Completing the triumvirate is the return of Gooderham & Worts – a “four grain” whisky blend of corn, rye, wheat and barley, now bottled at 44.4% ABV.<\/p>\n
Let’s see how it does in my Whisky Database:<\/p>\n
Gooderham & Worts: 8.61 \u00b1 0.34 on 6 reviews<\/strong><\/p>\n That is an above-average score for my database, with below-average variance – despite the limited number of reviews. Currently, my database Meta-critic average is ~8.55 \u00b1 0.56, for all whiskies, world-wide.<\/p>\n To put that in perspective, let’s see how some of the other popular blended Canadian whiskies in the same ~$40-50 CAD price range compare. The Gooderham and Worts is currently $45 at the LCBO.<\/p>\n Century Reserve 21yo: 8.78 \u00b1 0.20 on 9 reviews The Gooderham & Worts seems well within the typical score range for Canadian whisky at this price point.<\/p>\n Here’s what I find in the glass:<\/p>\n Nose<\/strong>: Very sweet up front, somewhat floral, and surprisingly fruity for the relatively high ABV.\u00a0 Notes of pear, cherries, oranges, peaches and apricots. Bubble-gum too. There’s a sweet creamy texture to the aromas, like condensed milk or creamed wheat, which is quite distinctive. There is a noticeable solvent smell initially, with acetone particularly prominent (i.e., nail polish remover). Fortunately, this fades once you let it sit in the glass for awhile – so I recommend you pour yourself a dram, and leave it alone for at least 5 mins before sampling.<\/p>\n Palate<\/strong>:\u00a0 A real Canadian rye blend, through and through. The sweet floral and fruity notes show up first (and that bubble-gum again), then waves of the classic rye “baking spices” of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and all-spice. These notes really dominate and persist for a good while, drowning out almost everything else in the blend. A bit of the wheat persists throughout, but it’s subtle below the rye (and the corn is nowhere to be found). Odd that I wasn’t really getting all that much rye on the nose – too much else going on, I guess. You get some of the classic vanilla and caramel flavours as well – along with a slightly woody character.<\/p>\n As you can tell from the above, I quite liked this whisky. I do think the overall meta-critic score is fair, given the unfortunate initial solvent note (that mercifully dissipates over time). This is a likely a sign the young age of the grain whiskies in the blend. I would also have expected a bit more of the wheat and barley to shine through – although this does make a very decent Canadian rye blend as is.<\/p>\n Although Lot 40<\/a> has been a success for Corby, I don’t know if the resurrected Gooderham & Worts will catch on and persist as long. So if you are curious to try G&W, you may not want to wait too long.<\/p>\n For some additional reviews of this expression, I recommend you check out the reviews by Jason at Whisky Won<\/a>, Ryan at ScotchBlog.ca<\/a>, Beppi Crossariol of the Globe & Mail<\/a>, and Davin de Kergommeaux at Canadian Whisky<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For those from the Toronto area, the name Gooderham & Worts name should sound familiar – it is still prominently displayed in the city’s trendy and historic distillery district.\u00a0 Of course, the distillery itself – once the larger distiller of alcoholic spirits in Canada – has long since closed. Canadian whisky connoisseurs will know of Gooderham & Worts from Corby’s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[33,21,153,54,18,25],"class_list":["post-1189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whiskies","tag-blended","tag-canadian","tag-gooderham-worts","tag-grain","tag-nas","tag-rye"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1189"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4830,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189\/revisions\/4830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHighwood Ninety Rye 20yo: 8.96 \u00b1 0.25 on 7 reviews
\nLot 40: 8.89 \u00b1 0.43 on 14 reviews
\nPike Creek 10yo: 8.32 \u00b1 0.43 on 9 reviews
\nStalk & Barrel 11+1: 8.28 \u00b1 0.41 on 14 reviews
\nWiser’s Legacy: 9.06 \u00b1 0.25 on 12 reviews<\/p>\n![\"Gooderham.Worts\"](\"http:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Gooderham.Worts_.jpg\")
<\/a>Finish<\/strong>: Medium long, with cinnamon hearts and cloves all the way to the end – a very nice spicy finish. Somewhat drying on the tongue, there is a bit of the wheat sweetness persisting for a good while as well. This makes a nice change from the bitter finishes of some of the cheaper Canadian blends (with their up-front corn sweetness).<\/p>\n