Since the 1990’s Irish Whiskey has been gaining ever increasing popularity among liquor drinkers and thus, there are more people than ever trying Irish whiskey. As a result, there are now more selections on the market than ever before.
Irish Whiskey has a much more silky or smooth finish than other whiskeys, which is one major reason for its increasing popularity. There is less alcohol burn when drinking than with other types of whiskey.
Each Irish whiskey has its own unique flavour and may be produced in several different ways (see The Styles of Irish Whiskey from March 12th). How do you decide which whiskey is best for you? Below are some suggestions based on my own experiences to help get you started. In this list are whiskeys that are commonly available in liquor stores with a price point under $100. However, discovering your ultimate favourite will require you trying several different ones in order to find your preference of style and flavour.
Jameson Irish Whiskey ($42 CDN)
Like many, this was my introduction to Irish Whiskey.
The aroma has floral notes, such as honeyed fruits and cut grass. The taste contains hints of fresh fruit such as pears and apples. The finish has hints of honey and spices.
Jameson may be enjoyed with a few drops of water or mixed with a bit of lemon juice.
Bushmills 10 Year Old ($57 CDN)
Bushmills is one of the most prominent distilleries in the Emerald Isle, specifically Northern Ireland. Bushmills 10 Year Old, uses 100% malted barley.
The nose contains hints of banana skins and butter mint with lots of sugar and vanilla. The palate has a lot of fruity notes.
Writers Tears Copper Pot ($55 CDN)
Writers Tears is a smooth and easy-to-drink whiskey. It is made using a combination of single malt and single pot still which produces a variety of fruity notes. There are flavours of honey, vanilla, and fruit.
Green Spot ($85 CDN)
Produced by Mitchell & Son, alongside Yellow Spot and Red Spot, this pot still whiskey is my personal favourite. This Irish pot still whiskey is an easy-to-drink spirit, made using both unmalted barley and malted barley.
The nose has hints of apples with tastes of butterscotch, vanilla, and honey on the finish and is aged in a blend of first and second-fill Bourbon casks and sherry casks.
The Sexton Single Malt ($50 CDN)
This whiskey is crafted using 100% Irish malted barley and aged four years in sherry casks for a uniquely smooth finish. There are notes of dried fruit, nuts and honeycomb.
The Sexton is a bright golden spirit with aromas of toffee, marzipan, citrus, allspice and hints of dark chocolate. The taste has notes of dried fruit, a direct result of ageing in Oloroso Sherry casks. The finish is smooth and supple with a hint of sweetness.
Final Thoughts
Although any of these whiskeys provide a good starting point there are many other great ones out there waiting for you to discover.
This year was the 22nd addition of the WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada (NWAC), which took place in Penticton, British Columbia. There were 1,930 entries from 255 wineries. All entries to the competition are 100 percent grown and produced in Canada.
Photo credit: winealign.com
The National Wine Awards presents four major awards: The Canadian Winery of the Year, The Best Performing Small Winery, Icewine of the Year and Cider of the Year. Within each of the 37 categories, wines are eligible to compete for Gold, Silver or Bronze medals, all topped by Platinum medals, which are presented to the highest one percent of wines across all competition categories.
The major award winners and the Platinum and Gold medal winners from the top 25 wineries are presented below:
The Winery of the Year is Hidden Bench Estate Winery in Beamsville, Ontario. Being one of the most respected Niagara wineries since its inception 20 years ago, Hidden Bench has finally won Winery of the Year honours by earning 12 medals – two Platinum, five Gold and five Silver. Congratulations to proprietor Harald Thiel and his team, including winemaker Alex Baines and viticulturalist Joel Williams.
The Platinum and Gold winning wines were:
Platinum
Hidden Bench Pinot Noir Felseck Vineyard 2020
Hidden Bench Chardonnay Tete De Cuvée Rosomel Vineyard 2020
Peller Estates Niagara 2021 Andrew Peller Signature Series Rieslin
The 2023 Best Performing Small Winery of the Year was presented to Deep Roots Winery of Naramata, British Columbia. Deep Roots had the best-scoring top five wines in the competition among wineries producing fewer than 10,000 cases. Their 2020 Reserve Chardonnay earned a platinum medal, one of only three Chardonnays to do so, as well as four gold medals for:
Deep Roots Parentage Red 2020
Deep Roots Gamay 2022
Deep Roots Syrah 2020
Deep Roots Sauvignon Blanc 2022
British Columbia wineries dominated the Small Winery category, claiming nine of the top ten rankings. The remaining top 10 small wineries are as follows:
2. Corcelettes Estate Winery, British Columbia
3. SpearHead Winery, British Columbia
4. Township 7 Vineyards & Winery, British Columbia
5. Painted Rock Estate Winery, British Columbia
6. Van Westen Vineyards, British Columbia
7. Orofino Vineyards, British Columbia
8. River Stone Estate Winery, British Columbia
9. Moon Curser Vineyards, British Columbia
10. The Organized Crime Winery, Ontario
Note: A minimum of five wines must have been entered to be eligible for Winery of the Year and the Top Wineries lists. Ranking was determined by the total score of their top five wines, not total number of medals.
The complete listing of all the winning wines from this year’s event is available on the Canadian Wine Awards website, www.winealign.com/awards.
If you get headaches when drinking wine or your face becomes flushed, chances are you have experienced an allergic reaction to the wine. Antihistamine medications like Zyrtec, Allegra, Claritin or Benadryl may provide quick relief for your symptoms. This is because histamine has caused an immediate inflammatory response in the body.
Photo credit: therealreview.com
Histamine is part of the immune system that serves to provide a warning to your body of any potential attackers. It causes blood vessels to swell so the white blood cells can quickly find and attack an infection or problem. The increase in the level of histamine is what causes a headache and leaves a person feeling flushed, itchy and miserable.
Many wines contain components that may react negatively to people with histamine sensitivity. To begin, the wineries tend to use grapes that are ripe or even overripe; a state which leaves the fruit in the perfect state for excess histamine production. Sulphur dioxide, which is a common preservative used in winemaking, can cause dermatitis, hives’ and/or flushing. Another preservative, ammonium sulphates, may cause nausea or vomiting. It also causes histamine release in the body. Commercial yeasts are also a known histamine trigger.
Lastly, ethanol, which is the alcohol we consume when we drink wine, is a by-product of the bacteria which feed on the sugars in the grapes from which the wine was made. It is the reason why all alcohol contains histamines. Generally, the higher the alcohol content, the lower the sugar content and vice versa.
The level of histamine in wine varies depending on the processes used when making the wine; things such as the type of barrel used. You won’t find an alcohol completely without histamines and sulfites but there are techniques that will lower the histamine formed in wine.
While both red and white wines contain some trace nutrients, red wine has much higher levels of antioxidants, but all wines contain substances such as sulfites, which can cause mild to severe allergy symptoms to appear in some individuals. White wine will contain between 3 to 120 micrograms of histamine per glass, whereas red wine will have 60 to 3,800 micrograms of histamine per glass.
Some people claim that natural wines contain low levels of histamine, however this is not always true. It is not easy to determine which wines are safe as most wine labels do not legally have to show this kind of information and there isn’t a legitimized certificate for low histamine wines.
What works for many people with a sensitivity to histamine is a low histamine wine without sulfates. White wines such as Sauvignon Blanc or sparkling wines like Cava or Prosecco are often a good choice for people with histamine sensitivity.
According to new guidelines from the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA), which were published earlier this year, consuming more than six alcoholic drinks a week leads to high health risks, including cancer, especially for women.
The CCSA led the initiative to update Canada’s Low-Risk Alcohol Drinking Guidelines (LRDGs). This Health Canada initiative was initiated in July 2020. The result of this project was the creation of Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health, which now replaces the LRDGs.
The CCSA states that no matter the kind of alcohol, whether it is wine, beer, cider or spirits, even a small amount is damaging, regardless of age, sex, gender, ethnicity, tolerance for alcohol or lifestyle. Thus, if you drink, it’s better to drink less.
According to the CCSA, the guide provides people with the information necessary to make well-informed and responsible decisions about their alcohol consumption. The guidelines state that there is a continuum of risk associated with weekly alcohol use.
No risk = 0 drinks per week — Not drinking has benefits, such as better health and better sleep.
Low risk = 2 standard drinks or less per week — Most likely to avoid alcohol-related consequences.
Moderate risk = 3 to 6 standard drinks per week — There is risk of developing several types of cancer, including breast and colon cancer.
Increasingly high risk = 7 standard drinks or more per week — The risk of heart disease or stroke increases significantly at this level.
Each additional standard drink radically increases the risk of alcohol-related consequences.
In addition, consuming more than 2 standard drinks on any occasion is associated with an increased risk of harms to oneself and others.
As with the previous guidelines, alcohol should not be consumed when pregnant or while breastfeeding.
On the other hand …
Contradicting at least a portion of the new Guidance on Alcohol and Health is another study, also published this year, this time in the Nutrients Journal where researchers completed a study aimed at understanding the association between wine consumption and cardiovascular mortality, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and coronary heart disease (CHD).
This investigation states that wine consumption has an inverse relationship to cardiovascular mortality. According to the journal, “Researchers performed a systematic review and meta-analysis using longitudinal studies, including cohort and case-control studies retrieved from multiple databases which they searched from their inception to March 2023”.
The researchers stand by the belief that light to moderate alcohol consumption positively affects general health; for instance, it acts on high-density lipoprotein cholesterol to prevent atherosclerosis, lowers the incidence of ischemic heart disease (IHD) and helps with the prognosis of people at higher risk of coronary complications leading to myocardial infarction.
However, these researchers agree that excessive drinking causes over 200 diseases, which makes it a leading cause of deaths globally. They also warn that alcohol interacts with multiple drugs, altering its metabolism. Decreased alcohol metabolism could lead to increased blood alcohol levels. For example, a component in wine, resveratrol, interacts with certain drugs and modifies their metabolism.
Polyphenols in red wine, such as tannins, provide multiple cardiovascular health benefits. It is also an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antimutagenic thus reducing potentially harmful chemicals from the body. Nonetheless, all cardiologist agrees that light to moderate alcohol consumption has a positive effect on cardiovascular health, whereas excessive alcohol drinking elevates the risk of CHD mortality, cancers, etc. At least both studies agree on this point.
The participant’s age, sex or smoking status apparently had no effect on the study’s results. Both red and white wines displayed positive affects but the impact varied by the type of wine.
Though health benefits were noted with both red and white wine, the variations in the strength of this association were attributable to the different concentrations of some components. Red wine, in particular, has phenolic compounds such as gallic acid, catechin, and epicatechin (flavonols), which gives it antioxidant properties. These wines also reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL) oxidation, thrombosis risk, plasma and lipid peroxide.
Alcoholic components of wine reduce the risk of thrombosis and levels of fibrinogen, as well as induce collagen and platelet aggregation. Thus, higher consumption of red wine is more beneficial for combating CVDs than white wine other alcoholic beverages.
The study concluded that moderate wine consumption is good for cardiac health. However, researchers should interpret these findings with caution. Increasing wine consumption could harm patients susceptible to alcohol due to age, preexisting pathologies or medications.
In closing …
I leave it to you to make your own decision with regards to the merits of both studies. Complete information regarding Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health is available at https://ccsa.ca/. The complete study, Association between Wine Consumption with Cardiovascular Disease and Cardiovascular Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, is available at https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/15/12/2785.
The 2023 Canadian wine award season began in early June with the Ontario Wine Awards. There were 558 entries from 77 Ontario wineries.
Receiving the honour of the Winemaker of the Year was Peller Estates Winery’s Katie Dickieson. She earned more gold medals than any other winemaker in Ontario.
The Niagara region’s Domaine Queylus attained the Red Wine of the Year award for its 2020 Cabernet Franc Tradition. This wine is only available directly from the winery but at a very affordable price of $33.50 CDN.
The White Wine of the Year award was presented to Prince Edward County’s Norman Hardie for their 2017 Semi-Dry Riesling. This wine comes at a price of $21.00 CDN and is available from either the winery or select LCBO stores.
This year Gold medals were awarded in the following categories:
Sparkling Wine Award (Traditional Method)
Gold medals were presented to:
Malivoire Wine Bisous Rose NV
Megalomaniac Bubblehead Limited Edition Brut NV
Niagara College Teaching Winery, Balance Brut NV
Thirty Bench Wine Makers, Sparkling Riesling NV
Trius Winery, Showcase Blanc de Blancs NV
Sparkling Wine Award (Cuve Close)
The gold medal was awarded to Greenlane Estate Winery for their Saffron Sparkling Rose 2021
Riesling Award (Semi-Dry)
The gold medal was awarded to Megalomaniac Winery for their Narcissist Riesling 2021
Over the past few years whisky makers have released a variety of very rare and expensive Scotch whiskies to the marketplace. The price of these rare offerings is determined by what the market will bear, or in other words, the amount the investor is willing to pay. It appears that the price has little to do with the cost and time required to produce the bottle but more about who is interested in purchasing it. What has been happening is that there are a number of avid whisky enthusiasts who are willing to part with large sums of cash to claim one of these rare items as their own.
Photo credit: harpers.co.uk
The participants in this market consists of collectors, investors and high-end consumers. Individuals may take on only one or even all three of these roles. For example, the same person may try to acquire two bottles, one to keep and maybe sell later, and the other to drink.
Ironically, with the recent surge in whisky’s popularity, distillers have been creating and promoting no-age statement whiskies. Older whiskies are more valuable, but the industry is far from claiming that older is necessarily better. The older the vintage, the fewer bottles there are available, making it more desirable to those who can afford it, as well as more collectible.
Marketing whisky is about the quality of the whisky and the stories it allows the producers to tell about their brand’s legacy and history.
The media seems to have become infatuated by the so-called investment potential of these expensive bottles and casks. However, whisky producers shy away from considering them as an investment. There are people collecting simply for the happiness gained from the achievement of getting hold of a particular brand or vintage item. However, encouraging people to invest for profit is risky business. A large outlay of cash doesn’t necessarily provide the opportunity for resale for an increased amount later.
In the same way the price of fine wine will fluctuate up and down, so, too will Scotch whisky. But just like wine, most people don’t consider it an investment vehicle similar to stocks or bonds.
When it comes to distillers setting a price for their rare releases, the only reference point seems to be the auction houses. If the price is set too high they will be accused of having delusions of grandeur. If the price is too low, the whisky will be quickly purchased and resold.
If you find yourself in the possession of a bottle of Scotch from one of the distilleries that no longer exists, you may have something of great value without realizing it. This list of distilleries includes Brora, Imperial, Littlemill, Port Ellen and Rosebank.
Revenues from the sale of rare whisky is minuscule in comparison to the profit made from the sale of the distilleries’ standard fare. That is one reason why every distillery doesn’t take part in this niche market. Another being that any of the newer distilleries haven’t existed long enough to have any casks that have aged long enough to enable them to provide such a rare offering.
A certain amount of snobbery exists in the ultra-rare whisky market. There are those who believe that distilleries, such as Macallan, should not have luxury status because their whiskies are available through grocery retailers in Britain. Apparently in the view of some, if a distiller makes their product easily accessible to consumers, it raises doubts about its luxury status.
Thankfully, this is not an opinion shared by everyone and that whisky is judged and valued by its quality and flavour. Proof in point, a bottle of Macallan’s 1926 sold at Sotheby’s for £1.5 million or $2.325 million dollars CDN!
The 41st edition of the All Canadian Wine Championships was held in mid June. There were participants from nine of the ten provinces and even one territory. In total 184 wineries entered 1,154 wines.
All wines are judged using the 100-point system. Trophies are awarded for each of the following categories:
Best Red table wine
Best White table wine
Best Dessert wine
Best Sparkling wine
Best Fruit wine
Double Gold medals / Best of Category were awarded to the single highest rated wine (using an average of the aggregate judges’ scores) from each of the categories. These wines were all submitted for the Trophy round.
Medals of Merit: Gold, Silver, Bronze were awarded in the following manner:
Gold awards were awarded to those wines scoring in the top 10 percentile.
Silver awards of merit were issued to those wines scoring in the second 10 percentile.
Bronze awards of merit were given to those wines scoring in the third 10 percentile.
The Trophy Awards were presented as follows:
Best Sparkling Wine of the Year
TIME Family of Wines, BC; N/V Chronos Brut ($40.24 CDN)
As I discussed previously, oak will enhance the flavour of wine. Much of that flavour imparted by the oak occurs naturally from the raw wood but ‘toasting’ the inside of an oak barrel will further enhance these flavours.
Photo credit: vinethos.com
After a barrel is made its inside can be exposed to fire in order to toast it. This is done either over an open flame or by using a hand-held torch. The fire caramelizes the wood’s natural sugars and brings out complex compounds. From this, the wine will take on flavours that are toasty, charred, spicy and sweet depending on the amount of time the wood is toasted.
A lightly toasted barrel will be exposed to flame for about 25 minutes while a heavily toasted barrel may get up to one hour of flame exposure. Generally, the heavier the toast, the stronger and more varied are the revealed flavours.
Light toasting will impart flavours of subtle vanilla, coconut, caramel, clove and cinnamon. Medium toasting provides stronger vanilla, honey, caramel, toast, coffee and cocoa flavours. Finally, heavy toasting provides vanilla, espresso, smoke, crème brûlée, butterscotch, toffee, coffee and molasses flavours.
Oak will interact with wine differently depending on the grape variety. Oak may provide hints of chocolate to a Merlot or vanilla or coconut to a Zinfandel. White wines aged in oak typically develop flavours of vanilla, baked apple, caramel, honey, toasted marshmallow, or buttered toast.
Oak has a major impact on the flavour of the wines we drink; whether it is absent or present; and if it is present, whether it be new oak, old oak or neutral oak. When wine remains in contact with wood during the fermentation and aging process, changes take place due to extractable organic compounds. These biochemistry effects translate into the wine’s aroma and flavour.
Photo credit: profilewinegroup.com
All oak wine barrels are toasted when they are made. Toasting is when the inside of the barrel is exposed to a flame for a specific time and temperature depending on the style of barrel. I will talk more about the toasting process in an upcoming post.
The impact of the toasting process declines as barrels age with use. New oak creates aromatic and flavour complexity in the wine whereas old oak becomes more neutral year after year. Some winemakers use a mix of new and old oak throughout the cellar in order to achieve their desired wine characteristics.
New oak influences red wines differently than white wines. In reds it will adjust the tannic structure while in whites it will open the aromatics of the wine.
The use of a high percentage of new oak barrels can create flavours of toast, vanilla, baking spices, coffee, caramel, maple or smoke. Neutral barrels no longer generate these flavours or aromas. New oak is also used to accelerate the softening of high tannin wines like Cabernet Sauvignon. They can produce a more rounded wine at a younger age.
While neutral oak barrels no longer provide flavour, they still play an important role as they introduce oxygen to the wine. This oxygen seepage has a big impact on the natural chemical conversions that wine undergoes during maturation. Neutral barrels help maintain the fruit qualities of more delicate wines and soften wines that have a high amount of tannin.
The size of the barrel affects the oak’s impact on the wine. The larger the barrel, the less oak lactones and oxygen that are transferred into a wine. Thus, there is less impact on the flavour and aroma. Barrels are normally 225 litres but can be as large as 1,000 to 20,000 litres.
The typical winemaking lifespan of a properly maintained barrel is around five years. However, this may vary depending on the appellation, the type of wine and whether the winemaker is using the barrel for profile influence, oxygenation or storage.
Maintaining enough new oak on hand can be a challenge as there are only a limited number of new barrels available for purchase each year. As well, the cost can be prohibitive as the price of one barrel can range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.
This is the first of a three-part series on the use of oak in the wine-making process.
Photo credit: wordonthegrapevine.co.uk
It’s a well-known fact that oak has become the most accepted way to affect the taste of a wine. When added to wine, oak combines with the flavours of the grapes to create a wide variety of incredible tasting wines.
Most the world’s finest wines are aged in oak barrels, with French and American oaks being most commonly used. However, Russian and Eastern European oak are also used, especially in Europe. All wine barrels are made from white oak but the characteristics of the barrels vary greatly depending on the source of the oak.
French Oak
French oak is historically found in the forests of eastern and central France. It has more tannin than the other oaks so lighter grape varieties, such as Pinot Noir, are well suited to tannin-rich French oak. French oak has a tighter-grained wood structure which exposes subtler tastes like aromatic spices, cocoa and coffee. French oak grain is less coarse, contributing to wines with subtle, spicy and smooth, satiny or silky qualities.
American Oak
American oak is twice as dense as French oak, bringing greater spice and wood sugar compounds that slowly extract and fill out a wine’s body. American Oak has a loose grain and is heavy in lactones, which creates flavours like coconut and banana to finished wines. It can also provide an impression of a bit of creaminess and a hint of vanilla in wine. American oak contains a lot of hemicellulose1, which when charred will break down into wood sugars, allowing for some caramelization.
American oak is widely used in Spain to make Tempranillo. American oak barrels can weigh twice as much as French oak barrels but cost about half the price to purchase.
Russian and Eastern European Oak
Eastern Europe has a vast supply of oak trees. Hungarian oak is richer in eugenols, which impart spice, and tends to create a slightly richer mouthfeel with substantial tannin. Caucasian oak, on the other hand, releases less tannin and aromatics, which is better for lighter wines desiring a straight-up expression of the grape itself.
Russian oak is used widely throughout Europe. Slavonian oak is used in a variety of Italian wines. It is known for providing less tannin and more sweetness to the wine.
1 According to ScienceDirect.com, “Hemicelluloses are typically defined as components that can be precipitated by ethanol after extraction from the cell wall by dilute alkali. In such procedures they are extracted after depletion of the pectin content of the walls by aqueous solvents and calcium chelators”.
A Layman's Wine Musings 