page_title: Canadian whisky
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Canadian whisky / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Gooderham and Worts Ltd., Toronto Canada, Canadian Rye Whiskey
context_page_description: Canadian whisky is a type of whisky produced in Canada. Most Canadian whiskies are blended multi-grain liquors containing a large percentage of corn spirits, and are typically lighter and smoother than other whisky styles. When Canadian distillers began adding small amounts of highly-flavourful rye grain to their mashes, people began demanding this new rye-flavoured whisky, referring to it simply as "rye". Today, as for the past two centuries, the terms "rye whisky" and "Canadian whisky" are used interchangeably in Canada and refer to exactly the same product, which generally is made with only a small amount of rye grain.
context_section_description: In the 18th and early 19th centuries, gristmills distilled surplus grains to avoid spoilage.  Most of these early whiskies would have been rough, mostly unaged wheat whiskey. Distilling methods and technologies were brought to Canada by American and European immigrants with experience in distilling wheat and rye. This early whisky from improvised stills, often with the grains closest to spoilage, was produced with various, uncontrolled proofs and was consumed, unaged, by the local market. While most distilling capacity was taken up producing rum, a result of Atlantic Canada's position in the British sugar trade, the first commercial scale production of whisky in Canada began in 1801 when John Molson purchased a copper pot still, previously used to produce rum, in Montreal. With his son Thomas Molson, and eventually partner James Morton, the Molsons operated a distillery in Montreal and Kingston and were the first in Canada to export whisky, benefiting from Napoleonic Wars' disruption in supplying French wine and brandies to England. 
    
  Gooderham and Worts began producing whisky in 1837 in Toronto as a side business to their wheat milling but surpassed Molson's production by the 1850s as it expanded their operations with a new distillery in what would become the Distillery District. Henry Corby started distilling whisky as a side business from his gristmill in 1859 in what became known as Corbyville and Joseph Seagram began working in his father-in-law's Waterloo flour mill and distillery in 1864, which he would eventually purchase in 1883. Meanwhile, Americans Hiram Walker and J.P. Wiser moved to Canada: Walker to Windsor in 1858 to open a flour mill and distillery and Wiser to Prescott in 1857 to work at his uncle's distillery where he introduced a rye whisky and was successful enough to buy the distillery five years later. The disruption of American Civil War created an export opportunity for Canadian-made whiskies and their quality, particularly those from Walker and Wiser who had already begun the practice of aging their whiskies, sustained that market even after post-war tariffs were introduced. In the 1880s, Canada's National Policy placed high tariffs on foreign alcoholic products as whisky began to be sold in bottles and the federal government instituted a bottled in bond program that provided certification of the time a whisky spent aging and allowed deferral of taxes for that period, which encouraged aging. In 1890 Canada became the first country to enact an aging law for whiskies, requiring them to be aged at least two years. The growing temperance movement culminated in prohibition in 1916 and distilleries had to either specialize in the export market or switch to alternative products, like industrial alcohols which were in demand in support of the war effort.
  With the deferred revenue and storage costs of the Aging Law acting as a barrier to new entrants and the reduced market due to prohibition, consolidation of Canadian whisky had begun. Henry Corby Jr. modernized and expanded upon his father's distillery and sold it, in 1905, to businessman Mortimer Davis who also purchased the Wiser distillery, in 1918, from the heirs of J.P. Wiser. Davis's salesman Harry Hatch spent time promoting the Corby and Wiser brands and developing a distribution network in the United States which held together as Canadian prohibition ended and American prohibition began. After Hatch's falling out with Davis, Hatch purchased the struggling Gooderham and Worts in 1923 and switched out Davis's whisky for his. Hatch was successful enough to be able to also purchase the Walker distillery, and the popular Canadian Club brand, from Hiram's grandsons in 1926. While American prohibition created risk and instability in the Canadian whisky industry, some benefited from purchasing unused American distillation equipment and from sales to exporters (nominally to foreign countries like Saint Pierre and Miquelon, though actually to bootleggers to the United States). Along with Hatch, the Bronfman family was able to profit from making whisky de
caption: The Gooderham and Worts buildings, c. 19th century. In the 1860s, the distillery became the world's largest producer of whisky.
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