Blend. Finish. Reblend.

Our desire to make Canadian whisky comes from a love of process over provenance. Single stream distillation gives us maximum freedom as blenders and whisky makers. Most of the single-grain component whiskies we source are quite old, but have spent most of their lives in used wood. The whiskies are mature but not oaky. Moreover, Canadian whisky is not shackled by the expectations of how it is supposed to taste or how it must be made. It is a primed canvas.

In short, we use well-made, well-aged, very unfinished whisky as we see fit. We have a long-term vision for every whisky we buy and 90% of the time that means reracking it into newer, fresher casks.

The High Altitude Collection is about creating our own structure to explore whisky making. We define this process as Blend–Finish–Reblend.

We’ve learned over the years that some of the components react better to finishing casks if we blend them, before we recask them. So our “High Altitude Process” is to create a blend, designed specifically for a particular type of finishing casks. We finish the blend in those casks. And then we combine the best of those casks to create the final whisky.

The trickiest and most limiting part of this process is selecting the right casks. We strongly prefer wet casks over seasoned oak. The best finishing casks come from Europe and are at their best, right after they have been emptied of their previous wine or spirit. Our preference is to purchase casks from one producer to limit transit time and even then we discard about 25% of the casks we purchase before ever even filling them.

Wood is an ingredient. The better the wood. The better the whisky.