Review #40: Wiser’s Dissertation

This is a review of Wiser’s Dissertation bottled at 46.1%. The sample for this review came from a bottle generously provided by Wiser’s for the Toronto Whisky Society. If you are not familiar with the background on this bottle I highly recommend you read up on it here.

N: Rye bread, molasses, pepper, green banana, caraway, vanilla, mint, cinnamon

P: Pepper, caramel, rye bread, vanilla, herbal, oak, anise, slightly bitter. Nice mouthfeel.

F: Medium-long. Lots of pepper, vanilla and brown sugar.

Overall: One of the better Canadian whiskies I’ve had. Lots of rye spices but there is a balance with the sweet vanilla and caramel/brown sugar. There really are quite a lot of classic bourbon/rye notes in this one. I love how there are more and more Canadian whiskies with big bold interesting flavours instead of the traditional quiet and sweet profiles most are used to. I’m looking forward to getting my own bottle of this once released.

Score: 84

Review #16 and #17: Wisers Red Letter 2013 and Union 52

Wisers has been putting out some interesting limited releases recently. One of the most recent, Union 52, is a BC exclusive release of a blend of one of Wisers high end regular releases called Wisers Red Letter with some unspecified 52 year old scotch. Both whiskies are bottled at 45% so I’m looking forward to this comparison to see what effect the likely tiny amount of 52 year old scotch had on the Red Letter. The Red Letter sample is the 2013 release and was provided by /u/TOModera and the Wisers Union 52 was generously given to me by /u/Devoz.

 

N (RL): Caramel, sawdust, creamed corn, rye bread, and little bit of something herbal, lighter and sweeter than the U52, a little citrus comes with time, everything is very light though.

N (U52): Caramel, honey, vanilla, grass, apple skins, menthol, malt, oak. Much richer than the Red Letter.

 

P (RL): Light and sweet with some rye spice, vanilla, oak, clove, dry with a thin mouthfeel.

P (U52): Rye, caramel, cinnamon, orange peel, oak, licorice, I like this more than the Red Letter but the mouthfeel remains pretty thin.

 

F (RL): Short. Caramel sweetness and some rye spice.

F (U52): Short and spicy, definitely not as sweet as the Red Letter. Orange peel.

 

Overall: Going into this I had thought that I would be able to pick out a lot of similarities between the two whiskies as U52 uses Red Letter as its base but was surprised when I found them to be fairly different. To me the U52 was better than the Red Letter across the board. It was deeper and richer and more complex beating the Red Letter slightly in each category from the nose to finish. Both are not my preferred style as I found them too light and thin but they were definitely able to improve on the Red Letter by blending in that scotch cask. Glad I was able to do this side by side I’m looking out for more releases from Wisers coming up in 2017.

 

Score (RL): 77

Score (U52): 80