Canadian Club Canadian Blended Whisky

Hiram Walker founded his distillery in 1858 in Detroit but with the prohibition movement gathering pace decided to move across the Detroit River to Windsor, Ontario. His 'Walker's Whisky' sold well in the late 19th century, particularly in gentlemen's clubs in both America and Canada where it became known as 'Club Whisky'.

Club Whisky became very popular and a group of American distillers petitioned for the inclusion of the word 'Canada' on the bottle to distinguish it from their competing whiskies, obviously believing this would adversely affect sales of Walker's. Instead, it made Club Whisky even more popular so in 1889 Walker added the word 'Canadian' at the top of his whiskies label. In 1890 a further packaging tweak saw the word 'Canadian' incorporated into the brand name.

Walker died in 1899 and the distillery passed to his sons. Canadian Club is still produced in the distillery for the French owners Pernod Ricard. View less