Alberta Premium Dark Horse Canadian Whisky (2014) 75cl

Alberta Premium Dark Horse Canadian Whisky (2014) 75cl

Alberta Premium Dark Horse is a very distinctive offering in the Canadian landscape.

Known for their expertise in producing 100% rye whiskies, Alberta Distillers has produced an unusual beast with their Dark Horse (also known as Alberta Rye Dark Batch in the US, due to copyright issues with the dark horse name).

The whisky is a blend of two 100% ryes, a 6 year old and a 12 year. To round out the edges (and because they are allowed to), about 8% bourbon and some sherry is added. Dark Horse is named in honor of a racehorse owned by Frank McMahon, a founder of Alberta Distillers. His dark coated stallion, Majestic Prince, just missed winning the Triple Crown by five lengths back in 1969. In April 2015, this product was released in the US as Alberta Rye Dark Batch Whisky. A name change was necessary in that market.

Alberta Distillers has been up-front about what is in here. Most of the bottle (~90%) is a mix of two types of Canadian rye whisky: High ABV rye aged for 12 years in used barrels, and low ABV pot still rye aged for 6 years in new barrels. Rounding out all that rye whisky is ~8% of US-made bourbon (believed to be Old Grand-Dad – we’ll get back to this in a moment). But the really distinctive element is ~0.5-1% sherry added directly to the mix. The final whisky is then aged in heavily-charred American oak barrels, bottled at 45% ABV, and sold at a very competitive price.

45% ABV

75ccl

*DUE END JULY 2024*