Pop quiz. Did Gibson’s Finest Canadian Whisky start out Canadian?
Don’t think too hard about it, the answer is “no”. Surprisingly, this Canadian staple was first distilled south of the border on the shores of the nearly impossible to pronounce, Monongahela River. (If you know how to properly say that name, please let us know.) On those sunny banks, in the year 1856 a Scot, John Gibson purchased 40 acres of pastoral perfection and began crafting the best whisky in the Americas.

For Gibson, everything went along tickety-boo for many years. As the years passed, his Scottish perseverance and focus on quality ingredients helped fill his coffers with silver and Yankee green-backs, making him a very rich man indeed. Then…prohibition took hold in the United States.

When alcohol sales were made illegal, demand for his delicious whisky quickly dried up and Gibson watched his profits gradually slide down the drain. Finally, on a sad, dark day in 1923 the stills came to a stop, and the Scotsman found himself finally forced to auction off every piece of his business to the highest bidder: Schenley Industries of New York.

And here my friends, is where we come to Canada.
Fifty years after the fateful auction, in the bell-bottomed, suede pant-suited 1970’s, Schenley Distilleries moved their production and began crafting whisky in Valleyfield, in the swingin’ Province of Quebec. (La belle Province was on a roll at the time having just hosted the Olympics and the World Fair.) The company’s first batch, based on fresh, Canadian ingredients and shaped by the robust Northern climate produced a whisky so divine, it came to be known as Gibson’s Finest 12 Year Old Canadian Whisky. On both sides of the border, North Americans rejoiced, toasting one another from coast to coast.

Finally, Canadian weather is good for something.
Today, the Gibson’s Finest brand is owned by William Grant & Sons and is distilled in Windsor, Ontario. The whisky is aged in hand-selected, freshly emptied Kentucky bourbon barrels, that help the spirit age over 12 long years of Canadian weather. Our harsh winters and hot humid summers push and pull the sweet elixir through the barrel staves to produce a whisky you simply won’t find anywhere else. Ultra-smooth with vanilla-sweet oakiness on the finish, we’re 100% certain, (maybe even 1000%) that if old John Gibson were around today he’d be licking his lips with pure glee, each and every time his glass was filled. Cheers!