Beppi Crosariol, wine columnist in the Globe and Mail's Style section in 2010.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Drinks group Campari has agreed to buy Canada's Forty Creek Distillery (FCD), most known in the country for its whisky offerings, for $185.6-million, the Italian company said on Wednesday.
Campari, famous for its bitter red aperitif of the same name, said that the whisky company will give it the opportunity to grow in the United States, where it expects a revival in sales of brown spirits.
FCD founder John Hall said: "Introducing customers around the world to my whisky is a dream come true."
So how's the whisky? Here is what Globe and Mail wine and spirits critic Beppi Crosariol had to say about the Forty Creek Heart of Gold Reserve in November, 2013 (as well, here is a look at Forty Creek John's Private Cask No. 1, from 2011):
Grain varieties are like children to Forty Creek whisky-maker John K. Hall; he seems to love them all equally. In this case corn, barley and rye, the signature trio of his exquisitely balanced range of whiskies. With this limited-release gem (just 9,000 bottles produced), Hall has kicked up the rye presence using a few distilling tricks, including a wine-yeast strain to enhance the grain's floral character and the practice of taking a narrower "cut" of liquid from the so-called heart of the still run (hence Heart of Gold). This is glorious, silky and simultaneously lively and complex, with notes of peach and orange mingling with roasted nuts, cereal and baking spices. Think of it as liquid granola – of the gods; $69.99 in British Columbia, $69.95 in Manitoba, $69.99 in New Brunswick.