Found North Whisky is redefining Premium Canadian Whisky. Hell, it’s creating the category anew. This is a complex dram woven together with numerous components, including a further-aged component of their Peregrine First Flight (in new wood).

As with all Whiskey Flings, I’ve kept my notes to a minimum and included brand notes for reference.

From the Brand:

Batch 011 Origin
Batch 011’s profile is the closest we have made to Batch 002. In many ways, Batch 011 revisits the heritage of Found North. You might think Batch 001 is our origin, but it was simply the first whisky we made. Batch 002 much more accurately represents the seeds of what Found North has become. When we started Found North, our plan was to make rye dominant blends. Accordingly, Batch 001 was 66% rye, 30% corn and 4% malted barley. However, while creating Batch 002, we continued to iterate and found that our best blend was 80% corn, 19% rye and 1% malted barley. It was a delightful Batch and recharted the course of Found North.

Since releasing Batch 001 and Batch 002, we have made one blend akin to Batch 001 and six blends with similar profiles and grain ratios to Batch 002. Batch 002 reverberates through the history of Found North.

The excellence of Batch 002 was not in the dynamism of the blend itself (it only contained 3 components) but rather it was rooted in the richness and elegance of how the flavors compliment one another, creating a wholly new expression of flavor.

Paying homage to Batch 002, Batch 011 pursues excellence by melding together nine component whiskies in order to enliven flavors that are balanced and rich. While it is a complex blend, it has a simple goal: achieve harmony and vibrancy in its wood, vanillin and spice.
Blend Composition
Batch 011 is composed of six corn components, two ryes and a new wood cask of Peregrine First Flight. If our goal is to balance three different flavor qualities, why such a complex blend? The answer is layering. By using 18, 23 and 24 year corn components aged in new wood as well as a cask of Peregrine aged in new wood, we get multiple expressions of wood sugar and baking spice. It is like a quartet of voices singing the same note across multiple octaves, adding depth and profound unity to the composition. For the same reason, we used 18, 20 and 24 year corn in ex-Bourbon to round out the vanillin character and two 19 year ryes to balance out the herbaceous spice qualities.

As always, their tasting notes - available here - are florid by design and just plain fun to read, but I’ve chosen to keep just mine on this page.

Thank you to Found North Whisky for the sample and opportunity to review. All opinions are my own.

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Found North Whisky Batch 011: Specs

Classification: Canadian Whisky

Producer: Found North Whisky

Mashbill: 91% Corn, 8% Rye, 1% Malted Barley

Proof: 129.8º (64.9% ABV)

Age: 18 Years Old

Location: Canada

Found North Whisky Batch 011 Price: $169.99

Official Website

Found North Whisky Batch 011: Tasting Notes

Eye: Orange blossom honey. Thin legs and rims, tiny teardrops.

Nose: Lots of whisky-soaked wood up front. Tart cherries and kirsch, warming chestnuts, a bit dusty. Maple wood toasting, caramelized but not burnt marshmallows. Solid proof up the nose.

Palate: Maple sugar and fall baking spices, cherries rolling in right after. Proof doesn’t hit right away. More sugary sweet, banana taffy and dried papaya with light cornstarch dusting. Mouthfeel is coating, more peppery spice hitting mid-tongue and settling heavily. Syrupy on the chew with more papaya coming through. Cinnamon blows up on the back half with walnut shells.

Finish: Flash of proof on the front half of my tongue, lots of cinnamon and dried fruits in a trail mix. Coating and syrupy, medium to long, caramel and chocolate coalescing late.

Overall: I was afraid this would be too woody based on the nose, but the rest of the pour is welcomingly lacking astringency. Pleasantly surprised by the fruity, syrupy nature. Great mouthfeel, baking spice and papaya. The finish rounds this out, showing the caramel and chocolate from the new wood. Love the spice of the rye without the sharp edge or woodiness. Excellent.

Final Rating: 7.9

10 | Insurpassable | Nothing Else Comes Close

9 | Incredible | Extraordinary

8 | Excellent | Exceptional

7 | Great | Well above average

6 | Very Good | Better than average

5 | Good | Good, solid, ordinary

4 | Has promise but needs work

1-3 | Let’s have a conversation