Goldstream Rye
40% ABV - British Columbia, Canada
Nose: The rye and clove spice are first out of the glass followed by caramel, tree bark, and a wood varnish character.
Taste: We are dealing with a rye whisky here—that’s confirmed. The cherry wood finish imparts some really interesting fruits… it’s a cherry–pine style flavour with a hint of praline to my palate.
Finish: The finish is relatively short with moderate sweetness and fading spices.
Wow, another distillery in British Columbia, Canada pops up—and it’s another one on Vancouver Island! As soon as I heard about this release I went on a mission to find a bottle (I don’t think that the distillery has a tasting room, but they did have a patio open in the summer that I only read about today.) I ended up with this surprisingly affordable 375mL at ~$35 CAD. Why surprising? I’ve observed that a lot of newer distilleries in this area need to charge upwards of $100 for a 750mL bottle… it’s not always the case, but nonetheless, I thought this was priced well.
There aren’t a lot of other distilleries that experiment with cherry wood. My limited searching turned up that there was a Teeling bottling finished in it… but that is all I could find! Let me know if you find anything else. It’s a really strange and wonderful influence though, of course, my sample size is only this bottle of Goldstream Rye. I could see this rye whisky being a great base for some fancy cocktails.
Details: Aged three years in oak barrels and finished with toasted Brazilian cherry wood. Bottled in 2020, Lot 01.
Tasted 17 October 2021. (Posted 07 November 2021.)
