Canada is known for its quiet, welcoming nature, and among aficionados, so is its whisky. Although Canadian distilleries have been making whisky for more than two centuries, the category remains unknown to most people. Nevertheless, sales figures belie this lack of awareness, and based on global sales Canadian whisky is one of the “Big Four” whisky categories, along with Irish, American, and Scotch whisky.
Consumers in over 150 countries enjoy Canadian whisky and it is particularly popular in North America. In 2023, the most recent year for which data was available at press time, Canadian producers sold approximately 25.6 million 9-litre cases, with 17.9 million of these sold in America, 2.2 million in Canada, and the rest distributed around the world. Eastern Europe and Australia are key export markets.
Accurate sales data for individual brands is difficult to obtain. However, most sources agree that Crown Royal outsells the next six bestsellers combined, usually listing these in order as Black Velvet, Canadian Club, Canadian Mist, Rich & Rare, Windsor Supreme, and Seagram’s VO. In Canada, Crown Royal also leads in sales, with Canadian Club, Forty Creek, and Wiser’s vying for second place.
History
For millennia, before European colonists began arriving in the 16th century, Canada had a thriving Indigenous population. The new settlers often brought tiny stills with them, introducing the concept of distilling. Home distilling continues surreptitiously today, though it never contributed to the Canadian whisky style or any of the historic brands.
Rather, because Canada’s settlement followed America’s by about a century, British millers, having witnessed the profitability of milling in the US, established large industrial flour mills early in Canada’s history. These, in time, developed into massive industrial distilleries, some becoming the largest in the Commonwealth, and many of their brands remain in production, albeit in new distilleries.
Since 1865, the final year of the American Civil War, Canadian whisky was the bestselling whisky style in the U.S., until bourbon surpassed it in 2010. Still, American consumers purchase about 70% of Canada’s whisky. America’s Distilled Spirits Council (DISCUS) reports that sales of Canadian whisky rose by a further 2% in 2024, with much of this increase coming from ultra-premium bottlings.
With 1980s’ globalisation and a cyclical downturn in sales of brown spirits, most of Canada’s large distilleries became subsidiaries of global firms. Today, Diageo, Beam-Suntory, Pernod Ricard, Sazerac, Heaven Hill, and Campari own all but one major distillery and all the 10 top-selling brands. Canadian ownership is limited to Highwood Distillers in Alberta and about 60 small distilleries that have entered the whisky market in the past dozen years. Canada’s distilling industry is highly integrated with America’s.
Like its people, Canadian whisky has a long-standing reputation for approachability. However, that reputation is shifting, at least domestically. Since around 2010, a micro-distilling movement has emerged, adding bold bourbon-style whiskies, muscular 100% ryes, and richly flavourful single malts to Canada’s specialty – blended whisky. Nevertheless, nearly all of Canada’s whisky is distilled in one of nine factory plants. Three of these, Alberta Distillers, Highwood Distillery, and Black Velvet Distillery are located in Alberta; Diageo Global Supply – Gimli is in Manitoba; Forty Creek, Collingwood, and Hiram Walker distilleries are in Ontario; and Diageo Global Supply – Valleyfield is in Quebec.
Contentious regulations
Essentially, Canadian whisky is made from cereal grains; matured in wood for at least three years; mashed, distilled, and aged in Canada; bottled at no less than 40% abv; and possesses the aroma, taste, and character generally attributed to Canadian whisky – pretty standard stuff.
What raises hackles sometimes, is a 1950s regulation that permits Canadian blenders to include 9.09% wine or other aged spirits (2 years minimum aging) in their finished whiskies. U.S. taxes on the added wine or spirits can be as much as 90% lower than for whisky alone. For brands such as Black Velvet, which sells over 1.8 million cases of value-priced whisky in America each year, a 90% tax reduction on 9.09% of that volume keeps it price-competitive on U.S. shelves. America, incidentally, also permits similar, though smaller additions to its blended whiskies. Some Canadian producers have begun adding non-whisky flavouring to premium whiskies.
A complex market
Canada’s constitution provides that the federal government regulates the production of beverage alcohol while provincial governments manage sales. For spirits producers and consumers alike, one of the great frustrations of the Canadian retail market is that in all provinces except Alberta and British Columbia, the government exercises a monopoly on alcohol sales, shutting out private retailers and significantly reducing product selection. In the absence of retail competition, the goal of maximising government revenues works against premium and niche products, favouring high-turnover products instead. Liquor boards purchase whisky at wholesale from private distributors, and retail prices vary significantly among provinces, with liquor boards imposing as many as seven taxes and levies on wholesale price (see table).
For producers, getting products “listed” with provincial liquor stores can be a tortuous and disappointing process. This has led some to direct their sales efforts away from difficult monopolies such as the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, despite it being one of the Western world’s largest buyers of beverage alcohol. During COVID, many small producers began selling their products at retail by mail, and this continues in various forms.
Ownership of retail stores by provincial governments afforded them a tool for swift retaliation when the U.S. imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian beverage alcohol on March 4, 2025. Within hours, most Canadian liquor store shelves were cleared of U.S. products including bourbon. While Lawson Whiting, the CEO of Brown-Forman, which owns Jack Daniel’s, called this reaction disproportional, most Canadians cheered. These tariffs continue to cast uncertainty over Canada’s whisky industry.
That, in a nutshell, is Canadian whisky. If you’ve not tasted it, there has never been a better time than now.