To make the Forty Creek Barrel Select master distiller John Hall starts by distilling three different whiskies. A rye whisky, a barley whisky and a corn whisky that he puts into separate casks and allows them to age in their own right. Once they’re “ready” he blends the three separate components together to create the style and character he has in mind. This is fairly standard practice in Canada.
Forty Creek Barrel Select is a highly lauded, highly esteemed Canadian Whiskey by those who enjoy Canadian Whisky. Folks who spend their waking hours exploring this category have given it quite high marks and so it was with bated breath that I opened this bottle to see what magic it held inside.
Forty Creek Barrel Select Info
Region: Ontario, Canada
Distiller: Forty Creek
Mashbill: Rye Whisky + Barley Whisky + Corn Whisky
Cask: ex-Bourbon Barrels
Age: NAS
ABV: 40%
Price: $20*
Forty Creek Barrel Select Review
EYE
Dark honey
NOSE
Butterscotch, vanilla, caramel corn and Rice Krispies with a touch of espresso, spice and nuts that all comes across incredibly sweet with a grainy undertone.
PALATE
Butterscotch, caramel corn, waxy candy corn, toffee and a touch of spice and toasted bread. Again it’s candy sweet and that is my biggest issue. I’m not a sweets person and this is very sweet.
FINISH
Med. fade of butterscotch, vanilla, candy corn, maple and toffee that dies down to an ambiguous grainy sweetness.
BALANCE, BODY & FEEL
Not well balance (needs more spice!), a medium body and a light syrupy feel.
OVERALL
Forty Creek Barrel Select is an avalanche of butterscotch followed by a grainy sweetness that floods the senses and follows through the finish. There is complexity under the sweetness, but it’s nearly buried. Even after letting it sit for 30 minutes and, reluctantly, adding some water it was still a cavalcade of sweet notes with only light hints of anything dark or earthy attempting to balance it out.
I feel like I should throw out a couple of caveats though to those reading this and considering a bottle of the Forty Creek Barrel Select. First, I’m not a sweets person. I’m the salty / savory type; the only sugar I have in my house is some Baker’s Sugar I use for my humming bird feeder and a small jar of honey that’s lasted nearly 6 years. Second, I should note that on the whole I’m not a fan of the Canadian style of whisky – mostly because of the previous point. However, if you do like Canadian whisky then it’s quite possible you’d enjoy this.
SCORE: 79/100 C+
*Disclosure: This sample of Forty Creek Barrel Select was graciously sent to me by the company for the purposes of this review. The views, opinions, and tasting notes are 100% my own.
Forty Creek Barrel Select Review - Score Breakdown
Summary
Forty Creek Barrel Select is cloying butterscotch bomb, but I’m also not a huge Canadian Whisky fan… take that for what it’s worth.
- Nose -
- Palate -
- Finish -
- Balance, Body & Feel -
Never ever did I think to encounter a bland whiskey but I have now and heartily agree
with Pat Black Velvet is ever so much the better Canadian
Ha, cheers SalGal!
Being a Canuck, I have a soft spot for Forty Creek, but in my mind, Barrel Select (which is the “base” 40 Creek offering) is a mixer. It makes a FANTASTIC Whisky Sour, which is pretty much all I use it for. Similarly, the Forty Creek Copper Pot makes the most amazing Manhattan, but I would not drink it straight. You have to go to their annual special releases (eg: Unity, Victory, Resolve) to get to a sipping whisky IMO. Still sweet, which is a problem with Canadian Whisky in general (my opinion). FWIW, I think Lot 40 is a different beast entirely, and I drink that neat on a regular basis. It’s the only Canadian whisky that I enjoy straight up that costs less than $80.00 (here in British Columbia)
Full disclosure: I love American rye (eg: Rittenhouse), bourbon and scotch (Islay especially).
…oh and Forty Creek is 1000 times better than Canadian Club or Crown Royal, which give Canadian whisky a bad name (again, my opinion)
Loved reading this, thanks for sharing Johnny and I 100% agree with this -> “Forty Creek is 1000 times better than Canadian Club or Crown Royal” Cheers!
I have been drinking Black Velvet for 40 years and this product is now way near as smooth and enjoyable.
Sorry I tried this and it is now pushed to the very back of my liquor cabinet.
Thaks for sharing Pat, cheers!
I believe that you did explain this score with your own biases here. This is better than your review indicated, but I think you realize that by the fact you gave it just below a B- due to your dislike for the class. I think the main difference is I tend toward sweeter (I’m more of a rum fan) and this fits me well. I prefer this to many similarly priced bourbons and scotches, which start at Jim Beam White for bourbon and Dewar’s, Bell’s, and J&B for scotch (we don’t get the really cheap stuff here due to minimum pricing). Also, I’m not a huge fan of bourbon and Tennessee Whiskey, I spent quite a bit for Buffalo Trace and Eagle Rare, which are so highly rated for lower end bourbons and have never been very impressed. I’ll take my Canadian Whiskey at a lower price any day.
I’m very upfront that I don’t like the sweeter stuff and that’s 100% where my dislike for many Canadian whiskies comes from. They’re sooooo sweet. I agree this is better than something like a Canadian Club, but it’s still far too sweet for my daily tastes. Cheers!
My preferences are bourbon, Blantons, Knob Creek 120 proof and Rockhill Farms and some rye whiskeys. For Canadian, CC 12 yr Small Batch and in the past Forty Creek. Got a bottle of the barrel select and it is undrinkable. Lacking both nose and taste. The whiskey that you serve to the loud mouth brother-in-law that you can’t stand. 89+ percent of the bottle left that I will never drink.
“The whiskey that you serve to the loud mouth brother-in-law that you can’t stand” <- Love that line. Thanks for sharing your thoughts John. Cheers!
Josh, I know you like bourbon, which is why I take your reviews of Scotch (and this Canadian) with a grain of that knowledge :) I was surprised that you said you’re not a sweets person. Single Malts are my favorite and I always thought that bourbons and ryes are much sweeter (or perhaps they don’t have the perceived acidity of some malts to balance the sweetness out). Of course, I realize that there are very sweet malts and savory bourbons. (Sometimes I sip a bourbon and forget that it’s not a sherried malt).
I am almost not surprised by your review. Forty Creek is almost like good rum or brandy. On the one hand it’s much better than Canadian Club and Crown (which to me have the “spent cask” astringency that saturates the palate and overtakes the initial “smoothness”). On the other hand I’ll still like bourbons much more over this Forty Creek, I am just not into smoothness. But this whiskey would be a great way to introduce people to sipping spirits. It is not substandard (like certain mixing whiskies), yet mellow and smooth. And I like saying at tasting sessions: “this is a craft Canadian whiskey” :)
Hi Achy,
I do indeed like bourbon, but I also love Irish, Scotch, Indian, Taiwanese, etc. whisk(e)y… I just like good whiskey and review a decent amount of each.
The sweetness comes in a couple ways, there’s a saccharine cloying kind and a more natural kinda. I don’t mind the natural profiles which range from juicy orchard fruits to dried dark fruits and dark sweets like caramel and brown sugar. Though it’s not the sweetness I like in most bourbon and rye, it’s the oak which is anything but sweet. I like the more rustic oak, grain and nut driven profiles. But in Scotch I like the fruit and malt and peat driven profiles…
Ha, I like the line about “craft Canadian”, nice. I’m also a fan of good rum, cognac, Armagnac, wine, beer, brandy, other spirits and cocktails. I like to keep my palate broad, but on the whole Canadian just doesn’t ever hit it for me. Except for the Forty Creek releases which definitely seem to be better than most of what’s available on the US shelves. Especially the copper pot reserve. I enjoy that one.
Thanks for sharing, cheers!
I have to admit I like this…But only over ice as it’s just too sweet and rich for me. The other thing, this tastes like wine not whiskey. It has virtually no alcohol on the nose, and no burn going down. It’s Winesky, not Whiskey.
Oh man , lol .. ya gotta be kidding .. 79 ?! Josh , it’s not bourbon .. but I hear ya . I happen to think this stuff is damn good . It has a creamy mouth feel , a little wood , little spice and sweet caramel and it’s 20 bucks in my neck of the woods . Really , I cant think of any Canadian whiskey that comes close in it’s price range . Theres better but you have to drop more serious coin . It’s one of those things . Heck , I havey had a Scotch or Irish whisky I like yet .. go figure . Love this site .. cheers , man
Thanks John :) I’ve come to find that Canadian whisky just isn’t my thing, though their Copper Pot Reserve isn’t 1/2 bad. I like the Canadian single malts and ryes I’ve had, but the blends just don’t do it for me. Cheers!
It made me very sick
I am no lover of Canuck whisky but I find 40 Creek to be nearly passable. It tastes better with a substantial amount of water.
Sure sweet, but not over-powering. I find it less sweeter than some of the stuff under the Knob Creek label. And for the price,,can’t really knock it.
Like Josh, I’m not a Canadian whisky fan. I found it drinkable but very sweet, like they used a lot of white sugar in the process of making it. I won’t buy it again, but I did find it much better than the other Canadians I’ve had in the past.
“…but I did find it much better than the other Canadians I’ve had in the past.” <- That's about where I'm at too. I like the Copper Reserve a bit more, but it's still not what I'd call amazing.
To me, this is probably the very best value whisky available where I live (British Columbia, Canada). There are bourbons, American ryes, and single malt scotches I like more (some a lot more), but none of them are nearly as cheap as Forty Creek Barrel Select in British Columbia. And I agree it is sweet (which I am fine with), but what I am having a problem with is the idea that Canadian whisky in general is somehow sweeter than American whisky in general. The guy who has the Scotch Noob blog says the same thing you do. I really don’t get it. Forty Creek Barrel Select is sweet because it is one of only two Canadian whiskies I know of that spends time in sherry casks, so it is the sherry at work causing the sweetness. Most Canadian whisky is matured in ex-bourbon barrels, so like scotch it doesn’t pick up the full sweetness of the vanillas and caramels that American whisky gets from new, charred oak barrels. Consequently Canadian whisky never has that rich brown sugar note present in so many bourbons (a note I love). Also, the corn component in Canadian whisky is distilled to a level higher than would be permitted in any American straight whisky, so when it is blended with a smaller portion of lower-ABV rye, the rye sourness tends to over-ride the corn sweetness in a way that doesn’t happen with bourbon, because in bourbon the corn and rye are mashed together before distillation, distilled to the same relatively low proof, and the rye is too small a presence to over-ride the corn.
Side by side I find most Canadian whiskies, like this one, to be much sweeter and I think it has to do with the lack of a strong oak influence. Because they’re aged in used barrels they tend to be a bit more like Scottish grain whiskey than Bourbon which has that new-make-like sweetness when it’s young. Nearly every bottle of Canadian I open has this intense butterscotchy sweetness to it with the most notable exception being Lot 41 which I love.