This whisky has been around for a few years now, always staring at me, begging me to give it a chance. Being into hoppy beers, this bottle intrigued me, but I was never willing to give it the shelf space at home considering so many other options. Then the local LCBO made the decision for me! The opportunity finally came when the store manager had to reduce their amount of product tags and clear-out price many whiskies to make room for up-coming Christmas releases.
There was the Wiser's Hopped, sitting under a layer of well earned dust, but wearing a tag of just $22! Here in Ontario, there is no such thing as a 750ml bottle of whisky selling for under $26, so I was powerless at this point. So let's get to the product...Apparently Dr. Don Livermore was pretty excited to bring this product out. Opposed to other flavoured whiskies, this one does retain the subtleties of the original whisky. It's dry-hopped to avoid too much bitterness from overpowering those said flavours inherent to the whisky. I was pleasantly surprised by the character in the bottle. Upon first opening, it comes across as coarse, rough, and a little "skunky". But once the contents of the bottle become oxygenated (and it doesn't take more than a few days after opening) the whisky develops into a very nice Canadian standard, with a twist. On the nose, there is dark rich character, caramel, and milk chocolate, preceded and followed at both ends by subtle hops.
On the palate, entry is soft, with a creamy mouthfeel. The "dark ale" flavour is present but hard to pin-point. The flavour profile itself is hard to tease apart, you could say the flavours are well-integrated. Taste follows the nose as caramel is dominant, with hops coming back in the mid-late development. Then, comes the remarkable thing, at the onset of the finish, there is a well-defined taste of dark chocolate truffles...like the ones with cocoa powder on them. Very interesting for a Canadian whisky!
Also, as an aside for the cigar smokers, Wiser's Hopped pairs well with a maduro, that I can vouch for.
In conclusion, it may not be for every palate, but in my opinion, this offers way more complexity than most bottles offer for under $30 in Canada. And anytime you find something in that price range that grabs your attention the way this one does, it shouldn't have to wear that much dust or drop its pants in public (er...I mean, price!) before you bring it home!
I tend to agree with @Nozinan and @Victor that price shouldn’t influence score. That said, I feel like discussing price separately has its merits. Alberta Premium Dark Horse is, to my taste, a 77-80 point whisky (depending on the batch). Decent, but not mind-blowing. I buy it often enough though, because it’s so inexpensive and a lot of people who visit me/drink with me like it. And my forthcoming review of Wild Turkey 101 might surprise some as well, because it is so inexpensive, yet I seem to have hit upon a particularly good bottle.
I'm not big on this one, though it's better than most flavoured whiskies, which are usually garbage. The best use I make of this is mixing it with ginger ale, which makes for a "beer"-like, hoppy, quite tasty rye-and-ginger.