How a good old-fashioned boycott led Canada to trade Kentucky bourbon for Canadian whiskey
It’s been a long time since many Canadians have felt the burn. That familiar aromatic, spicy and sometimes smoky flavor of smooth, Kentucky bourbon has been a distant memory to consumers across this country for most of the past year.
Ever since U.S. President Donald Trump launched his tariff war and threatened to make Canada the “51st state,” angry consumers and lawmakers have united behind the “Buy Canadian” movement and bourbon has been caught in the crossfire.
“People didn’t want to lose their bourbon, and neither did I,” said Devin de Kergomex, an Ottawa-based whiskey expert. But he, like many other consumers, supports a boycott of American products in favor of Canadian alternatives.
Canada has long been a major market for the bourbon industry and major brands like Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark. But despite his desire to see Bourbon on the shelves and behind the bar, de Kergomex – who literally wrote the book canadian whiskey – Believes the wine landscape here has changed forever.
Retaliatory tariffs are hitting Kentucky bourbon hard, and the governor is urging Canadian leaders to reconsider. CBC’s Katie Simpson meets with a bourbon producer who shows her the hate mail he receives from Canadians.
American whiskey sour
Bourbon really started booming in Canada a little over a decade agoThanks to aggressive marketing campaigns and consumers who were looking for something different than they were before, says de Kergomex.
“It doesn’t taste like traditional Canadian whiskey at all,” de Kergomex said. “It’s a big, bold whiskey, and quite bright, quite sweet.”
Craig Peters, founder and CEO of Maverick Distillery in Oakville, Ontario, says that what makes bourbon unique is that it is distilled and aged in new oak barrels that are used only once, which gives the liquor its deep color and rich caramel and vanilla flavours.
In addition to oak barrels, to be called bourbon, it must be made using at least 51 percent corn mash and, most importantly, experts sayIt is to be produced in America
But Peters says that in Canada it still “holds its own special place among consumers”, either drank neat or on the rocks, or mixed into Manhattans, Paper Planes and classic Old Fashioned cocktails.
But as a result of cross-border hostilities, Bourbon exports to Canada from January to September dropped nearly 60 per cent from a year earlier, from 41.3 million to 16.4 million units. according to Distilled Spirits Council of the United States,
Bourbon producers are urging provinces to resume storing American wine – Saskatchewan and Alberta have done so, while Nova Scotia and manitoba Selling existing stocks — and to ease trade tensions with the Trump administration. However, this is not the only challenge the industry is facing.
Whiskey sales were already declining globally and Peters says overproduction over the past few years has resulted in a glut of bourbon.
But he says all of this has created a great opportunity for distilleries like his to shake up the Canadian whiskey world.
Canadians are rushing to buy up abandoned American liquor stores. Devin de Kergomex, author of Canadian Whiskey: The Essential Portable Expert, discusses the influence of American products on Canadian whiskey.
Bourbon by any other name
Maverick Distillery was already importing barrels of bourbon from the US to produce a range of its blended whiskeys, but Peters says the company is now also bottling “straight 100 percent bourbon.”
“Although we might not call it baby bourbon,” he said, holding up a bottle that is labeled Kentucky Whiskey, “it is actually a five-year-old Kentucky bourbon bottled in Canada.”
federal Spirit Beverage Trade Act A 2006 law restricts the use of names of wine produced in specific geographical areas in foreign countries.
Besides bourbon, other examples of such spirits include Scotch (Scotland), Cognac (France), and tequila (Mexico).
Peters says consumer demand was so high for the bourbon that he didn’t feel it was contrary to the “Buy Canadian” spirit of having employees bottle his Ontario distillery, which is actually an American product.
De Kergomex says what Maverick is doing is “kind of a misstep” with its efforts to prioritize Canadian products over American imports.
“This is not anti-American, this is Canadian buy-in,” he said.
But that doesn’t mean he’s not looking forward to opening his own bottle of Maverick Kentucky Whiskey sometime soon.
De Kergomex says he is not aware of any producers in Canada that are bottling genuine bourbon other than Maverick, and he isn’t expecting many others to start.
that canadian spirit
Although he notes Some other distillers across the country To satisfy those who still want that taste of Kentucky, where most American bourbon is produced, blends of bourbon-style whiskey variations with names like BRBN and Bourbon have begun.
While he says these types of options don’t taste exactly the same, he suggests there are many quality whiskeys that can be used in a Manhattan or drank straight with a few drops of water, as he does.
and its Not just US tariffs Industry watchers say there has been a global slowdown in whiskey and wine sales overall – in general, there are more abstinence from alcoholwhile the sale of cannabis beverages are also increasing.
That’s why de Kergomex is excited to see a Canadian product back in the spotlight and thriving.
Instead of worrying about a recession, he says Canadian producers large and small are having trouble keeping up with demand.
“I think people are trying to find bourbon and trying to find Canadian whiskey that tastes like bourbon,” he said, “and in the process, they’re tasting a lot of Canadian whiskey and wanting to have a chance to try it sooner.”
The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States claims in an application submitted to the office of U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer that Canadian retailers are giving an unfair advantage to local spirits. Meanwhile, some Canadian distilleries say removing American liquor from shelves has resulted in only a small increase in their sales.
