Picked up anot her bottle of the crown as stores just had a huge restock. Hear it's a different pour but what the heck $40 is fine. I know $20 gets you in Highland 10 range but relative to % that's a 50% increase from the crown.

Finally got my hands on a Yamazaki 12
I was honestly surprised that it came with a twist cap lol

Went down to Rogue and did the tour and tried their Chipotle Whiskey.
Anyone every try it? I really liked it but I couldn't justify spending $40 USD on it.

You get the Yamasaki locally?

If so, WHERRRREEEEEEEEEE?!?!

nah, unfortunately not locally
found it in some hole in a wall liquor store in Beaverton

Hmmm... i'll be travelling to Toronto really soon. Any particular stores that I should try my luck on?

I actually picked this up in Taipei Airport for $90USD... quite a fruity whiskey, smooth bite and has a very sherry finish. Depends on your taste, one of my friends didn't like it very much but he's a peat guy.

I don't know why but the Crown North has lots it's appeal to me even at the cheaper price point. Especially I was drinking it side by side with my new go-to, the Johnny Green.

In terms of Kavalan I felt that Soloist was my least favourite but it's most readily available compared to the other ones. As roastpuff mentioned it's definitely fruitier due to the sherry cask, personally I prefer that over peaty. If you can pick up a Concertmaster, that is the best bang for buck IMHO.

Jeezus, even at the current exchange rate, $90 USD is still marginally cheaper than what BC Liquor Store is charging--$199.99 CAD before tax:heckno:

Thanks for your input Obsideon. The JW Green has been my go-to as well, with the occasional Balvenie here and there. I'll make a point to visit the King Car distillery in Taiwan for a Kavalan line-up tasting when I get the chance. Heard great things about them and that they are delicious.


On a side note, what's with BC Liquor Store lately? they have been jacking up the prices on everything. The Hennessey X.O goes for roughly $189.99 in 2012, now? $269.99. A simple JW Black got bumped from $45.99 to $54.99 in the span of one year.

Other than greed for margins/profits, is it also due to our weak dollar?:alone:

i hate how you have to add tax on top of BC Liquor stuff now

i liked it when i could look at a booze and pay the shelf price
now when i'm shopping around for beer or others, it might look cheap but i always get gut-punched at the cashier

So I finally cracked open a bottle of the Crown Royal Rye for a tasting.

This quick review is not intended to point out why I bought it nor am I trying to justify this whiskey's price-point.

In fact, I have trained my palette to distinguish between young and old whiskies, and whether or not it's a blended or single malt. It's gets easier when you practice blind tastings, as certain tasting notes gets etched in memory.

Crown Royal Rye:

-->On the nose, it was harsh. I had to tone it down with a few wee drops of water.
Honey, vanilla, sappy flower petals.

-->On the palette, walnut, green fruits and young tree sap.

-->Finishing note was near non-existent. However, 30 seconds after swallowing, bright fruity tones lingers in the mouth after exposing to the air.



My initial reaction was wtf in a negative kind of way. After a second dram of the whiskey, it was still kind of meh.

I did my best to be unbiased when trying this Rye, but in my opinion, I personally wouldn't recommend this whiskey to anybody to try.

Honestly, if Jim Murrary hadn't named this the Whiskey of the year, I highly doubt this Rye blend will appear on the radar with people jumping on the bandwagon raving about it. Again, just my opinion.

Interesting, maybe it's a difference in bottling? CR was trying to cash in on the hype, and the subsequent bottlings are sub-par?

I still have an unopened bottle of the early bottling from last year, maybe it is different...

What are green fruits?

What are fruit pedals?

I think the Northern Harvest was a bit overrated, but I suppose I am no Rye expert. I got two bottles last December and everyone who I have given it to try has said it was just OK. Not bad, but nothing to rave about.

If you are a fan of 100% rye Cdn whiskey, try the AB Premium or Canadian Club 100% rye

When it comes to Rye and Canadian, my vote is for lot40. I like it a lot more then the crown northern harvest.

They did afterall ramp-up the production numbers after the initial batch really took off and was sold-out everywhere. We can only hope that their standards of Quality Control is high...

Green fruits usually describes the skins of unripe fruits. It alludes to young whiskies, sharp tartness that's often masked behind sweetness.

Typo sorry, flower petals. Floral tones with a subdued hint of sweetness that barely comes through.


You are spot-on Z3Guy, I wanted to mention the Alberta Premium as well, but didn't want to digress from my review of the CR. The Alberta Premium is no slouch, I find that it greatly benefits from letting it sit for 15min before drinking like the various Jim Beams that I've had. A metallic but syrupy sweetness appears like no other. Oxidization at play is my best guess, combined with the partial evaporation of alcohol, making it easier to savour.

-->A note to y'all whiskey lovers, never let whiskies that are peaty- sit too long after pouring, a bitterness tend to develop and adding water to it doesn't help very much.

-->Oh, and this is a fun one. Pour a small bit of whiskey in a glass, cover it partially and come back to it a couple hours later. What you'll benefit from is being able to actually taste the whiskey's flavours with the alcohol being absent. Of course, this is my non-scientific method for tasting something without having the alcohol anaesthetizing or numbing your tastebuds.

-->Also, try drinking your dram of whiskey without reading-up on reviews of it first, as it can create a bias. I would for example read about notes of dark chocolate and syrup in a review, and have a completely skewed session with my dram.

-->As I finish typing this post, I am finishing up on a small blind-tasting session that includes the CR Rye...the sharp-bite from this youthful whiskey is very apparent, and I am getting this unpleasant lingering sweetness in my mouth that is akin to aspartame from those sugar-free chewing gums.

The Crown Northern Harvest is currently in stock at the BCL in Langley (64th and 200)

i dunno about this
i've got a Laphroaig that's almost a year old and it's still just just as good as the first day i've cracked it open

Have also had a JW double black that's more than a couple of years old and still tasted the same.

Though both of them still have ~2/3 left.
usually when i'm down to the last 1/4, i'll pretty much try to finish it off.

my collection so far. downsized a bit after a few social events but ill have a few more bottles with time.

also have the jw gold route and royal route in my bedroom. its so beautiful i dont even want to open it :(

https://s5.postimg.org/85nm93q3b/20160823_175652.jpg

i think he meant after pouring into your glass.

I bought a second bottle of Harvest Rye yesterday and cracked it open immediately.
It tastes different from the glass I had back in July?

Nice layout and collection!

On my last 2 trips recently I brought back two bottles for my collection:

On a flight out of Houston airport, I had a sampling of the JW Island green! It tasted more intense and smoky then the original JW green so I picked up a bottle. It was priced at $60 USD.

I was in Jefferson Texas and visited a small liquor store since I had time to burn and noticed they had a Highland Park 18 priced at $109.99 USD. What a steal, even with the CAD to USD exchange rate!
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I remember it wasn't that long ago that the Highland park 18 was in that price range :(

jinxcrusader - The current stock is a different pour than the OG so it's a bit diff indeed.