Ottawa distillery North of 7 deserves recognition

Business partners Greg Lipin and Jody Miall started their first Ottawa venture Coyote Rock Gym in 1992. Having spent time rock climbing in the U.S., they discovered an appreciation for bourbon. 

Fast forward to 2013 when an adjacent property to their rock climbing mecca became available, they decided to open a distillery and North of 7 was born. They began by selling gin and vodka as their whiskies and rum spent years resting in barrels. 

In order to ensure stability of their products, they brought on a consultant while Greg took courses in distilling. The results are a sound testament to the efforts they put into the project.

It’s encouraging that since a certain trade dispute, North of 7 is enjoying a boom in sales with both industry and the general public. They certainly deserve the recognition as the whiskies show a strong hand in their portfolio with the added benefits that they are non-chill filtered with no added colour. Two “must-haves” for whisky aficionados. 

I wanted to focus on two entirely different whiskies from their collection and selected one made with just barley and the other with three different grains in the blend.

100% Barley Whisky

Inhale deeply enough past the fumes and you’ll come out on the other side in an orchard of fresh red apples. In fact, the sensation takes you into the realm of Calvados, that great apple brandy from Normandy, France. Prepare to be confused for a moment as you check the label.

There’s a heat spike and a surge of oak at the mid-palate that quickly dissipates. You’ll also notice a sweetness to the esters that fly off, revealing vanilla and caramel, leaving you with that long finish of apples and nutty oak.

All in all, this is a sipping whisky that gets more delicious as you go. While it’s 100% barley, this does not evoke Scotch nor does it remind of Irish whisky. It’s very much its own style and it’s easy to get behind. 

As with any spirit, you can mix this but I recommend neat sipping alongside almond or hazelnut flecked chocolate.

Three Grain Whisky

As with the previous whisky, this one is 45% alcohol, yet it feels hotter for some reason. It’s not unpleasant, just noticeable by contrast so you may want to add a drop or two of good spring water.

It’s a blend of corn, rye and barley and with its higher corn percentage, in America it would qualify as a “bourbon”

Upon first pouring into the glass you’ll get a distinct hit of nail polish remover. This is most commonly known as acetone and is to be found in the “heads” (aka foreshot) of a distillate. Distillers remove this as it does not make for a clean product. Happily this characteristic blows off after a few minutes and other aromas reveal themselves.

This is certainly a complex dram with the perfume of toasted oak, young spruce tips, the dusty vanilla of marshmallows, burnt caramel and orange rounding out the experience.

Give it 15 minutes in the glass and you’ll notice that this whisky has become sweeter and softer with a peppery finish courtesy of the rye. It has a fairly rich mouthfeel with an almost oily mid-palate and a long finish.

Once more, I think of this as a sipping whisky but because of its rye component, I tried it with ginger ale and of all the whiskies I’ve used for this drink, this one stands out as singular and really bloody tasty. 

You’ll also want to enjoy this in a Manhattan cocktail. There’s always some debate about whether to use rye or bourbon whisky and as this has elements of both, it’s a winner. The whisky does shine through but is tempered by the vermouth and Angostura bitters for a very mature tasting nightcap.

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