Forty Creek

John Hall was an Ontario winemaker for two decades before he bought a Grimsby distillery on the Niagara wine bench in 1992 and set out to make Canadian whisky the way a vintner would. He distils rye, corn and barley entirely separately — each in the still and barrel char he thinks suits it — then blends the three matured whiskies like a cuvée, sometimes finishing the marriage in sherry wood. The results made Forty Creek the most awarded craft distillery in Canada and proved the country's tradition still had new chapters in it.