Canadian Whisky Tasting (October 23rd , 2025)
This is our 5th Canadian Whisky Tasting. It was a dedicated tasting of Cote des Saints whisky, from Quebec. They grow their own barley for their whisky. The bottles in question were;
| TT Label | Description | Proof | Rating | Price (CAD$) |
| A | CDS, aged in Calvados Casks | 92 | 7.0 | $130 |
| B | CDS, aged in Oloroso Sherry, Cask Strength | 117.8 | 7.7 | $150 |
| C | CDS, aged in Bourbon Casks | 92 | 7.2 | $130 |
| D | CDS, aged in Sherry and Bourbon, Lot 0001 | 92 | 7.2 | $105 |
| E | CDS, aged in Tawny Port Casks | 92 | 8.3 | $140 |
| F | Aged in Sherry and Bourbon, Cask Strength | 114.6 | 6.9 | $150 |
| G | Aged in Pedro Ximenez Casks ( PX Sherry) | 92 | 7.9 | $130 |
| H | CDS, aged in Oloroso Sherry (B vs H) | 92 | 7.9 | $130 |
This was our 5th Canadian Whisky tasting, and our 2nd time doing a dedicated single Canadian distillery tasting. The 4th Canadian Whisky tasting was April 2025, 3rd Canadian Whisky tasting was April 2024, the 2nd Canadian Whisky tasting was in January 2022, and the 1st Canadian Whisky tasting was October 2020.
Cote des Saints distillery started in 2019, originally they sold only gin and liqueurs (creme de menthe, and cacao), both became award winning, but this was only to generate revenue until their whisky was ready. Cote des Saints are controlling almost everything in the whisky process, they grow their own barley, they don’t malt it, but they do mash it, and ferment it, and they age it, on premise. They have the facilities to malt it, but they are not ‘experts’ in that process yet.
We had 12 people on the Zoom, and everyone voted individually. We lost 4 participants, due to last minute no shows/cancels (Janea, Justin, Frank, and JP), otherwise we’d have 16. I appended the votes/ratings, of those who sent them to me after. We had a new participant on the Zoom, Dale, welcome Dale!! He is definitely a seasoned Scotch fan.
None of these bottles are available in the US, so I can’t really do a US dollar comparison, since no one stocks them, in the US, that I’ve found. Only 1 similar bottle is available in SAQ, its “D”, Sherry Oloroso and Bourbon aged, but Lot 0002, we tasted Lot 0001. Lot 0001 is sold out, but I used one from my collection for the tasting. Lot 0001, was a 4,500 bottle release from CDS.
This tasting is many “distillery only” releases (7 of 8 bottles). Most of the CDS “distillery only” releases have less than 1,000 bottles produced, usually only one or two casks, hence the high price. Their PX Sherry, Cask Strength release, sold out in 1 day, that is why we didn’t have it in our tasting. CDS had no peated whisky in their current releases. Although they’re all young whiskies, 5 years or younger, they were all aged in the different casks, not “finished” in these casks, you don’t see that on older whiskies. Also they use no artificial coloring in their products, which is very nice to see, and know.
In terms of guessing the bottles in the blind tasting, Emilio got 7 of 8, although he was ‘in house’ at the tasting, and liked to compare the color of the one ounce samples, to the actual bottles. Rox got 4, Mike M got 3, and Stephane got 2.
This one, was a fun one, I’m happy we were able to find some tasting notes.
The Winners!
I was able to predict the winner! The winner was “E”, Tawny Port Aging, with an 8.3 rating (91/110). Tied in 2nd, was “G”, and “H”, both Sherry agings, one was a PX Sherry aging and the other a Oloroso Sherry aging, both were 46% (92 proof), both received 7.9 (87/110).
1st Place (8.3) Tawny Port $140
2nd Place(7.9) Sherry Cask $130
2nd Place (7.9) PX Cask $130
Next Tasting is XO Cognac on Thursday November 20th, 2025.
The Survey Results
| A-Calvados | B-Sherry CS | C-Bourbon | D-Lot 0001 | E-Tawny port | F-Regular CS | G-PX | H-Sherry | |
| Allison C | 4 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 8 |
| Mike M | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 8 |
| Dale J | 7 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 |
| Stephane M | 7 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 9 |
| Martin D | 7 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 6 |
| David Wood | 7 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Collin M | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 8 |
| Mary W | 8 | 9 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 8 |
| Rox R. | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 7 |
| Ken | 8 | 8 | 9 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 9 |
| Emilio | 8 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Total | 77 | 85 | 79 | 79 | 91 | 76 | 87 | 87 |
| Avg | 7.0 | 7.7 | 7.2 | 7.2 | 8.3 | 6.9 | 7.9 | 7.9 |
After the tasting
| Janea | 6 | 4 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 9 | 10 |
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