“The Bearface Wilderness Series is an example of how we connect with nature and the elements to create whiskies that are wilder and more adventurous than anything else out there.”
Whisky has a long history in Canada, but the industry’s calling card today is diversity, with small distilleries exploring new terrain and established producers going for robust, flavour-driven offerings.
Drawing inspiration from the Canadian wilderness, and making full use of the freedoms that Canada offers as whisky-makers, Bearface has been inspired to create its ‘Wilderness Series’ that began with 2022’s ‘Matsutake Release 01’ offering.
Read Also: Bearface: “A whisky the world wishes it could make but only Canada can”
Made in addition to their Triple Oak and One Eleven Series of whiskies, The Bearface Wilderness Series pays homage to the wild spirit of Canada, essentially designed to be a limited-edition range of whiskies rooted in the Canadian wilderness that challenges whisky traditions to innovate and create exceptional, boundary-breaking flavours, inviting enthusiasts to explore new and uncharted territories within the world of whisky.
Every sip tells a story of rugged landscapes, pristine waters, and the adventurous spirit that defines the true north. They combine tradition with the audacity to pioneer unexplored flavour profiles, and it all works so well.
“Here at Bearface, we have the inspiration, and we have the freedom to make wild ideas happen. This is a world-first in wild whisky making and I know people are going to love the taste as much as I do.” – Andres Faustinelli, Master Blender
The highly sought-after Bearface Wilderness Series Matsutake Release 01 was the first release from the limited-edition series and infused wild Matsutake mushrooms from bear country. For this second release, Bearface has gone beyond the forests of its bear country home to the crashing waves of Mitlenatch Island, Vancouver, off the rugged coast of the Pacific Northwest. Here, the surrounding waters are glacier fed and bordered by forests, imparting a unique blend of minerals to the water, creating the ideal environment for sea-salt harvesting.
The Bearface Wildernes Series Mitlenatch Island 02 is now available in select stores across Canada.
As part of the unique process at Bearface, the finest single grain whisky is “elementally aged” in selected chardonnay and alligator-charred ex-burgundy casks. Chardonnay casks give the whisky bold richness, and alligator-charred ex-burgundy casks add a deep, honey spice.
Finally, at the proofing stage, the whisky is cut with distilled water collected from the maple-smoked salt making process, where seawater from the Pacific is evaporated over maple wood fires. The result is a rich whisky, with a deep minerality, elemental smokiness and a fresh coastal finish.
“Tasting the Mitlenatch Island Release 02 is like tasting a whisky after you’ve just swam in the Pacific Ocean,” says Master Blender Andres Faustinelli. “The sensation of the sea salt in your mouth and the sweetness in the whisky – the taste is different to anything I’ve tasted before.”
VineRoutes spoke with Master Blender Andres Faustinelli about Bearface’s unique methods. During this insightful conversation, Faustinelli opens up about the possibilities of Canadian-made whisky and how he believes whisky is best tasted and enjoyed. Read our Q&A below:
VineRoutes: In your opinion, how is Canadian whisky measuring up to whiskies made in the United States and Europe? Can you comment on the progress Canada has made in terms of quality?
Andres Faustinelli: Canadian whisky has the biggest opportunity to innovate in the world of whisky. Our rules are the perfect playbook for innovation. The laws regulating Scotch, Irish, Bourbon will never allow whiskies that go beyond the classic story about a distillery, a type of grain, an age. Canadian whisky has much more to offer as we “almost” don’t have rules. No need to follow a rule of mash bills, type of wood or the proof of what goes into a cask. Even how we mature the whisky in casks is not really regulated. At Bearface we use shipping containers to “harvest the weather into the casks”.
Canadian Whisky is happening, innovation is happening, and I can see a lot of new cool whiskies. It’s not about “convincing”, it’s all about having “conviction” that we can stop replicating the other whiskies and start embracing our own possibilities.
Bearface Master Blender Andres Faustinelli
VR: What are you looking for specifically in a good whisky (do you look at ingredients, distilling process, smell, taste and flavours, all of the above?)
Andres: Distillation will give you letters of the alphabet; Maturation will eventually transform those letters into words and it’s through blending that whisky truly tells a story.
For me it’s all about breaking free from established assumptions and let the whisky be much more than an expected flavour and taste profile. A good whisky to me needs to be a journey in the mouth with some “surprises”. This means to me that the nose, the front taste, the mid palate, and finish must be independent and unique but connected in the end.
VR: If you were to give a brief lesson on tasting whisky, what steps would you want to ensure someone takes in order to fully appreciate whisky as a drink?
Andres: It starts always by the nose, before pouring the whisky in a glass, just let a drop in the palm of your hands and rub them slightly. The warm of the hands will release a lot of aromas that you will not get in a traditional whisky glass. Then move into a glass (I like wine glasses BTW) and let the whisky oxygenate by swirling it. Smell again. Now you have a pretty good opinion of what you are about to taste!
When tasting, always focus on three sips: The first will get you to understand the front flavour of the blend (how strong and barrel forward is the whisky); The second sip will give you a sense of the mid palate (how round is the whisky); The third sip will help you to understand how long the mouth is and if there is any interesting finishing (how spicy, smoky, savoury it is, and how is the texture). Texture is really important.
Bearface smells of dry fruit and oranges, starts with a honey/vanilla front, rounds with cranberries/balsamic and finishes texturized with oak spice and barbecue (bacon) notes.
The Mitlenatch Island expression “is like tasting a whisky after you’ve just swam in the Pacific Ocean.”
VR: What is it that you would like whisky drinkers to know, in particular, about Bearface? What makes Bearface different than other Canadian whiskies and whiskies from around the world?
Andres: Bearface is smooth but a bold whisky at the same time – this is not usual in whisky, as you either have strong barrel forward whiskies or laid back and unoffensive ones. Every drop of our whisky touches three casks: a very old American ex-bourbon, a younger French ex-wine and a Hungarian air-seasoned virgin! We start with old casks and we finish with virgin casks (the opposite of what bourbon can do) and that allows the whisky to build layers of complexity through a unique process in shipping containers that are naturally exposed to the weather patterns of British Columbia – a roller coasting ageing process!
Bearface, like no other whisky, harvests the amazing weather of the Okanagan Valley into our casks by the use of repurposed shipping containers.
VR: Can you explain the Elemental aging and what makes this a unique quality for this series?
Andres: Elemental aging is Bearface’s unique approach to maturation. We are not simply finishing a whisky into a type of cask, we are literally radically transforming a whisky as we are exposing it to temperature and humidity fluctuations. Traditional cask whisky aging tries to achieve predictability while at Bearface we embrace what Mother Nature brings, batch by batch, season by season.
A Bearface blend is always consistent but the work behind it is unique as we end up blending seasons to achieve the same profile. For example, the heat dome impacted so much of our summer containers that we had to work on the winter containers to balance. Blending Bearface is like taking a different trail every time to reach the same mountain top.
The Bearface Wilderness Series is a different and unique approach to connect a whisky to a very specific place and time. This series will connect Bearface again with the Canadian wilderness, trail by trail, release by release.
The limited edition Bearface Wilderness Series, Mitlenatch Island Release 02 is available at select retailers in Canada.
– Carmelo Giardina is the principal editor at VineRoutes
