Crown Royal Just Dropped Its Oldest Whisky Yet

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When it comes to Canadian whisky, you're mostly talking about non-age statement blends–that's not a dig, just a fact. But Crown Royal , one of the most popular Canadian whisky brands in the world, has been releasing some high age statement expressions over the past few years, culminating in the oldest to date: the new Crown Royal Aged 30 Years.

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The Crown Royal distillery is located in the town of Gimli in the province of Manitoba, not far from Winnipeg. The distillery makes different styles of whisky (Canada doesn't spell it with the "e" like we do here) using five different mashbills of corn, rye, and barley and 12 distillation columns to crate a liquid palate to draw from. These are aged separately in new and used barrels, and then blended together into the core product—the classic Crown Royal Deluxe, which comes in that familiar purple velvet bag.

Of course, there are many other whiskies produced at the Crown Royal distillery, ranging from the award-winning Northern Harvest Rye to the Extra Rare Master Series. Also, don't sleep on the weirdly appealing Golden Apple , a 23-year-old flavored whisky that might be the best in this understandably maligned category. The new 30-year-old follows the release of last year's 29-year-old, making this the oldest Crown Royal whisky to date by a year.

Like the other whiskies produced at the distillery, the components of this blend were all aged separately in casks before being blended together. But there's a twist—according to the brand, the whisky in this release was not distilled not at the Gimli distillery, but the LaSalle distillery on the island of Montreal. That site closed in 1993, but continues to operate as a bottling and aging facility, and the barrels were matured there. Also, this whisky is a blend of barrels of Coffey Rye, one of the whiskies used in the Deluxe blend, as opposed to marrying together different styles of whisky.

We got to taste a sample, and even if you don't consider yourself a fan of Canadian whisky this is a bottle worth trying. The color is a light gold, but remember that coloring is allowed to be added so this probably doesn't tell you a whole lot. The nose is a sweet bouquet of vanilla, caramel, and honey, with a bit of oak and tropical fruit on the back end. There is a bit of sweetness on the palate, but it's tempered by a zesty dollop of spice, pineapple, fresh orange juice, caramel, maple syrup, and a finish full of black pepper and blackberry notes. The whisky is bottled at 46 percent ABV, and it's nice to be able to taste this at higher than 80 proof.

You can find the new Crown Royal 30 Years Old in select states starting this month with an SRP of $500, and you can check online retailers like Drizly as well, where it's going for much, much more.

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