It's been a long time since many Canadians have felt the burn. That familiar aromatic, spicy and sometimes smoky taste of smooth Kentucky bourbon has been just a memory for consumers in this country for much of the past year.
Ever since US President Donald Trump launched his tariff war and threatened to make Canada the “51st state”, angry consumers and lawmakers have coalesced around the “Buy Canadian” movement, with bourbon caught in the crossfire.
“People didn't want to lose their bourbon, and neither did I,” said Ottawa whiskey expert Devin de Kergommeaux. But he, like many other consumers, supports boycotting American products in favor of Canadian alternatives.
Canada has been a key market for the bourbon industry and major brands like Jim Beam and Maker's Mark for quite some time. But despite his desire to see bourbon back on shelves and behind the bar, de Kergommo, who literally wrote the book Canadian whiskey — believes that the alcohol situation here may have changed forever.
Retaliatory tariffs have hit Kentucky bourbon hard, and the governor has called on Canadian leaders to reconsider their decision. CBC's Katie Simpson meets a bourbon maker who shows her the hate mail he receives from Canadians.
American whiskey sourness
The bourbon boom has truly begun in Canada. a little over ten years agothanks to aggressive marketing campaigns and consumers looking for something a little different from what they're used to, de Kergommeaux says.
“It’s nothing like traditional Canadian whiskey,” de Kergomo said. “It’s a strong, bold whisky, quite bright and quite sweet.”
Craig Peters, founder and CEO of Maverick Distillery in Oakville, Ont., says what makes bourbon unique is that it is distilled and aged in new oak barrels that are used only once, giving the liqueur a darker color and rich caramel and vanilla flavors.
In addition to oak barrels, for bourbon to be called so, it must be made using at least 51 percent corn mash and, most importantly, experts sayit must be made in the USA
But Peters says it still “has its own special place among consumers” in Canada, either drunk neat or on the rocks, or mixed into cocktails such as Manhattans, paper airplanes and classic old-fashioneds.
But as a result of cross-border feuds, Bourbon exports to Canada fell about 60 percent from January to September from a year earlier, rising from 41.3 million to 16.4 million units. according to United States Distilled Spirits Council.
Bourbon producers have begged provinces to restock the booze in the U.S.—Saskatchewan and Alberta have done so, while Nova Scotia and Manitoba selling off existing stocks – and working with the Trump administration to ease trade tensions. However, this is not the only problem the industry faces.
Whiskey sales were already falling around the world, and Peters says the last few years have seen a glut of bourbon as a result of overproduction.
But he says it's all created a golden opportunity for distilleries like his to shake up the world of Canadian whiskey.
Canadians are rushing to buy up supplies of boycotted American liquor. Devin De Kergomo, author of Canadian Whiskey: The Indispensable Handheld Expert, discusses the influence of U.S. products on Canadian whiskey.
Bourbon by any other name
Maverick Distillery already imported bourbon barrels from the US to produce its own line of blended whiskeys, but Peters says the company now also bottles “straight up 100 percent bourbon.”
“While we can’t call this baby bourbon,” he said, holding up a bottle labeled “Kentucky Whiskey,” “it is actually a five-year-old Kentucky bourbon bottled here in Canada.”
Federal Liquor Trade Law A 2006 law restricts the use of the names of alcohol produced in certain geographic regions of foreign countries.
Besides bourbon, other examples of such spirits include scotch (Scotland), cognac (France), and tequila (Mexico).
Peters says consumer demand for bourbon was strong enough that he didn't feel it went against the “buy Canadian” mentality of keeping employees at his Ontario distillery while producing a bottle of truly American product.
De Kergommo says Maverick's actions are “out of step” with efforts to prioritize Canadian products over U.S. imports.
“It's not anti-American, it's Canadian,” he said.
But that doesn't mean he doesn't plan to open his own bottle of Maverick's Kentucky Whiskey soon.
De Kergommo says he doesn't know of any producers in Canada that bottle real bourbon other than Maverick, and he doesn't expect many others to start doing so.
This Canadian spirit
Although he notes some other distillers across the country began blending bourbon-style whiskey variations with names like BRBN and Berbon to satisfy those still craving the taste of Kentucky, where most American bourbon is produced.
While he says those substitutes don't taste exactly the same, he suggests that many of them are quality whiskeys that can be consumed in Manhattan or drunk straight with a drop or two of water, as he does.
And this not just US tariffs Industry observers say this is being helped by a global downturn in sales of whiskey and spirits in general – in general, more people giving up alcoholwhile sales hemp drinks are also growing.
That's why de Kergommeaux is happy to see the Canadian product back in the spotlight and thriving.
He says rather than worry about a downturn, Canadian manufacturers, large and small, are having trouble keeping up with demand.
“I think people were trying to find bourbon and bourbon-flavored Canadian whiskey,” he said, “and in the process they were trying a lot of Canadian whiskey and wishing they had given them a chance sooner.”
The U.S. Liquor Council, in a filing with the office of U.S. Trade Representative Jamison Greer, argues that Canadian retailers are giving an unfair advantage to domestic spirits. Meanwhile, some Canadian distilleries say removing American booze from shelves has only slightly increased their sales.
