Pike Creek & Lot 40

LOT 40 & PIKE CREEK DISTILLERY

Lot 40 Canadian Rye and Pike Creek Whisky were/are both part of the Hiram Walker, and subsequently Pernod Ricard, business which has, as they say in the classics, forgotten more about making good whisky than most will ever know.

Hiram Walker, an American businessman, was born in 1816 and passed away, just before the turn of the century. He achieved great many things during his life, but is undoubtedly most famous for his whisky legacy.

In 1858, he purchased land in what would become Walkerville, Ontario, Canada, and established a distillery. He had saved some $40,000 from his grocery business and used this to fund the distillery. The initial results were marketed as ‘Hiram Walker’s Club Whisky’, and it was so successful that his competitors in the United States lobbied their government to pass legislation requiring all foreign whiskies clearly state their country of origin. In no time, Walker’s ‘Canadian Club’ was that country’s leading export whisky. At the time, Walker’s business became so important to Walkerville (note the name), a company town if ever there was one, that Hiram had control over most aspects of life there – “from public works to religious services to police and the fire brigade”.

The Walker family sold the business in 1926, for the cost of the whisky alone, and it moved through several sets of hands until it became part of Pernod Ricard (Canadian Club is owned by Beam Suntory, but still made at the distillery), via their Canadian arm, Corby Spirits. The distillery is still the largest in North America, with 37 fermenters, producing 180,000 litres of alcohol every day, five days a week (as well as whisky, they also make other spirits such as rum and vodka – 150 products in all), 50 million bottles a year. Fourteen warehouses hold 1.6 million barrels of spirits. Blending and bottling take place on four high-speed lines. There are 50 different bottle moulds which can be used. This is the home of Lot 40 rye and so much more.

The name, ‘Lot 40’, comes from a plot of land where ancestors of former master distiller, Mike Booth, first set up a still generations earlier.

Large HW might be, but that does not mean they cannot turn their hand to distilling small batches, which is the philosophy behind ‘Lot 40’. They use a single copper pot still, with a process of maturation that does leave a lovely vanillin note in the rye. Aficionados attribute this whisky to the ‘90s boom in high-end spirits. Canada was seen as lacking any candidates for the category and the team at HW set about rectifying that. The trio of whiskies created to fit this niche were Pike Creek, Gooderham & Worts and Lot 40. One does not have to look far to find Canadians who will rate Lot 40 as the finest ever made in their country. While the quality was never in question, there was a feeling that, paradoxically, they may have been even more successful if priced amongst the whisky stratosphere, and not seen as value products. Strange world.

Lot 40 did disappear for quite some years, and became the white whale for Canadian whisky lovers, but is back in force now – the same story also applies to Pike Creek, which is named after an adjoining creek and suburb, to the distillery. These absences can be partly explained by the need to build aged stocks of material, but also to an initial lack of interest, very different to today. Lot 40 won ‘Canadian Whisky of the Year’ in 2015, a thrill that the master distiller described as akin to winning the Stanley Cup. There is also a cask strength rye edition, 12-Year-Old at 55 per cent.

Pike Creek is a corn-based, blended whisky, aged in Bourbon barrels and finished in port casks. It is notable for ageing in a non-climate controlled warehouse to allow temperature fluctuations to influence maturation. As well as the standard 10-Year-Old and a younger export version, they also offer a 21-Year-Old Speyside Malt Cask Whisky.

For many years, the massive Hiram Walker enterprise was closed to the public, for obvious reasons, but recently, the decision has been made to engage with interested devotees and to allow limited access, by way of a walking tour. Corby Spirits have entered into an arrangement with WindsorEats, a local food tourism outfit, to allow groups of up to 16 to tour the facility and to enjoy a tutored tasting of a range of the Walker whiskies – Wiser’s Deluxe, Lot 40, Gooderham & Worts and Pike Creek, as well as a tasting direct from a whisky barrel – in the visitor centre. This tour also includes a visit to the historic town established by Hiram Walker and everyone receives a bottle of whisky at the conclusion.

ADDRESS: 2072 Riverside Dr E, Windsor, ON N8Y 4S5, Canada T: +1 519-254-5171 W: hiramwalker.com

And if you can’t make it in person, you can take a virtual tour here – tour.jpwisers.com.