Coyote Ugly Canadian Whisky (40% alc/vol)

Sweet with tangy, tingling, peppery heat, and rich, mouth-coating caramels. Ginger, cloves and white pepper with hints of green fruit and wet slate slide smoothly down your throat. ★★★☆Those who rely on age statements to tell them whether or not they are enjoying a certain whisky, can now gain confidence in their own palates. Coyote Ugly is three-year-old whisky that is simply loaded with flavour.Is it mixing whisky? Well a dash or two of ginger ale won't do it any harm if that's what you like. A sipper? Again, as you wish. But if you really want to appreciate Coyote Ugly the way it is meant to be appreciated, try something new - shoot it.Yes. This is genuine, designed-for-shooting, brawny-flavoured, brazen-yet-smooth-as-silk, three-year-old shooting whisky that will open new tasting vistas: Not only do age statements not necessarily tell us anything we need to know about whisky, but also, sipping by the fire immersed in intellectual conversation (or contemplation, or whatever) is not the only way to find pleasure in aged grain spirits.No, hop right up on the bar with this baby (or your coffee table,) shoot it straight back, wipe your mouth, yelp a little, then pour yourself another.In the summer of 2000 my son and I visited the Wellfleet Drive-In for a double feature. One of the shows is completely forgotten but we still talk about the other: Coyote Ugly.The gist? According to IMDb, “Aspiring songwriter Violet Sanford, after getting a job at a women-run NYC bar that teases its male patrons, comes out of her shell.” All I remember is a lot of undiluted whisky being poured down dozens of seemingly parched gullets by scantily dressed twenty-year-olds who liked money and staying firmly in control.The movie was based on the story of an enterprising young woman named Liliana Lovell who opened her first Coyote Ugly Saloon in 1993 in New York City. Honestly, I watched the movie and I had no idea there was a story. But the whisky? Try a shot or two and see if it doesn't spin a tale of its own.Just as the wild coyote is doing, Coyote Ugly whisky is rapidly expanding its range. It is currently on Canadian liquor store shelves in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec and Newfoundland. In the U.S., stores now have it in Texas, Washington State, Tennessee, and New York, and California is just around the corner. Distribution in 22 other states is on the horizon as well. Incidentally, Coyote Ugly is made by Highwood Distillers in High River Alberta from a blend of 3-, 4- and 5-year-old whisky.Nose: Round, luscious caramels, hints of vanilla and kiwi fruit. The spirited tones of good bar whisky, with just hints of rye spices.Palate: Sweet with tangy, tingling, peppery heat, and richly mouth-coating caramels. Almost slippery with suggestions of oak, wet slate and gooseberries, which lead into pleasing bitter pith in the middle. Ginger, cloves and white pepper easily punch their way out of über caramels, then the peppery glow just slides down your throat. Smooth, smooth, SMOOTH and very quaffable, it’s a real shooter!Finish: Peppery hot in a wash of slowly fading caramel. Medium to long fade on butterscotch, heat and lingering citrus pith.Empty glass: Toffee, hints of firewood.$30.00 (U.S.A.) $35.00 (Manitoba)Recommended. ★★★☆