Gooderham & Worts Rich & Rare Canadian Whisky

[The Chandos]

A friend just gifted me a bottle of Rich & Rare Canadian Whisky that is from way before the Sazerac acquisition. In fact, I think it's from before the Hiram takeover as well. This is nothing to brag about as I don't think Canadian whiskys age well but I am having a hard time finding any info on it. It comes in a rather square/rectangular bottle with a beige plastic screw cap and has a number tax strip over the cap (which I believe puts this at least back in the early 80's). The smell turns my stomach a little but then I'm not much for corn liquor (not sure how much rye if any is in this). However, the taste is very smooth with strong oak and maple. In fact, my glass smelled of "syrup" long after I rinsed it out!

Anyone have any experience or knowledge of this? Recommend any good cocktails for it (Old Fashioned)? Anyone know the mash ingredients at all?

Thanks in advance for any info!

[Jeff C]

Wow that is a vintange find. YOu might want to check out the webpage canadianwhisky.org The guy that does the page just wrote a book on teh same subject. He's very responsive to emails, I've sent him a few too. If anybody knows it would be him.

More recently, I've had a sampler size bottle of the Rich & Rare Reserve, supposedly higher quality than the regular. It was ok but not as nice to me as 40 Creek Barrel Select or Alberta Premium which are my favorite every day Canadians.

[The Chandos]

Thanks, Jeff, I actually saw the review of R&R Rare on canadianwhisky.org but there's no review of the non-Rare version. I'll send him an email and see what kind of response I get, though. It's not that important - I'll drink it anyway - but I was curious to know more about it. For the most part, I'd like to know how much rye (if any) is in it. The bottle is really cool, too - very heavy glass!