Smoothness comes with this Canadian whiskey

Crown Royal Reserve 12 Year | Canada | LCBO Code # 39879 | Sale: $54.35 | 750 ml 40% alc.

Crown Royal is one of the more globally recognized Canadian whiskey brands and in 2024 they added an age statement to this bottle. If you think reading “Aged 12 Years” on the label means a smooth and soft drinking experience, you’d be right.

This is a blend of five different whiskies and it’s a very pleasantly harmonious dram that finishes with a cinnamon spike. 

From the start the aromas will give you a little sweetness with caramel, dark berries and baked apple. On the palate that caramel wraps itself around dried fig and toasted almond for a warming post dinner nightcap. The oak character from the barrel has been well managed giving you approachable nutty notes without a perceptible amount of wood tannins.

This is an elegant whiskey but with a rather short finish. Crown has historically been made as a soft sipping drink and they’ve built their reputation on that. While it’s a fine product I find it almost too soft and safe. With its lovely profile, this whiskey would have been much better at a higher percentage of 50-55 abv to allow for a greater concentration of those flavours and aromas.

It’s encouraging to see more Canadian whiskey hit the market but I have yet to see the kind of wide-spread experimentation seen in the manufacture of American whiskey. 

As of this writing there are approximately 210 bottles in the Ottawa market. This bottle is available for $5 off until March 30.