Canadian Club - Late 1970s

Canadian Club is an historic blended Canadian whisky brand whose distillery was founded in Windsor, Ontario in 1858 by Hiram Walker. Canadian Club is blended from three different spirits distilled from corn, rye and a mix of rye, malted rye and malted barley, which are fermented and distilled separately and then blended before maturation. Today the Walker distillery is owned by Pernod Ricard, and makes Canadian Club under contract for brand owners Beam Suntory.

The original Walker’s Whisky became popular in gentlemen’s clubs, and was soon rechristened Club Whisky.  American distillers insisted on the addition of the word ‘Canada’ on the label to distinguish it from American brands, but this ploy only increased the blend’s popularity. The brand was officially renamed Canadian Club in 1890 and during Prohibition thousands of cases were smuggled across the Detroit River into America every week.