A Message from WhistlePig’s Founder to the People of Canada, and to Whiskey Drinkers Across the Globe

We at WhistlePig salute Canada’s accomplishments, past and present. Furthermore, as an American company, we pay homage to Canada as the producer of some of the world’s finest whiskey, if not the finest itself.

I offer this salutation for two reasons. First, I have just watched Argo (I am also told that Strange Brew is quite amusing). Second, I may have been guilty in the past, like many of my countrymen, of deriding Canada, as . . . well . . . just another, not particularly interesting, northern state, akin to North Dakota.

Speaking personally now, and for the record, I apologize. With respect to the Great White North, my views on Canada have been altered irrevocably.

For a time, my overwhelming enthusiasm for America, born of my background as the son of immigrants, coupled with my lack of interest in ice hockey and poutine, kept me from giving our northern neighbors their due. Now, however, with the benefit of age, maturity and experience, my unyielding and considerable admiration of Canada is informed by several considerations:

• I purchased a large stock of single malt Canadian rye whiskey distilled in the foothills of your Rocky Mountains; we finish the aging process here in Vermont, and bottle it as the highest rated rye whiskey in the world.
• I married a spectacular Canadian woman.
• My COO/CFO is a native of western Canada (he sports a wicked slapshot, and a propensity for ending his sentences with “Eh?”).
• My General Counsel was born and raised in an insignificant suburb of Windsor, Ontario known as Detroit; due to a geographic quirk, Detroit is one of the few places in the U.S. where one can gaze south into Canada.
• I read Churchill’s account of the Great World Wars of the last century. The British Bulldog observed that Canadians have fought in some of fiercest battles in history, with as much grit and bravery as any nation has ever exhibited in defense of liberty and freedom.
• Your national anthem lends itself better than the Star Spangled Banner to my natural baritone.
• You managed to keep your banks from imploding in 2008.
• Your banknotes are more cheerfully colored and have better pictures than our drab greenbacks.
• Montreal is the nearest major city to our farm in Shoreham, Vermont. The beauty of its people, and the richness of its history, is matched only by the quality of its food.
• The Mounties crimson is way cooler than any state trooper’s outfit.

Oh Canada, we too at WhistlePig, stand on guard for thee! Keep sending us your whiskey, and we will keep finishing it into the world’s finest bottles of rye, in addition to housing it alongside our future single-estate American rye expressions. Like Alex Trebek, Ryan Gosling, and Pamela Anderson…so American you forgot they were Canadian.

With glowing hearts and glasses raised,

Raj Bhakta