Editing Canadian whisky (section)

==History==
In the 18th and early 19th centuries, [[gristmill]]s 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.{{efn|Equivalent to [[moonshine]].}} 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 (Canadian businessman)|James Morton]], the Molsons operated a distillery in Montreal and [[Kingston, Ontario|Kingston]] and were the first in Canada to export whisky, benefiting from [[Napoleonic Wars]]' disruption in supplying French wine and brandies to England. 
[[File:GooderhamAndWorts1800s.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Gooderham and Worts]] buildings, c. 19th century. In the 1860s, the distillery became the world's largest producer of whisky.]]  
[[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, Ontario|Corbyville]] and [[Joseph E. Seagram|Joseph Seagram]] began working in his father-in-law's [[Waterloo, Ontario|Waterloo]] flour mill and distillery in 1864, which he would eventually purchase in 1883. Meanwhile, Americans [[Hiram Walker]] and [[John Philip Wiser|J.P. Wiser]] moved to Canada: Walker to [[Windsor, Ontario|Windsor]] in 1858 to open a flour mill and distillery and Wiser to [[Prescott, Ontario|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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.mensjournal.com/food-drink/canadian-whisky-makes-a-big-comeback-20150209/ |publisher=[[Men's Journal]] |title=Canadian Whisky Makes a Big Comeback |first=Margaret |last=Eby|date=2015 |access-date=October 12, 2018}}</ref> 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 Canada|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]].<ref name=Kergommeaux>{{cite book |title=Canadian Whisky: The portable expert |first=Davin |last= de Kergommeaux |publisher=McClelland & Stewart |year=2012 |isbn=9780771027437 |pages=93–187}}</ref><ref name=Brown>{{cite book |title=Two Hundred Years of Tradition: The Story of Canadian Whisky |first=Lorraine |last= Brown |publisher=Fitzhenry & Whiteside |year=1994 |isbn=1550410946 |pages=1–21}}</ref>
[[File:H. C. Hatch, 1934.jpg|thumb|[[Harry Hatch]] was a Canadian industrialist, who consolidated several Canadian distilleries in the early 20th century.]]
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 C. Hatch|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 [[Prohibition in the United States|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.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/the-old-booze-barons/article17975561/ |title=The old booze barons |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |date=November 28, 2008 |access-date=October 18, 2018}}</ref> 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 [[rum-running|bootleggers]] to the United States). Along with Hatch, the [[Bronfman family]] was able to profit from making whisky destined for United States during prohibition, though mostly in [[Western Canada]] and were able to open a distillery in [[LaSalle, Quebec]] and merge their company, in 1928, with [[Seagram]]'s which had struggled with transitioning to the prohibition marketplace. [[Samuel Bronfman]] became president of the company and, with his  dominant personality, began a strategy of increasing their capacity and aging whiskies in anticipation of the end of prohibition. When that did occur, in 1933, Seagram's was in a position to quickly expand; they purchased The British Columbia Distilling Company from the Riefel family in 1935, as well as several American distilleries and introduced new brands, one of them being [[Crown Royal]], in 1939, which would eventually become one of the best-selling Canadian whiskies.<ref name=Kergommeaux/><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/dining/drinks/canadian-whiskey-crown-royal-comeback.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/dining/drinks/canadian-whiskey-crown-royal-comeback.html |archive-date=January 1, 2022 |url-access=limited |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date= January 11, 2018 |access-date=November 10, 2018 |first=Clay |last=Risen |title=Canadian Whisky's Long-Awaited Comeback}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

While some capacity was switched to producing industrial alcohols in support of the country's [[World War II]] efforts, the industry expanded again after the war until the 1980s. In 1945, [[Schenley Industries]] purchased one of those industrial alcohol distilleries in [[Salaberry-de-Valleyfield|Valleyfield]], Quebec, and repurposed several defunct American whiskey brands, like Golden Wedding, Old Fine Copper, and starting in 1972, [[Gibson’s Finest Canadian Whisky|Gibson's Finest]]. Seeking to secure their supply of Canadian whisky, [[Barton Brands]] also built a new distillery in [[Collingwood, Ontario]], in 1967, where they would produce [[Canadian Mist]], though they sold the distillery and brand only four years later to [[Brown–Forman]]. As proximity to the shipping routes (by rail and boat) to the US became less important, large distilleries were established in Alberta and Manitoba. Five years after starting to experiment with whiskies in their Toronto gin distillery, W. & A. Gilbey Ltd. created the [[Black Velvet (whisky)|Black Velvet]] blend in 1951 which was so successful a new distillery in [[Lethbridge|Lethbridge, Alberta]] was constructed in 1973 to produce it. 
[[File:CR Gimli.jpg|thumb|Signage for the Gimli plant in [[Gimli, Manitoba|Gimli]], Manitoba. The distillery was built in 1969 for use by [[Seagram]].]]
Also in the west, a Calgary-based business group recruited the Riefels from British Columbia to oversee their Alberta Distillers operations in 1948.<!--Alberta Distillers was founded in 1946 but not granted a production licence until 1948.--> The company became an innovator in the practice of bulk shipping whiskies to the United States for bottling and the success of their Windsor Canadian brand (produced in Alberta but bottled in the United States) led National Distillers Limited to purchase Alberta Distillers, in 1964, to secure their supply chain. More Alberta investors founded the Highwood Distillery in 1974 in [[High River, Alberta]], which specialized in wheat-based whiskies. Seagram's opened a large, new plant in [[Gimli, Manitoba]], in 1969, which would eventually replace their Waterloo and LaSalle distilleries. In British Columbia, Ernie Potter who had been producing fruit liqueurs from alcohols distilled at Alberta Distillers built his own whisky distillery in [[Langley, British Columbia (city)|Langley]] in 1958 and produced the Potter's and Century brands of whisky. Hiram Walker's built the Okanagan Distillery in [[Winfield, British Columbia]], in 1970 with the intention of producing Canadian Club but was redirected to fulfill contracts to produce whiskies for [[Suntory]] before being closed in 1995.<ref name=Kergommeaux/><ref>{{cite book |last=Rannie |first=William F. |title=Canadian Whisky: The Product and The Industry |publisher=W. F. Rannie |date=1976 |isbn=9780919953147}}</ref>

After decades of expansion, a shift in consumer preferences towards white spirits (such as vodka) in the American market resulted in an excess supply of Canadian whiskies.<ref>{{cite web |title=All Hail King Whiskey |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/10/all-hail-king-whiskey/381478/ |publisher= [[The Atlantic]] |first=Max |last= Nisen |date=October 15, 2014 |access-date=December 8, 2018}}</ref> While this allowed the whiskies to be aged longer, the unexpected storage costs and deferred revenue strained individual companies. With the distillers seeking investors and multinational corporations seeking value brands, a series of acquisitions and mergers occurred. Alberta Distillers was bought in 1987 by [[Fortune Brands (1969–2011)|Fortune Brands]] which would go on to become part of [[Suntory Global Spirits]]. Hiram Walker was sold in 1987 to [[Allied Domecq|Allied Lyons]] which [[Pernod Ricard]] took over in 2006, with Fortune Brands acquiring the Canadian Club brand. [[Grand Metropolitan]] had purchased Black Velvet in 1972 but sold the brand in 1999 to [[Constellation Brands]] who in turn sold it to [[Heaven Hill]] in 2019.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2019/11/heaven-hill-buys-black-velvet-canadian-whisky/|title=Heaven Hill finalises Black Velvet whisky purchase|last=Kiely|first=Melita|date=November 4, 2019|website=The Spirits Business|access-date=November 30, 2019}}</ref> Schenley was acquired in 1990 by [[United Distillers]] which would go on to become part of [[Diageo]], though Gibson's Finest was sold to [[William Grant & Sons]] in 2001. Seagram's was sold in 2000 to [[Vivendi]], which in turn sold its various brands and distilleries to Pernod Ricard and Diageo.<ref>De Kergommeaux, p136–285.</ref> Highwood would purchase Potter's in 2006. Despite the consolidation, the Kittling Ridge Distillery in [[Grimsby, Ontario]], began to produce the [[Forty Creek]] brand, though it was sold to the [[Campari Group]] in 2014. Later, the [[Sazerac Company]] would purchase the brands Seagram's VO, Canadian 83 and Five Star from [[Diageo]] in 2018.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/news/2018/11/12/sazerac-buys-liquor-brands-from-diageo.html |title=Sazerac buys liquor brands from Diageo |date=November 12, 2018 |first=David A. |last=Mann |publisher=[[American City Business Journals|Louisville Business First]] |access-date=December 9, 2018}}</ref>

===Illicit export to the United States===
[[File:Walkerville Ontario Distillery LOC det.4a21202.jpg|thumb|Distillery in [[Windsor, Ontario|Windsor]], Ontario, c. 1905–1915. Distilleries near the [[Canada–United States border]] served [[Rum-running|bootleggers]] during [[prohibition in the United States|prohibition in the U.S.]]]] 
Canadian whisky featured prominently in [[rum-running]] into the U.S. during [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]]. [[Hiram Walker]]'s distillery in [[Windsor, Ontario]], directly across the [[Detroit River]] and the international boundary between Canada and the United States, easily served [[rum-running|bootleggers]] using small, fast smuggling boats.<ref>[http://www.cocktailtimes.com/people/hiram_walker.shtml People Profile: Hiram Walker (1816–1899)] ''Cocktail Times''. (Access date December 16, 2010.)</ref><ref>Gary May, [http://mynewwaterfronthome.com/rumrunner.aspx Rum-runner tourism helps lift the veil on 'dirty little secret' - Windsor's bootlegging past a hit with visitors and locals] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714143323/http://mynewwaterfronthome.com/rumrunner.aspx# |date=July 14, 2011 }}, ''MyNewWaterfrontHome.com'', July 2010. (Access date December 15, 2010.)</ref>