Myths about JP Wiser continue to proliferate: For his 200th birthday here are the facts to refute four of them.
1 From the beginning JP Wiser was a co-owner of the Prescott-based distillery, not his uncle’s employee.
2 JP Wiser did not create or produce Wiser’s Red Letter Rye
3 Wiser was not first to bottle whisky
4 Wiser’s sons, not Albert Whitney, took over the distillery; it was destroyed in 1912 and never made whisky again; Corby bought the land in 1920.
Read MoreCorby’s Park Lane 1945 tasting from Whisky Wonderland 2025. The earliest mention of Park Lane Canadian whisky I came across while researching my book, came from a Consolidated Distilleries file dated 1924. Consolidated Distilleries was a subsidiary of Canadian Industrial Alcohol Company, and comprised the Corby distillery (referred to as Distillery No. 1) in Corbyville, and a new/rebuilt distillery (called Distillery No. 2) at Wiser’s former location in Prescott.
Read MoreWhisky expert Davin de Kergommeaux talks about the history of Canadian whisky and does a taste test with Canada Tonight’s Travis Dhanraj.
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