Freshly harvested grain, honey drizzled on poached pears, linseed oil, graham crackers, oak spice, camomile tea, shredded coconut, and some artfully torched peaks of meringue on top of a lemon tart.

Palate: Soft, grain driven, yet decadent. Honey and lemon drops, apple pie à la mode, upside-down pineapple cake with coconut, along with more camomile tea.

Finish: Soft but not underwhelming. Gentile apples, pears, and wood spice on the fade make you want to take another sip.

Comment: Has time in the bottle improved this whisky? I recall enjoying the CC 41 when I first tasted it years ago, but either I am in an outrageously forgiving mood or this bottle is even better now than I recall it being in 2018/2019.

Does time in the bottle heal all wounds? Possibly.  After spending some time in this bottle, I feel improved for it. Invigorated even.

Garçon! Another of the same, please!

Cheers,
Evan

evan@kensingtonwinemarket.com

This entry was posted in Whisky, Tastings, Whisky Calendars, Tastings - Online Tasting, KWM 2025 Still Not An Advent Calendar Tastings

 

 

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