Still Waters Stalk & Barrel Special 1+11 Blend

This whisky is produced by Still Waters distillery, in Concord, Ontario. Still Waters distillery only started distilling whisky around 4 years ago, and, as with most distilleries when they start - cash flow is difficult at first as the whisky has to age for at least 3 years in Canada. Still Waters did something interesting - they purchased whisky, mostly 4-6 years old, from other distilleries and blended in some of their young spirit was well to produce a blended whisky. In Canada, legally, you can include up to 1/11 of either young spirit (at least 2 years old) or wine and still legally call the product Canadian whisky - this regulation originally sprung out of large tax breaks that the US gave to Canadian producers during a time when there was surplus American spirit due to crop failure - but this also helped Canadian producers compete with American producers, who were using neutral, unaged spirits, as significant or primary components of their blend back in the day. Consequently, Still Waters is able to include spirit at least 2 years old as part of this blend. However, in my discussions with Barry at Still Waters he said there's a lot less than 1/11 of their whisky in this blend.

Nose: Sharp rye with a bit of mustiness comes off, surrounded by a rich sweet corn base, vanilla, green tea, roasted coconut, hot cacao, cinnamon and some sharp and volatile astingent notes which I find largely at the beginning of the nose. There's some citrus notes, like dried orange peel, and I can sense the slight acidity in the whisky off the nose. There's a bit of creamy and buttery notes, much like cacao butter which seem to grow as the whisky sits. There are also some menthol notes, both in the effect and flavour of menthol. Some of the grain in the background is a touch stale and ever so lightly bitter, which detracts a bit - and there's some meatiness (reminding me of frying ground beef) which comes in after a bit of time which I don't like much but I do find in some other Canadian whiskies like Canadian Club. There's lots going on, and the nose is quite complex, but it's a bit messy too. 82%

Taste: A nice, full feel to this one. A sweet, oily, and vanilla-tinged start lead on to a bit of young rye before spices take over and lead on into an enduring and developing finish. The feel and the oils really carry this one very well...in many senses, it's a classic blended Canadian - a rich body with some tingling rye and spice at the edges, without too powerful flavours. There's some light fruit, like white grape too, and some whispers of molasses and smoke....it has a slight bit of acidity which is quite engaging. Well done. 87%

Finish: Spices and mint, with refreshing acidity and a cleansing nature, which slowly unfolds, revealing a touch of oak and cedar, cacao, nutmeg, corn chips, green grape, and blueberry. 88%

Intrigue: The nose, I find, is a bit messy - but still interesting and complex - I do really like the intriguing cacao butter notes in this. The price uced to be good, but it's jumped up a bit too much for me in the past couple years. 85%

As this bottle stayed open I felt like the volatile and harsh notes dissapeared and it became much more enjoyable, I think.

Weighting the nose 25%, taste 35%, Finish 15%, and Intrigue 25% the overall grade is 84.