Manitoba’s Crown Royal Northern Harvest whisky named the world’s best

In Jim Murray’s Whiskey Bible 2016, it was revealed this week, popular Canadian whisky brand Crown Royal’s Northern Harvest Rye was named top dog.

Whisky master Murray tasted more than 1000 whiskies before choosing the Crown Royal and called it a ideal work of art: “Rye, that most persuasive of grains swinging up to beguile and beauty as well as take us through a routine which comes to new statures of magnificence and many-sided quality”. I think other distillers out there have to have a close look at this and see if they can at least have a go at reaching where this new bar has been set. “This is a testament to the unbelievable blending and distilling that’s been taking place in Gimli for over 75 years”, said Yvonne Briese, Vice President of Crown Royal.

Well-known whisky writer and judge of brown spirits, Jim Murray, recently announced the winning whiskies as part of his annual release of the Whiskey Bible, and the results were rather unexpected.

Crown Royal, the whisky-maker from the small Manitoba community of Gimli, has won a world title and been labeled a “masterpiece”. Otherwise the name of Canadian whisky will continue to decline against the high standards being set in other countries. This year alone, Diageo has earned more than 300 awards across the World’s Best ranks for its Canadian, Scotch and American whiskeys.

Joining the Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye this year are Pikesville Straight Rye (USA), Midleton Dair Ghaelach (Ireland), William Larue Weller Bourbon (USA) and Suntory Yamazaki Mizunara (Japan).

Crown Royal Canadian whisky is the number one selling Canadian whisky brand in the USA by value and has a tradition as long and distinctive as its taste.

This is second year in a row a Scottish whisky has not made Murray’s top five. The latest variant to be introduced by Crown Royal, Northern Harvest Rye (45% ABV) is the brand’s first ever blended, 95% rye whisky and embodies a smooth and spicy flavor profile that can be mixed into traditional rye cocktails or enjoyed neat or on the rocks.

The Gimli Distillery in Manitoba was first visited by Mr. Murray in the mid-1990s when he described it in his Complete Book of Whisky as being located “where the Prairies are at their Prairiest”. It is, quite literally, many hundreds of miles from its nearest fellow distillery.