Red Letter isn't sure whether it wants to be a member of the old guard (soft, sweet, vanilla, butterscotch, mild, maple) or the new guard (American rye-esque spicy, intense, grain-forward) of Canadian whisky, so it splits the difference and no one is happy about the compromise--particularly not at the $100+ price tag. On the nose: lots of cedar, cigar box, honeycomb, green apple, stewed fruits. A bit solvent-y, with caramel, vanilla, light wood-smoke, citrus, and maple. Taste is quite light, with wood spice, stewed fruits, green apple, vanilla, caramel, butterscotch, rye breadiness, clean wood flavours, some citrus pith and distant dill. Gingery, woody finish. It's a nice enough whisky (and kudos for being, to my knowledge, the ONLY non-chill filtered Canadian whisky on the market), it's just wildly overpriced: Wiser's Legacy is, at half the price, the far superior entry in the company's line-up.
J.P. Wiser's Red Letter Canadian Whisky (2015 Edition)
About this bottle
The original Wiser’s Red Letter was a late 19th Century whisky created by J.P. Wiser. It was his special stock for guests and close friends. Dr. Don Livermore doesn’t have the original Red Letter recipe but he has plenty of facts and knowledge about this era in Canadian whisky; enough to interpret and produce his version of Red Letter. The 2015 Edition contains double-distilled spirit aged in virgin oak. It’s non-chill filtered and has no caramel coloring. Note: This is not currently available in the U.S.
How it tastes
Measured across 14 flavor axes. Tap a note to find other bottles that lead with it.
Reviews
Showing the most detailed of 4 parsed reviews.
2013 Edition. The nose reminds me of Granny's rum balls, Christmas cake, and the expected Wisers caramel. On the palate, more rum soaked baking, and loads of thick, viscous caramel, very reminiscent of an older Wisers, some wood in the background, perhaps pine needles. The finish is longer than expected, and is very caramel and butterscotch dominant, but it does show some cinnamon and clove as well. This is a great bottle for winter, I miss some of these old wisers releases.
was actually the 2018 commenerative brown sugar, raw oak, pepper the port, Jan 29 2018
A little stronger then the 2014. Add a touch of water
Tastes like this
Closest flavor profiles across the whole catalog.
