Umami is the flavor of now. Dubbed the fifth primary taste—along with sweet, sour, bitter and salty—chefs, burger chains, and even spirits makers are getting in on the action. Last year, Johnnie Walker released a special savory edition of its classic Blue Label called Elusive Umami. Now Canadian whisky maker Bearface releases its own umami spirit, Matsutake 01.
Bearface launched back in 2018 with a focus on elemental aging, meaning that the whisky was finished in ex-wine casks, matured in sherry pipes, and placed in shipping containers out in the Canadian wilderness. Exposure to the elements “amplifies how the whisky and wood interact,” reads the brand’s website.
Matsutake 01 is the first bottle of Bearface’s new Wilderness Series. The limited-edition release was made with matsutake mushrooms, a scarce brown and white fungi found in Vancouver. By infusing three special casks with the mushrooms then aging the barrels for six months before blending with the other casks, Bearface imparted unique flavors to the final whisky. The result is complex, with savory and cinnamon notes, followed by wild, earthy warmth, and an umami finish featuring subtle forest floor notes.
“This Matsutake expression has been a long time in the making. With each new limited release, we strive to shatter category norms and challenge traditions,” says Bearface master blender Andrés Faustinelli. “The matsutake mushroom grows once a year in the Canadian wilderness, making it highly covetable and rare and brings a sophistication to this bottle unlike any other whisky.”
Bearface Matsutake 01 is bottled at 42.5 percet ABV. In Canada, the brand has already launched the second whisky in the collection, Mitlenatch Island 02.
If you want to mix a drink with Matsutake 01, the brand suggests this Krakauer-inspired cocktail called Into the Wild.
Matsutake 01 “Into the Wild” Cocktail
Courtesy of Bearface
Matsutake 01 “Into the Wild” Cocktail
Ingredients
2 oz Bearface Matsutake 01 Whisky
1/4 oz orgeat syrup
1/4 oz sugar syrup
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Method
Add all ingredients to a mixing glass filled with ice and stir well.
Chart-topping singer Michael Bublé travels the world to perform hits like “Feeling Good” and “Haven’t Met You Yet.” But despite global stardom, Bublé has never left his Canadian roots behind. So it’s no surprise that when he thought about launching a whiskey brand, he named it for two rivers that converge near his home, Fraser & Thompson, where he spent time with his grandfather growing up.
Released through a joint partnership with Quebec-based Cirka Distilleries, which Bublé co-owns, and Kentucky-Based Heaven Hill, Fraser & Thompson blends Canadian whisky and Kentucky bourbon to create what Bublé calls North American whiskey.
Men’s Journal spoke with the five-time Grammy winner from his house in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he lives a stone’s throw from his old middle school with his wife, Argentine actress, model, and singer Luisana Lopilato, and their four kids. He calls his whiskey brand a “family business,” and that’s not just marketing speak—his wife is on the board.
With sweet fig and blood orange on the nose and a subtle finish of caramel, vanilla, and a hint of spice, it’s no wonder Fraser & Thompson landed on our list of best Canadian whiskies. It’s a fitting bottle for a man as approachable as he, who brings fans on stage to sing with him.
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Men’s Journal: You and I first met about fifteen years ago. I was your bartender at the Chateau Marmont, back when your old roommate, Nels, was a waiter there.
Get outta here! That’s crazy. I was single back then, and I have to tell you, that part of my life was a really cool transition for me. I was just this Canadian kid surrounded by movie stars. And there was this Filipino waiter, Romulo, who I would sing with.
Romulo was a legend—the Singing Waiter. When he died, he was buried in his Chateau Marmont uniform.
He and I instantly connected. I got to know some of his family because, at that time, I wasn’t as big in America, but I was big in the Philippines. It was crazy. So, I knew a few words of Tagalog, and I would make fun of some guy sitting at the table next to us or little things like that, and he loved it. That was 16 years ago now. I’ve met zillions of people since then, but I still remember Romy’s name after all these years.
The hotel staff all liked you because you didn’t put on any airs, and it seems like it’s the same way with Fraser & Thompson. The way you’ve marketed it is funny, a little self-deprecating, and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Is that all coming from you?
It’s me. I would call this a family business. I don’t know how else to say it. This started with my wife and I on my birthday. My manager, Bruce [Allen] said, “I got this guy here, Paul Cirka from Montreal, and he wants you to try his booze. He loves this shit, he’s passionate about the stuff, but I don’t think it’s a big enough company to have you as an ambassador.” And that’s how it started––on my birthday sitting right outside my place here.
And where do you live?
I never left home. If I opened my door, I could show you the elementary school that I went to, literally right across the street.
Wow. So how did that first tasting go?
Cirka brought whiskey, a little vodka, some spiced rum—he had all this different stuff. Well, it was good. No joke. That night, I said to Bruce, “They’re not ready for me to work alongside them as a brand ambassador.” But I looked at my wife and said, “What would you think about us buying a part of the company, if they were interested, and doing this as a family?” We’d been looking for something that we both like that we could both dive into as partners that would be creatively fun for us. Then I talked to my best friend Ron Toigo––I own a major junior hockey team with him, and every business I’m ever in, I go in with him––and I was like, “Hey, it’s probably not gonna do shit. But you know what, it’d be fun.” And that’s how it started.
What was the process from that night to actually partnering with the distillery and starting your own whiskey brand?
We ended up talking to Paul Cirka to become partners in the company, and my wife joined the board. Then Bruce called a friend of mine in Vegas named Larry Ruvo, who’s a big distributor, to get some pointers. Then, I happened to be down with Lorne Michaels, who was producing a show I was doing on the Saturday Night Live stage. Lorne says, “Would you go down and meet this guy, Shelly Stein, who’s the head of [beverage distributor] Southern Glazer’s?”
Bruce and I went to his apartment, Shelly and his wife ordered Chinese food. I had no idea what I was getting into, this was so new to me. But I started to understand that this guy was part of major partnerships with Jamie Fox and others, and we hit it off. He was like, “You know what, I think there could be something here. But listen, we need another partnership with your company Cirka, because with what I want to do, we need more supply, and the distillery in Montreal is not going to be able to do what we need.”
If that’s what led to Heaven Hill becoming involved, what was the process of actually creating the blend of “North American Whiskey,” using liquid from Cirka Distilleries and Heaven Hill?
When it all comes down to it, I was so lucky that my partner Paul [Cirka] was this beautiful, smart, passionate whiskey nerd. Did I get to taste stuff? Did I have my opinion and my wife’s opinion shared? Oh yeah. But was I sitting there mixing things from an oaken barrel? No. it was me putting my trust into this family around me, and into Paul.
Trusting people from Quebec in matters of the palate is a good idea.
And it was interesting, too, because I was so in over my head. All of a sudden, this little boutique thing that I was working on with my wife and my buddies started to get bigger and more ambitious.
All of a sudden, there was this conversation that we think Heaven Hill may have interest in creating this blend with us. It’d be [Heaven Hill’s first partnership] in over 100 years. I didn’t know that. I wanted to be a part of it. So, I went down to Heaven Hill in Kentucky. I wanted to meet the family, and I got to see the first bottle come off the line. I didn’t want this to be a thing where the guy just puts his name on the damn thing and says, “Here’s the story that we’ve made up.”
How did you get from that first bottle to the final product?
That first bottle went around the table, and everyone tasting it loved it so much that when it came back around to me, it was empty. As each new iteration came, it was a new generation of flavors. When I finally got to taste the finished product, I was sitting in a trailer with a guy from Rolling Stone. I was so nervous, because I thought, “Oh my god, if I don’t genuinely like this, it’s gonna be a struggle.”
We spent three years [making the whiskey]. At one point, we stopped everything. We stopped the marketing, the production … We stopped it all because Larry Ruvo had a couple of friends of his that are connoisseurs and big buyers try it. They said, “Meh, we’re not sure.” So we stopped everything, flew everyone to Las Vegas, and had a blind taste test. We blind tasted about 12 different top brands, some up to two grand a bottle. The same friends that originally said “meh” gave our whiskey second place.
So, my point is, they kept telling me the number one thing is the juice. We had to make sure the juice was good. Number two, we had to get people to try it. You can have the greatest marketing plan in the world, but they have to try it. And number three, slow and steady wins the race. They knew I was ambitious. They knew I wanted to see it on every shelf, in commercials, all out there. But we didn’t want to send people to the stores before it’s even in the stores. So, it’s been a real lesson in patience and trust.
“For me, this was a really cool way to pay tribute to a guy that I love,” Michael Bublé says of his grandfather, who inspired Fraser & Thompson whiskey.
Courtesy of Fraser & Thompson
As for the name of your whiskey, you’ve said you spent time with your grandfather growing up at the convergence of the Fraser and Thompson rivers near your home. How does your grandfather fit into the brand?
We kept trying to come up with a name that would mean something. My grandfather and his wine cellar were a big part of my life. He would make his famous wine, and we’d take it to a suite at hockey games with [professional hockey players] Gordie Howe and Pat Flynn, guys that are heroes of mine. My grandfather also used to make grappa and serve it with cherries—you know, a good Italian grandpa. For me, this was a really cool way to pay tribute to a guy that I love.
Again, it’s a family business. And now my poor wife is stuck on a board. I think if she could re-spell it, she’d spell it B-O-R-E-D. But it’s fun for us. Some of the marketing you haven’t seen yet features us together. She’ll be the brand ambassador in South America and places where she’s well known. So it’s cool to have something like that where we can both be part of it, we both like the product, and we both like the people we work with.
What has been the biggest surprise for you, through the whole process of bringing a new spirits brand to market?
Easily, it would be the logistics of getting it done at this level. I knew what flavor profiles were, I saw the making of the whiskey, especially being as close to Paul as I was. It was interesting because the way he spoke about whiskey, the way he spoke about the textures, the flavors, all of it, is the same way that I speak that way about music. I speak that way about a song that I’ve just done, and I’m so excited to tell you how this melody and this rhythm somehow wrap perfectly around lyrical content, and how the notes blend. I will talk and talk and I can just see people’s eyes glazing over. Because at some point, the people listening just want to hear the song––just shut up, we just want to hear the song.
And so that part I understood. It was all of the logistics that I didn’t. If you look at the team I have around me now, from our CEO, Marshall Watson, to all these other people who have had these massive careers in other brands of spirits, when they called me and said, “Well, we have a problem. We’re not going to get glass.” I thought, what do you mean you’re not going to get glass? “Glass is hard to get right now. It’s incredibly expensive.” But I understood that it would take time for distribution because I sell records. Back in the day when we sold CDs, it was slow and arduous.
Sounds like you’ve learned a lot through all of this, but that some things do connect, between making music and making whiskey.
I’ve joked about this before, but I was so naive that when I first talked to Paul Cirka, I asked him how big his brewery was. I was just like, I really like drinking whiskey, and I just want to go into business with my family and friends, and if we make money, that’s a huge bonus. You know what’s weird? No joke, I still feel that way. I’m lucky. I did good. I made good money. My family is taken care of. That’s a nice feeling. And I don’t need a Lamborghini. I’m not that guy. Another however much doesn’t change my life. For me, if there’s anything that I’m hungry for, it’s the ability to be a brand ambassador, and to help grow my brand. To fight again for a few more years of survival in a crazy business where the public can throw you out quickly. I love that, and when I’m in, I’m in. Like right now, I’m a brand ambassador for Rolex. It’s been 17 years, and I love it.
You’ve been selective with your partnerships, like Rolex, and of course the Bubly water Bublé water connection.
For Bubly, we thought we were gonna do one commercial for the Super Bowl—it’s been six years now. As a matter of fact, I did a bunch of interviews because they put out a new flavor called Merry Berry Bublé, and in every mall they built these massive installations for Merry Berry Bublé. I also just did a big thing for Asda, the big UK supermarket. My point is that once I’m in, and once I’m part of your brand, I’m in. It’s a joy. If I like the product, and I respect the people, it’s genuine for me.
You’ve been described as the last member of the Rat Pack. Where do you fit into that lineage? Or where do you diverge from it?
It’s not my choice, but I know that I do fit into that lineage. I understand that I continue the legacy of those heroes of mine, and I’m lucky enough to be one of the guys that gets to keep those legacies alive. There’s a shirt that I see everywhere, and it says Darin, Martin, Sinatra, Bublé. The first time I saw it, I jumped back.
There’s also definitely a part of that trope with whiskey, but when I started talking about what I wanted this to be, and how I wanted it to match who I was and what my real brand was, it was busting the tropes of whiskey. We did not want to be sitting in a leather chair with a cigar, telling people that this is serious whiskey that CEOs and VIPs drink. Now, we were serious about making the whiskey, and the flavor of the whiskey, but the whole idea was to reverse engineer a whiskey for people that didn’t want to drink whiskey or didn’t always like whiskey. I wanted my wife to be able to pour glass and say, “Wow, I like it, it’s really smooth. I like that it’s a little sweet.” And she fell in love with it.
For her, it was funny, any kind of spirit like that would be too strong for her to drink straight, I would take a little brown sugar, a little bitters, and make her an old fashioned with it. She went nuts for it. That’s her drink now. I understand that there are people like Paul Cirka who could spend hours talking about the barrels, the profiles, the million notes that go into creating a top end $1,000 bottle of whiskey. But that’s not what we’re doing. We’re making whiskey that’s accessible to people. And for me, thankfully, I had great partners that agreed with me. The price point was one of the most important parts for me. For 35 bucks, people are gonna try it, and they’re gonna like it. I think we’re as good or better as anything else sitting at that price point. That’s part of my brand—being accessible, having fun, and not taking it all so seriously.
Thanks, Michael. It’s great to hear the inside story of Fraser & Thompson, and it’s nice to reconnect after all these years.
I’m just tripped out that we knew each other that many years ago. I think back to that time and I loved it. I had fun. But I was also scared. There was so much of the unknown that was coming at me. I knew I had potential, but it was still all just kind of starting and bubbling up. I loved that time—but I’m happier now.
When you think of the best whiskey, what’s at the top of your list—or, I guess I should ask, atop your bar? If you’re like most American whiskey lovers, you’ve got a healthy amount of bourbon and maybe a few bottles of rye. If your taste skews international, perhaps you’re well-versed in Scotch, Japanese whisky, and Irish whiskey. But there’s probably one type you’re overlooking: the best Canadian whiskies.
“Americans don’t know much about Canadian whisky,” says Noah Rothbaum, author of The Art of American Whiskey and the upcoming The Whiskey Bible. “But in the last few years, the perceptions of drinkers, bartenders, and connoisseurs have changed, and we’ve had to totally rethink Canadian whisky.”
The craft spirits revolution hit Canada later than it did the U.S., but it’s since taken hold—inspiring the emergence of new brands and renewed interest in longstanding ones. At last, imbibers are getting up to speed with what industry insiders have known for decades: the nation that gave us basketball, Wayne Gretzky, and Neil Young, can make a damn good bottle of whisky.
Men’s Journal aims to feature only the best products and services. We update when possible, but deals expire and prices can change. If you buy something via one of our links, we may earn a commission.
Best Overall Canadian Whisky: Canadian Club 15-Year-Old Sherry Cask Invitation Series
Canadian Club 15-Year-Old Sherry Cask Invitation Series
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“This is new and my clear favorite,” De Kergommeaux says about Canadian Club 15-Year-Old Sherry Cask Invitation Series. It’s Canadian Club 12-Year that’s undergone a second aging in oloroso sherry casks for an added layer of complexity. Bottled at 42 percent ABV, it’s low enough to enjoy with just a single big cube. It’s obtainable both in terms of availability and price, and a whisky worthy of sipping and appreciating on its own as much as any fine bourbon or Scotch. I was totally blown away by craft expressions from Found North, one of which is on this list, but the lower price, wider availability, and nod from De Kergommeaux nudged this newly released whisky into the top spot.
Best Crown Royal Canadian Whisky: Crown Royal Barley Edition
Crown Royal Barley Edition
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While De Kergommeaux is also a big fan of Crown Royal 18, he singled out Crown Royal Barley Edition as particularly excellent. The 100 percent barley Canadian whisky uses a mix of malted and unmalted barley, which gives it a distinctive mouthfeel and flavor. Enjoy this one neat or on the rocks.
Best Canadian Whisky to Gift: Pendleton Whisky Director’s Reserve
Pendleton Whisky Director’s Reserve
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Pendleton Whisky Director’s Reserve is aged 20 years in American oak, then cut with glacier-fed water from Mount Hood in Oregon. Thanks to its rustic wooden box, the bottle’s leather neck, and a cork topped with a bronze cowboy, this is the best Canadian whisky for gifting. At 40 percent ABV, it’s a very easy sipper.
Best Rare Canadian Whisky: Found North Batch 007 18-Year-Old Cask Strength
Found North Batch 007 18-Year-Old Cask Strength
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For die-hard whisky fans, I strongly suggest hunting down a batch of Found North. And if you can get your hands on any of its limited batches, snap it up. Found North Batch 007 18-Year-Old Cask Strength sits at 62.2 percent ABV, so it can handle dilution from ice. It’s a mix of 83 percent corn, 12 percent rye, and 1 percent barley, aged in Madeira casks. Flavor-wise, it’ll take you places not even the best bourbon or Scotch has taken you before.
Best Single-Barrel Canadian Whisky: Caribou Crossing Single Barrel
Caribou Crossing Single Barrel
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Caribou Crossing Single Barrel is the first single-barrel whisky produced in Canada since the 19th century. While the age and blend are not stated, the single barrel gives every batch—which is bottled twice a year—its own subtly different personality. It’s distilled at Old Montreal Distillery and bottled at Buffalo Trace. At 40 percent ABV, it’s an easy one to sip neat, and doesn’t require dilution to tame it.
Best Canadian Rye: Alberta Premium Cask Strength Rye
Alberta Premium Cask Strength 100% Rye
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Alberta Premium Cask Strength Rye is distilled in Calgary and made of 100 percent prairie rye and Rocky Mountain water. This is a clear and elegant example of Canadian terroir in a glass, bottled at a range of 65.1 to 66.1 percent ABV. While we have some favorite bourbons for old fashioneds, this is a stellar Canadian whisky for a Manhattan.
More Canadian Whiskies We Love
Best Canadian-Ish Whiskey: Fraser & Thompson
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Fraser & Thompson is a North American whiskey, as it’s a mix of 92 percent Canadian whisky and 8 percent bourbon. It’s owned by Canadian singer Michael Bublé, and bottled at Heaven Hill in Kentucky. It’s approachable, affordable, and as smooth as Bublé’s baritone.
Best Splurge Canadian Whisky: Lock, Stock, and Barrel 21-Year
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Lock, Stock, and Barrel 21-Year sourced this 100 percent rye whiskey from Canada. It was double distilled in copper pots and barreled in 1999, then cold-weather matured. It’s bottled at a potent 55.5 percent ABV, and is astonishingly rich, viscous, and complex, offering just enough sweetness to make the 111 proof go down easy. That said, its spicy notes ricochet off the palate and let you know with every sip this is something special.
Best Value Canadian Whisky: Pendleton Whisky Midnight
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Pendleton Whisky Midnight is partly aged in ex-American brandy barrels for added richness. It’s smooth and full-bodied, with notes of baking spice like nutmeg and cinnamon, black pepper, dark berries, dried fruits, apple, and vanilla. The proof is amped up to 90, which brings a bit of heat, but also helps to augment the character of this lovely and assertive whisky. Even so, it’s still a smooth sipper you can enjoy on its own or in a cocktail.
Best Elementally Aged Canadian Whisky: Bearface Matsutake 01
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Bearface Matsutake 01 was “elementally aged” inside ex-wine and ex-sherry casks housed within shipping containers in the Canadian wilderness. Making a batch of whisky go on its own season of Alone yields a smoother, more complex sipper than you’d expect for the price point.
Best Canadian Whisky for Newbies: Forty Creek Confederation Oak Reserve
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Canadian Whiskey expert Davin De Kergommeaux, who just released a new edition of his definitive book, Canadian Whisky, called Forty Creek Confederation Oak Reserve one of “the most enjoyable Canadian whiskies to introduce whisky lovers to the category.” Rich, complex, and balanced, it’s finished for up to two years in Canadian oak casks, which impart spicier wood notes than American oak. Bottled at 40 percent ABV, it’s enjoyable neat.
Best Cask-Finished Canadian Whisky: Pike Creek 10-Year-Old Rum Barrel Finished
After a 10-year aging process during which oak casks experience frigid Canadian winters and scalding summers, Pike Creek 10-Year-Old is treated to a finish in ex-rum casks. The typical spicy Canadian whisky flavors are balanced by the rum’s dried fruit and vanilla influence, culminating in a smooth but interesting sipper. Try it in an old fashioned or just on the rocks.
Why You Should Trust Me
I’ve been writing about bars, cocktails, and spirits for 16 years—and, before that, I bartended for more than a decade at Hollywood’s legendary Chateau Marmont Hotel. In one way or another, I’ve been employed in the realm of booze since the turn of the millennium.
Despite all that experience, while working on this piece, I realized I possessed some of the same glaring blind spots about Canadian whisky that many Americans do. So, I reached out to one of the top spirits experts in the world, as well as the top Canadian whisky expert to put this list together, factoring in their recommendations and embarking on a lot of tastings of blends, ryes, and barleys.
The biggest asterisk on this list is that many great craft Canadian whiskies are not available in the U.S., so some great bottles are excluded due to a lack of accessibility. Moreover, there’s a slight bias in this list to more high-end connoisseur’s whiskies because that’s the side of the category that felt the least understood by whisky lovers in the U.S. There are more affordable whiskies, such as Windsor Canadian and Canadian Hunter Rye, that were also recommended by our experts.
What We Look for in the Best Canadian Whisky
To understand what makes Canadian whisky unique, I spoke to Davin de Kergommeaux, who’s book, Canadian Whisky: The Essential Portable Expert, dropped in March 2024. He’s been writing about whisky for more than a quarter of a century and is the founder of the Canadian Whisky Awards.
Canadian whisky has a reputation for being light in flavor, although De Kergommeaux says that tastings reveal a broad range of flavor profiles ranging from “austere and elegant to bold, muscular, and brazen,” and that what really matters for Canadian whisky is “balance, subtlety, and complexity.”
The flavor profile of good Canadian whisky has its own personality. “At first sip, Canadian whisky is often quite sweet, much like bourbon, though with less vanilla and more oak caramels,” De Kergommeaux says. “Then comes a spicy, peppery blast, often accompanied by floral tones and baking spices and, finally, a cleansing pithiness like the white of grapefruit skin.”
These are the basic touchstones of Canadian whisky, which blenders then add hundreds of subtler notes to. “Less expensive Canadian whiskies also show these three flavor markers,” says De Kergommeaux, but “if you pay just a little bit more, you experience a much fuller range of flavors.
What Is Canadian Whisky?
Most Canadian whisky is made from corn, wheat, and rye, just like bourbon, De Kergommeaux says. With bourbon in the U.S., distillers mix these grains together in a mash bill, then distill them. Canadian distillers, by contrast, mash, ferment, and distill each of these grains separately, then blend the mature whiskeys together.
“This practice allows distillers to maximize the flavor of each grain,” says De Kergommeaux. “For example, corn matures best in heavily charred barrels, while rye is much tastier when matured in toasted barrels.” He says that distillers make strongly flavored single-grain whiskies, then blend these with lighter corn whiskey matured in re-used barrels, therefore giving it a more neutral flavor as the canvas on which the stronger-flavored whiskeys can be painted.
The appreciation of 100 percent Canadian rye in the U.S. is what jumpstarted Canada’s craft spirits movement. The more we bought it and bottled it (for WhistlePig, for example), the more Canadians realized what they had was something special.
You might hear people refer to Canadian whisky as “rye,” even when it only has a small amount of rye grain. De Kergommeaux says the reason for this is simple: In the early days of whisky-making in Canada, most whisky was made from wheat, and European immigrants who knew rye-grain spirits from home suggested that Canadian whisky makers add a bit of rye to their mashes to improve the somewhat bland flavor of wheat whisky—especially since most whisky in those days was not aged. People buying whisky and wanting that flavor would specify “rye” and the name stuck.
