Prince Edward County Ontario’s Kinsip House of Fine Spirits is home to one of very few cooperages left in Canada today. They are a ‘farm distillery’ known for their free-roaming chickens that grace the property.
Time To Get Funky
Kinsip’s Cooper’s Revival is a bold rye whisky blended with about 15% corn whisky, aged in recoopered red wine barrels. Highly unusual on the nose and palate, it treads off the beaten path of a trademark smooth Canadian whisky and instead appears as a delightfully unpolished and somewhat earthy spirit with a funk that is a surprising delight to the senses.
APPEARANCE: Clear. Deep caramel.
NOSE: Pennies and barnyard hay bales accompany Marashino cherries, red lipstick and Caramel. A small hit of freshly husked corn.
PALATE: Medium sweet. Lowney’s chocolate covered cherries with an essence of smoke, burnt caramel, leather and earth.
FINISH: Medium-long. Freshly wet leaves are accompanied by carmel and almond.
ABV: 42%
AGE: 5 Years
CASK(S): Recoopered ex red-wine barrels
PRICE: $59.99 CAD
ENJOY: Neat, with ice or in a cocktail
RATING:
The end result is a delightfully unpolished, rough-hewn Canadian whisky that intrigues the senses with a constant sense of unfamiliarity.”
Conclusions
Leave your preconceptions of a Canadian whisky at home for this one.
It comes as no surprise that Cooper’s Revival is aged in an old barn onsite, steps from where Kinsip grows and mashes their own grain before the distillation process. It’s an Ontario-based example of the growing field-to-glass trend within Canadian whisky. The barnyard essence that permeates Cooper’s Revival seems to occupy a similar role to that of the peat note that permeates most Islay Scotch.
Musty, earthy notes abound, but are tamed by dark fruit, chocolate and caramel. The end result is a delightfully unpolished, rough-hewn whisky that intrigues the senses with a constant sense of unfamiliarity.
And For Those So Inclined…
Enjoy Cooper’s Revival with the nutty, barnyard funk of a Quintero Favorito Cuban cigar. It’s an unassuming Cuban sandwich-style cigar (a value-priced cigar comprised of short filler) that like the whisky, has some bumps and blemishes here and there, but doesn’t fail to delight.
See more Canadian Whisky Reviews
– Kurt Bradley
Kurt Bradley is the founder of The Gentleman’s Flavor, to which he is also a contributing editor, host and curator.
Kurt is a certified Whisky Ambassador accredited by The Scotch Whisky Association and has achieved Level 2 Award in Wine & Spirits Education Trust with distinction.
He lives in Toronto, Ontario.
