Business partners Barry Stein and Barry Bernstein – the "two Barrys" behind Still Waters – bill their operation as Ontario's first micro-distillery. The qualifier certainly is apt given the trickle of spirit thus far from the company, which began production in 2009 in Concord, just outside Toronto. This rye is a case in point. Just 268 bottles have been released, the product of a single barrel that had been filled little more than three years earlier. By law it takes that long for a product to be called whisky in Canada, and the two Barrys have been building up inventory while also releasing a well-received vodka and an excellent whisky blended mainly from casks purchased from larger established Canadian companies (to which they added a portion of their own liquid). A young Scotch-style single malt has also yielded favourable reviews.
This one's based entirely on Ontario-grown rye, a departure from standard Canadian-style whiskies, which rely mainly on smooth corn and only a small portion of spicy rye for flavouring. A commendable first stroll through the rye field it is. Dry and earthy, it shows notes of hay, dried fruit, a whisper of sweet vanilla and rye's telltale spiciness mainly in the form of black pepper. Matured in a cask that had formerly held American bourbon, it's far from the robust style of today's fashionable U.S. ryes that are aged in new, heavily charred oak. But it's bottled at 46-per-cent alcohol and is no shrinking violet. Available only at the distillery, stillwatersdistillery.com.