Wiser's whisky

J.P. Wiser's Whisky

A bottle of J.P. Wiser's De Luxe, the flagship brand
Type	Canadian whisky
Manufacturer	Corby Spirit and Wine
Country of origin	Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Alcohol by volume	40.00%
Proof (US)	80

J.P. Wiser's Whisky is Canada's oldest continuously produced Canadian whisky. The brand was established in 1857, and Hiram Walker & Sons Limited currently produces it at their Windsor, Ontario, distillery. Since 1935, they have been the majority shareholder of Corby Spirit & Wine. Both companies came into ownership of international liquor company Pernod Ricard in 2005.

John Philip (J.P.) Wiser was born in 1825 in New York. He was the son of Isaac J. Wiser and Mary Egert. In 1857, Wiser began running the Charles Payne Distillery and Farm in Prescott, Ontario, which was owned by his uncle, Charles Egert, and his uncle's business partner, Amos Averell.

Five years after starting as manager of the distillery, Wiser bought out Egert and Averell to become its sole owner, which was producing 116,500 gallons of whisky a year. Wiser introduced his first bottles of whisky at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. Prior to this time, whisky was only sold in casks or barrels. By the time of the U.S. Civil War, J.P. Wiser's Red Letter Rye was sold in Canada, and J.P. Wiser's Canada Whisky was available for export. Wiser's son, Harlow, operated the distillery to an output of 500,000 gallons a year until he died at the age of 36 from a heart attack in 1895.

By the early 1900s, J.P. Wiser was exporting whisky around the world, and his distillery in Prescott became the third largest in Canada behind Hiram Walker's in Windsor and Gooderham & Worts' in Toronto. Wiser died in 1911, and the distillery was taken over by Albert Whitney, a treasurer who had worked at the distillery for over 50 years.

The company struggled after the death of J.P Wiser, and at the end of World War I, J.P. Wiser's was sold and merged with Corby, J.M. Douglas and Company Limited and Robert MacNish and Co. Limited of Scotland. In 1935, the company merged with Hiram Walker.

Newest Label Launches

In keeping with market trends, Wiser's Spiced was launched in fall 2012. Wiser's Small Batch was also launched to replace Wiser's Reserve, with upgraded packaging and advertising. In September 2013, Wiser's Red Letter was re-introduced to celebrate J.P. Wiser's 150th anniversary.

J.P. Wiser's in the U.S.

J.P. Wiser's Rye and J.P. Wiser's Spiced whisky were introduced to the U.S. market in October 2013.

The J.P. Wiser's brand is advertised with a quote from J.P. Wiser, saying "Quality is something you just can't rush. Horses should hurry, but whisky must take its time."