Saskatchewan distillery wins third straight Canadian Whisky Award

When people think of whisky, the kind made with rye is usually what comes to mind.

However, more and more businesses are starting to make whisky with wheat.

Last Mountain Distillery in Lumsden won its third straight Canadian Whisky Award for Best Wheat Whisky for its Single Cask 100% Wheat whisky.

Distillery owner Colin Schmidt says it competed against big brands and other micro-distilleries.

“The Canadian Whisky Awards have been going on for 13 years. They are made up of a group of eight people (who) love to consume, score and compare whiskys,” Schmidt told The Greg Morgan Morning Show on Tuesday.

“We send our bottles to the Canadian Whisky Awards and they divide them up into … eight different samples and send them around the country to where the judges live.”

Schmidt said the judges blind-taste the samples and score them independently.

The distillery owner says the judging process is similar to a wine tasting, adding judges have a checklist for what they’re looking for.

“(The judges look at) the appearance … for legs … for the nose … for the initial taste … (and) for the finish,” Schmidt added. “All the whisky notes that come with it.”

He says wheat is becoming the fast-growing segment of the whisky industry, adding rye and corn have always been popular.

“(Wheat whisky) is more approachable, especially for people who are getting into drinking whisky straight,” Schmidt said. “(It’s) a little more on the mellow side. It has a nice rich sweetness to it. (The expected) caramel note and vanilla (are still there).”

Unlike rye whisky, wheat whisky doesn’t have a strong peppery punch, the distillery owner said.

Last Mountain Distillery started as a small distillery famous for dill pickle vodka and has grown considerably since then.

“Our big sellers lately are our (Lokel) vodkas — that’s more of our economy vodka — but our whiskys are really coming on strong,” Schmidt said. “We rebranded them as their own entity; it’s LMD.”

He also says he didn’t want to get into business to create an economy whisky and wanted to make the best one out there.

“We’re doing these single releases under the LMD brand and it seems to be going well,” Schmidt added.

He said Last Mountain Distillery is not trying to be a big company with products at major liquor stores.

“We’re just trying to make the best (whisky) we can make,” Schmidt said. “I have hundreds of barrels put away; I don’t have thousands.”

Schmidt said the distillery doesn’t source products to match a specific flavour profile like some of the larger companies, but rather focuses on crafting new ones in house.