In the 18th and early 19th centuries,
gristmills distilled surplus grains to avoid spoilage. Most of these early whiskies would have been rough, mostly unaged
wheat whiskey. Distilling methods and technologies were brought to Canada by American and European immigrants with experience in distilling wheat and rye. This early whisky from improvised stills, often with the grains closest to spoilage, was produced with various, uncontrolled proofs and was consumed, unaged, by the local market. While most distilling capacity was taken up producing
rum, a result of Atlantic Canada's position in the British sugar trade, the first commercial scale production of whisky in Canada began in 1801 when
John Molson purchased a copper
pot still, previously used to produce rum, in Montreal. With his son
Thomas Molson, and eventually partner
James Morton, the Molsons operated a distillery in Montreal and
Kingston and were the first in Canada to export whisky, benefiting from
Napoleonic Wars' disruption in supplying French wine and brandies to England. buildings, c. 19th century. In the 1860s, the distillery became the world's largest producer of whisky.
Gooderham and Worts began producing whisky in 1837 in Toronto as a side business to their wheat milling but surpassed Molson's production by the 1850s as it expanded their operations with a new distillery in what would become the
Distillery District.
Henry Corby started distilling whisky as a side business from his gristmill in 1859 in what became known as
Corbyville and
Joseph Seagram began working in his father-in-law's
Waterloo flour mill and distillery in 1864, which he would eventually purchase in 1883. Meanwhile, Americans
Hiram Walker and
J.P. Wiser moved to Canada: Walker to
Windsor in 1858 to open a flour mill and distillery and Wiser to
Prescott in 1857 to work at his uncle's distillery where he introduced a rye whisky and was successful enough to buy the distillery five years later. The disruption of
American Civil War created an export opportunity for Canadian-made whiskies and their quality, particularly those from Walker and Wiser who had already begun the practice of aging their whiskies, sustained that market even after post-war tariffs were introduced. In the 1880s, Canada's
National Policy placed high tariffs on foreign alcoholic products as whisky began to be sold in bottles and the federal government instituted a
bottled in bond program that provided certification of the time a whisky spent aging and allowed deferral of taxes for that period, which encouraged aging. In 1890 Canada became the first country to enact an aging law for whiskies, requiring them to be aged at least two years. The growing
temperance movement culminated in
prohibition in 1916 and distilleries had to either specialize in the export market or switch to alternative products, like industrial alcohols which were in demand in support of the
war effort. was a Canadian industrialist, who consolidated several Canadian distilleries in the early 20th century. With the deferred revenue and storage costs of the Aging Law acting as a barrier to new entrants and the reduced market due to prohibition, consolidation of Canadian whisky had begun.
Henry Corby Jr. modernized and expanded upon his father's distillery and sold it, in 1905, to businessman
Mortimer Davis who also purchased the Wiser distillery, in 1918, from the heirs of J.P. Wiser. Davis's salesman
Harry Hatch spent time promoting the Corby and Wiser brands and developing a distribution network in the United States which held together as Canadian prohibition ended and
American prohibition began. After Hatch's falling out with Davis, Hatch purchased the struggling
Gooderham and Worts in 1923 and switched out Davis's whisky for his. Hatch was successful enough to be able to also purchase the Walker distillery, and the popular
Canadian Club brand, from Hiram's grandsons in 1926. While American prohibition created risk and instability in the Canadian whisky industry, some benefited from purchasing unused American distillation equipment and from sales to exporters (nominally to foreign countries like
Saint Pierre and Miquelon, though actually to
bootleggers to the United States). Along with Hatch, the
Bronfman family was able to profit from making whisky destined for the US during prohibition, and were able to open a distillery in
LaSalle, Quebec, and merge their company, in 1928, with
Seagram's which had struggled with transitioning to the prohibition marketplace.
Samuel Bronfman became president of the company and, with his dominant personality, began a strategy of increasing their capacity and aging whiskies in anticipation of the end of prohibition. When that did occur, in 1933, Seagram's was in a position to quickly expand; they purchased the British Columbia Distilling Company from the Riefel family in 1935, as well as several American distilleries and introduced new brands, one of them being
Crown Royal, in 1939, which eventually became one of the best-selling Canadian whiskies. While some capacity was switched to producing industrial alcohols in support of the country's
World War II efforts, the industry expanded again after the war until the 1980s. In 1945,
Schenley Industries purchased one of those industrial alcohol distilleries in
Valleyfield, Quebec, and repurposed several defunct American whiskey brands, like Golden Wedding, Old Fine Copper, and starting in 1972,
Gibson's Finest. Seeking to secure their supply of Canadian whisky,
Barton Brands also built a new distillery in
Collingwood, Ontario, in 1967, where they produced
Canadian Mist, though they sold the distillery and brand only four years later to
Brown–Forman. As proximity to the shipping routes (by rail and boat) to the US became less important, large distilleries were established in Alberta and Manitoba. Five years after starting to experiment with whiskies in their Toronto gin distillery, W. & A. Gilbey Ltd. created the
Black Velvet blend in 1951 which was so successful a new distillery in
Lethbridge, Alberta, was constructed in 1973 to produce it. . The distillery was built in 1969 for use by
Seagram. Also in the west, a Calgary-based business group recruited the Riefels from British Columbia to oversee their Alberta Distillers operations in 1948. The company became an innovator in the practice of bulk shipping whiskies to the United States for bottling and the success of their Windsor Canadian brand (produced in Alberta but bottled in the United States) led National Distillers Limited to purchase Alberta Distillers, in 1964, to secure their supply chain. More Alberta investors founded the Highwood Distillery in 1974 in
High River, Alberta, which specialized in wheat-based whiskies. Seagram's opened a large, new plant in
Gimli, Manitoba, in 1969, which would eventually replace their Waterloo and LaSalle distilleries. In British Columbia, Ernie Potter, who had been producing fruit liqueurs from alcohols distilled at Alberta Distillers, built his own whisky distillery in
Langley in 1958 and produced the Potter's and Century brands of whisky. Hiram Walker's built the Okanagan Distillery in
Winfield, British Columbia, in 1970 with the intention of producing Canadian Club but was redirected to fulfill contracts to produce whiskies for
Suntory before being closed in 1995. After decades of expansion, a shift in consumer preferences towards white spirits (such as vodka) in the American market resulted in an excess supply of Canadian whiskies. While this allowed the whiskies to be aged longer, the unexpected storage costs and deferred revenue strained individual companies. With the distillers seeking investors and multinational corporations seeking value brands, a series of acquisitions and mergers occurred. Alberta Distillers was bought in 1987 by
Fortune Brands, which went on to become part of
Suntory Global Spirits. Hiram Walker was sold in 1987 to
Allied Lyons, which
Pernod Ricard took over in 2006, with Fortune Brands acquiring the Canadian Club brand.
Grand Metropolitan had purchased Black Velvet in 1972 but sold the brand in 1999 to
Constellation Brands, who in turn sold it to
Heaven Hill in 2019. Schenley was acquired in 1990 by
United Distillers, which went on to become part of
Diageo, though Gibson's Finest was sold to
William Grant & Sons in 2001. Seagram's was sold in 2000 to
Vivendi, which in turn sold its various brands and distilleries to Pernod Ricard and Diageo. Highwood purchased Potter's in 2006. Despite the consolidation, the Kittling Ridge Distillery in
Grimsby, Ontario, began to produce the
Forty Creek brand, though it was sold to the
Campari Group in 2014. Later, the
Sazerac Company purchased the brands Seagram's VO, Canadian 83 and Five Star from
Diageo in 2018.
Illicit export to the United States , c. 1905–1915. Distilleries near the
Canada–United States border served
bootleggers during
prohibition in the U.S. Canadian whisky featured prominently in
rum-running into the U.S. during
Prohibition.
Hiram Walker's distillery in
Windsor, Ontario, directly across the
Detroit River and the international boundary between Canada and the United States, easily served
bootleggers using small, fast smuggling boats. ==Distilleries and brands==