Canadian whisky outfit Forty Creek has been winning awards hand over fist for its high-quality whiskys, available at reasonable prices. We took at look at the company’s two current releases (another is coming soon), to see what all the fuss was about.

Both are 80 proof.

Forty Creek Barrel Select Canadian Whisky – A real slow burner. There is honey on the nose, and more on the tongue. It slips down easy, with a touch of bite. Rye? Heavy barrel toast? Finished in sherry casks, these winey notes are muted in favor of that honeyed sweetness and more grain on the finish. It’s an interesting juxtaposition of flavor — the extremely feminine sweetness colliding with rugged, frontier character. Complicated but as unbalanced as the above description would suggest. B+ / $25 [BUY IT NOW FROM CASKERS]

Forty Creek Double Barrel Reserve Canadian Whisky – Double Barrel’s recipe works like this: Rye, corn, and barley whiskys are distilled and aged separately, then they are married together and aged again in first run ex-Bourbon barrels. The results are night and day vs. Barrel Select, a silky and velvety whisky with big vanilla notes. Barrel Select’s honey character is still in play but now it takes on a more evolved and refined character. A big winner. A / $50 [BUY IT NOW FROM THE WHISKY EXCHANGE]

Forty Creek Double Barrel Reserve Canadian Whisky

$50

9.5

Rating

9.5/10

BUY IT NOW