Paradigm Spirits Deals a Solid Hand with their First Edition Whisky
People haven’t historically looked to London when looking for locally made craft spirits. The Southwestern Ontario city, dubbed the “forest city”, has a reputation as a beer town instead. With a population of about 380,000, London is the ancestral home to Labatt and Carling Breweries and to this day continues its beer-making tradition with a host of successful craft breweries (12 at the time of writing). Local spirits lovers have had to therefore accustom themselves to reading far-off city names on the labels of their favourite spirits, especially whisky. No longer! The fifth largest city in Ontario has become home to two proper distilleries, one of which is Paradigm Spirits Co., founded in 2019 by Irma Joeveer, Michelle Debus, Archie Leach and his daughter, Martha.
Located in a former Kellogg cereal plant that’s been since renovated into an entertainment and business complex, complete with a brewery called Powerhouse Brewing Company, aromas of malting barley and cooking grains have returned to the Old East part of the city. In so many ways, the two drink companies mark a return to the cereals that have long been a part of the city’s rich history.
“We live in a community that’s right smack dab in the middle of some of the most arable land in all of Canada,” explained Irma Joeveer in a recent interview. “The grain that we’re using today to produce our spirits and beers is a lot of the very same grain that was used when Kellogg was making cereal 50 years ago. That’s a remarkable thing.”
Paradigm produces what they call their “First Edition Whisky” ($59.95/750 ml). Made from a blend of four grains (corn, barley, wheat and rye), the blended Canadian whisky is double barrel-aged between 5 and 10 years in once-used Bourbon barrels before a second rest in small batch within new light-char oak. The bottle label notes the whisky is “polished copper and brilliant wheat in colour” and is “bold and complex”. The back label description is of “dark ripe fruit, creamy vanilla, shaved ginger and subtle oak. The palate offers hints of rye bread, honey, apricot and star anise before a warming black tea lingering finish.”
As is customary with new distilleries needing the necessary short-term revenue to support their considerable start-up capital equipment investment, Paradigm produces the obligatory vodka and gin in their copper continuous column stills. Surprisingly, adding a Canadian whisky to their product lineup was not far behind. Of course, it’s difficult for most entrepreneurs to wait the regulated three years for barrels to idly sit by and age when bills need to be paid so some purchased aged whiskies have come to the rescue. How else can a two-year old company bottle a whisky that’s stated as being aged between 5 and 10 years?
While my tasting didn’t end up with the exact same results as the bottle description, the whisky shows definite promise.
Colour: In bottle, the whisky is brilliantly clear with a vibrant orange-amber colour, almost reddish in hue depending on the light. Canadian whisky regulations allow blenders to add as much as 9% in other spirits (including wine) so learning the details of their blend would be interesting. Colour becomes much more bright gold once in the glass with good viscosity and pleasant tearing on the sides of the glass. A slight tilt shows the liquid to be less concentrated with a loss of intensity and a clear edge around the rim.
Aroma: Spicy with strong brown sugar and subtle tangerine zest aromas, your nose fills with welcome vanilla nuances so familiar to fans of Canadian whisky.
Taste/balance: The initial taste is immediate flavours of orange, brown sugar and cooking spices. The flavour is short, dissipating in the centre of the tongue and leaving a spicy hint (there’s the ginger they alluded to!) and quite a bit of heat at the sides of the mouth (partially due to the 42.9% ABV). Adding a little water or ice settles the heat to push the sweet honey flavour forward to create a creamy finish with a hint of bubble gum and a slight disappointing tinge of bitterness.
Overall: Paradigm’s First Edition Whisky is a good start. The flavour is not in-depth nor complicated enough yet shows the promise that future releases may bring once they are distilling 100% of their own grain spirit. At close to $60 a bottle, the product lies in the no man’s land of the marketplace: does not offer the complexity and structure for which aficionados are looking, but it’s too good (and too pricey) to be the weekday dram that gets mixed with cola.
First Edition is aptly named. It’s a great and welcoming kickoff to Paradigm Spirits whisky and is a nice, flavourful whisky that serves as a great base for classic whisky or rye cocktails. Breathe new life into your Old Fashioned and Manhattan recipes with this local blend.
“Our goal is to keep a pretty diverse product roadmap and to produce in very small quantities,” Joeveer explained in LondonInc business magazine. “And to keep things interesting as we grow.”
And that they’re doing. Paradigm is also selling a Heritage Collection 19-year-old single-grain cask-strength whisky with no colour or flavouring for $174.95 (750 ml at 67.9% ABV, limited to 2,500 bottles). Normally, people might consider these limited-edition releases as collectable but knowing where the aged whisky was sourced would be comforting. For comparison, the special 20-year release oof Canadian Club went for $69.00 per bottle and J.P. Wiser’s 18 Year is $79.95.
To their credit, the two managing owners have lofty ambitions that may serve the London distilling scene well. “We want to see Paradigm become one of Canada’s most renowned whiskey (sic) distilleries.” As with a good poker player, Paradigm’s plans for the other whiskies they’ll produce is a tightly guarded secret. Time will show what they have up their sleeve.
3.5 / 5 stars
Paradigm Spirits Co.
100 Kellogg Lane, Bldg 16, London, ON N5W 0B4
(519) 591-9410