Crown Royal Reserve

Interesting, I had exactly the same issue - I tasted it a couple of years ago and found it remarkably sweet and cloying - then tried it again a couple of months ago and loved it. Very curious as usually there is not much batch variation in Canadian whisky.

Crown Royal Reserve, Standard Crown Royal, Wiser's 18, Alberta Premium, Forty Creek Port Wood Rsserve...I've seen huge batch variations in all of these whiskies.

That will be very good news indeed, if Crown Royal Reserve is back to that good stuff I had a couple of years ago.

Interesting, @Victor - I'm only noticed a pronounced batch variation in the CR Reserve, myself...

@talexander, I wish I still had some of that first bottle of Alberta Premium of mine for you to taste. You would not believe how dry it was. That was the one I reviewed, the first review of Alberta Premium on Connosr. And yes, I tasted it side by side with another typical batch. Night and day different. What I wouldn't give for 10 more bottles from that first batch. None of that sweet cloying wine and caramel flavour so typical of every other batch of Alberta Premium I have tasted.

You already know the Crown Royal Reserve story well...I had a great bottle of it 3 years ago, then I tasted from your bottle, and from @JeffC's bottle, and heard about @maltster's bottle, etc...

My first sample of Forty Creek Port Wood Reserve tasted of nothing but Port wine...totally unbalanced. Since then I have had two very tasty and delicious samples nothing like that one.

Standard Crown Royal has always been tame, ok, and somewhat boring...except I bought half a dozen 50 ml minis of it which were fantastically spicy, much closer to the best of the Crown Royal Reserve, and could have been an entirely different whisky.

I have never cursed so much as after I paid $ 75 for a bottle of Wiser's 18 yo. Yuk! It might as well have been Jim Beam Red Stag, only much more chemical and artificial, and at 5 times the price. Terrible then. Terrible bottle now. And yet I did taste from a friend's bottle of Wiser's 18 which was not at all bad, pretty good in fact, and which I actually liked.

yes, the bottle I had was from about a year ago so likely not the same batch as present - but I hope it is kept up. With batch variations, I also wonder how much the condition of the palate before the taste affects each one - I am always intrigued at how different a single bottle of whisky can taste over the course of drinking it, even if it is drank quite quickly. @victor I wholeheartedly agree about Wiser's 18...

@JasonHambrey, greetings and welcome to Connosr! There is a very active group of Ontario members on Connosr. Did I brush by you at Spirit of Toronto May 3rd this year?

Certainly one has to be very careful not to be influenced by having recently consumed strongly flavoured foods and beverages before evaluating whisky. Mood and frame of mind can influence greatly how well we can appreciate a given whisky at a given time. When I find myself unable to accept a whisky on its own terms because of the frame of mind I am in, I routinely wait until I am in a very neutral peaceful frame of mind at a later time. That is not a common occurrence for me, but it does occasionally happen.

Also the quality and provenance of the sample being evaluated always needs to be taken into consideration. It is best, of course, if we could afford the luxury of evaluating all whiskies from our own full bottles, gradually and with a great deal of experience of those bottles over time. The whiskies do change a lot after the bottles are open, of course, but a leisurely observation with multiple observations will make it much easier to trace the whisky as it evolves through those patterns of change.

Thanks @Victor! I am just starting to get involved in the online whisky community, to which I am new (though not new to whisky!). No, I didn't make Spirit of Toronto this year - too much going on with having to move. Next year. It is neat to see the number of Canadian Whisky enthusiasts on Connosr - often people only know (or want to know) scotch or bourbon.

I agree with your points about taste, and air in the bottle (I even did a posting on this on my blog tasting two of the same bottle, one full, and one half - surprising difference!). I usually find that a cup of black coffee does well to neutralize my palate, and gives me a standard starting point (a trick I learned from Jim Murray that has set me up through many tastings).

@JasonHambrey, that is a very nice whisky blog that you have, and I see that you have done quite a few nicely detailed reviews there.

Cheers!

thanks @Victor! cheers!