Found North has received a lot of buzz on the internet of late. I had seen many posts about it hailing this whisky as a “George T. Stagg killer.” Always at cask strength with a mashbill that looks more like bourbon than Canadian, the mashbill statements are not what we are used to in the bourbon world. Rather, the percentages of corn, rye, and barley are derived from the respective mashbills of Canadian whiskies blended into the batches of Found North. This whisky is bottled in New Hampshire from barrels found north in Canada. Most Canadian whiskies are blended, but most follow the tradition of blended scotch by incorporating pure grain alcohol into the mix to detract from the flavors of the barrelled whiskies. Found North follows the newer tradition of blending good cask strength whiskies, sometimes re-barrelling them, and bottling them.

The age statements are also not what you would normally expect in American whiskey. By law, an age statement on whiskey in the United States has to refer to the youngest whiskey in the mix. But, typically, the whiskey that went into the batch is generally around the same age. With Found North, however, sometimes the whiskies in the blend are much older than the youngest in the batch – sometimes by as much as eight more years. When you are talking about an 18 year old whiskey having some 26 year old whiskey in the mix, you are talking about some seriously long aged whiskey in the blend. Found North’s mission is to find some of the best aging whiskey barrels in Canada and blend them to perfection.

If I were to try to identify a comparable American whiskey product to Found North, I would probably name Old Carter American and Barrell Whiskey as the closest relatives to Found North. This is largely because Found North uses a lot of ultra-aged corn whiskies that are aged in freshly charred oak casks and ex-bourbon cases, some of which are re-charred. But, the base is always some long aged rye (or wheat, in one batch) that I think gives Found North a little bit more spicy bourbon punch to balance out the sweetness of the corn whiskey. It’s really good.

I got my first bottle a few months ago when a buddy of mine was in Illinois, a bottle of batch 7. I hadn’t reviewed it until now, because I thought most of my readers in Louisiana will never even see a bottle of this. But when I recently went by Hokus Pokus, they had three bottles. The store manager told me his distributor had been pushing him to by some, and he turned them down two times but relented on the third time. It told him, no, you want this, this isn’t your typical Canadian whisky. In short, Found North has now made its way South, and at the $150 price point I paid, this whisky is a good deal when you think about what a bottle of Old Carter American will cost you.

Found North Cask Strength Whisky Batch 7 – this whisky is a blend of a corn whisky distilled in 1998 and aged in ex-bourbon barrels, combined with two twenty-two year old corn whiskies, one aged in ex-bourbon casks and one aged in freshly charred oak barrels. They then added in the youngest whisky in the blend, an 18 year old rye aged in used Hungarian oak barrels. The rye was one short month away from being 19 years old, but they felt the blend was just perfect so they bottled it rather than adding another year to the age statement. The resulting mashbill is 83% corn, 18% rye, and 1% barley. The result is a whisky at a hefty 131.8 proof. However, my wife really likes this one because it is so smooth despite the proof; it doesn’t drink hot. On the nose is caramelized sugar with lovely fruit and floral notes with some lovely oak tannin in the background. The color is straw like – darker than scotch but lighter than long aged bourbons. Big thick film and super long legs on the swirl. On the palate, creme brulee with lots of cinnamon, spices ranging from baking spices to black pepper, and then some bitter cacao to round it all out. The mouthfeel is super creamy and while there is some alcohol tingle, I have had 110 proof whiskies that were much more harsh on the palate. On the finish the baking spices linger with some clove thrown in and linger as oak tannin which was in the background really beings to assert itself. This is a truly amazing whisky.

Found North Cask Strength Whisky Batch 8 – Batch 8 shows the lengths to which Found North will go to make a perfect blend of whiskey. The had some 18 year old rye aged in ex-Madeira casks, but they found it to be a little bit unruly, so they blended it with with 22 and 23 year old corn whisky aged in newly charred barrels, a 23 year old corn whisky aged in ex-bourbon barrels, a 26 year old corn whisky aged in Hungarian oak, and a 19 year old rye also aged in Hungarian oak. All of this to produce a little less than three thousand bottles with a mashbill of 87% corn, 13% rye, and 1% barley at a hearty 124.4 proof. The color on this is staw-like but again darker than scotch. The film on this is so super thick that you have legs running down from oily pools emanating from the film. On the nose is Caribbean vanilla, blueberries and blackberries, freshly baked pies, but with some nice oak in the background. On the palate, the vanilla and berry notes are joined by tangy and tart notes, like baked green apples topped with almonds and hazelnuts toasted in butter, and cinnamon. Mouthfeel is full bodied yet somehow different from batch 8 – slighty lighter, slightly smoother. On the finish is spiced cake with a whiskey glaze with some oak in the background to give it all structure. I dare say this ultra-aged whiskey is refreshing on the palate, in the sense of a cool fall breeze being refreshing after a hot and stifling summer.

Now, I am not saying that every bourbon drinker needs to run out a find a bottle of Found North because this is the latest and greatest thing. This is not the latest thing in bourbon because this isn’t bourbon. This is hopefully the start of something new for Canadian whiskies. But this is definitely a whiskey produced by and for bourbon nerds. The whiskey is predominately corn and rye or wheat, which say bourbon to me over Canadian, and the different barrels they are sampling to put into their blends are diverse and interesting. But this is something different and new on the North American whiskey front. There was a time after the bourbon depression in the 1970’s when there were barrels of amazing long aged bourbon to be had, and brands like Hirsch and Black Maple Hill capitalized on this availability. Those days are long gone. But, perhaps, Found North is the beginning of the discovery of amazing long-dormant barrels of whiskey in Canada being bottled and enjoyed. Found North has one up on Hirsch and Black Maple Hill though. They are doing more than finding good barrels and bottling them. They are finding interesting barrels and blending them to come up with something that is more than the sum of its parts.

I had the privilege of having a chat with Nick Taylor, one of the founders of Found North, by Zoom. The video recording is below.