In 1858 Hiram Walker founded his distillery in Windsor, Ontario. He also began to develop and finance the town of Walkerville, a community from where he sourced the majority of his employees.

His whisky was originally called Walker's "Club Whisky" and was positioned as a premium one with a reputation for its smoothness and also its age which was a minimum of 5 years in oak barrels. Most of his competitors at that time were offering whisky at less than one year old.

The word Canadian was added to the label in 1889 and then incorporated into the name in 1890.

Canadian Club, distilled 1909, 40% ABV

Typical cost of this bottle; Unknown, a complete rarity now

Dram-atics "Classics" review

Glass: Glencairn

Colour: Golden yellow

Nose: Massive amounts of butterscotch with hints of apricot jam and lightly nutty with hazelnut and almond.

Palate: Everything from the nose translates immediately onto the palate but in a slightly dry way, especially that nuttiness.

Finish: Long-ish

Overall Impression: This really is very amazing, in fact it's very much like a marvellous old Scotch grain whisky and I love good old grains! Fantastic, an unbelievable experience all the way from 1909.