Every once in a while, the Bourbon Cheapskate has to cross the border.

Not because there isn’t enough bourbon to drink. There is always enough bourbon to drink.

But because sometimes an inexpensive whiskey comes along that makes a pretty convincing argument that the Cheapskate shouldn’t get hung up on geography.

Forty Creek Copper Pot Reserve is one of those bottles.

I’ve enjoyed this Canadian whisky before, but I hadn’t seen it in quite a while. Then I wandered into a local liquor store and discovered that the owner still had six bottles of the old Copper Pot Reserve sitting on the shelf.

That was enough to bring back some memories.

It was also enough to make me wonder whether I actually remembered the whiskey correctly.

There is an easy way to answer that question.

Take away the label.

Actually, I went considerably farther than that.

I had eight two-ounce sample bottles, each holding about an ounce and a half of whiskey. On the bottom of each bottle, where I couldn’t see it while tasting, I numbered them 1 through 8.

The lineup consisted of Benchmark Top Floor, Old Forester 1870, Evan Williams Single Barrel 1998, Forty Creek Copper Pot Reserve, Buffalo Trace Single Barrel, Uncharted, Benchmark Small Batch and my own Rivertown Reserve Founder’s Selection. All eight were between 86 and 92 proof, so there wasn’t enough difference in alcohol content for one whiskey to simply overpower the others.

Then I handed the bookkeeping over to Gemini.

I had it reshuffle the bottles four different times. After the fourth shuffle, the numbered bottles became Samples A through H. I kept the bottles in that order in my office, but the identifying numbers stayed hidden on the bottoms. Gemini knew which whiskey was which.

I didn’t.

That was the point.

No Buffalo Trace reputation. No Benchmark expectations. No sentimental attachment to my own Rivertown Reserve. No preconceived notions about Canadian whisky.

Just eight glasses and my palate.

Sample A

The first glass was light copper in color. The nose led with toasted oak and cardamom, followed by caramel and light cinnamon.

The palate brought tobacco, cinnamon, brown sugar and oak. The mouthfeel was modest and leaned thin, which hurt the finish. Cinnamon and brown sugar tried to hang around, but there just wasn’t enough body to carry them very far.

Not bad. Probably forgettable in a world with this many whiskies competing for shelf space.

It would work neat, but I’d probably use it more often as a mixer.

Score: 78.23.

Sample B

This one stepped things up.

Mid-copper color, with toasted oak and caramel leading the nose, followed by brown sugar.

Then the palate delivered something I liked immediately: buttery toffee.

Nutmeg, caramel, vanilla and brown sugar followed.

The mouthfeel was still on the thin side, but the finish performed better than the texture suggested it should. Oak, toffee and brown sugar stayed around nicely.

This wasn’t blowing me away, but it was clearly better than Sample A.

And unlike A, this was definitely something I’d pour neat.

Score: 79.96.

Sample C

Light copper again, but the nose was dominated by oak. Caramel, vanilla and butterscotch were hanging around in the background, but oak was driving the bus.

The palate was more interesting. Caramel, toffee and peanuts led the way, with brown sugar, cinnamon and light oak behind them.

The mouthfeel was lightly viscous, and the finish was decent, with cinnamon, toffee and caramel carrying most of the load.

Perfectly respectable.

But I didn’t think it was going to win.

Score: 79.21.

Sample D

Now things got interesting.

Solid copper color.

And immediately, this was the best nose of the flight so far.

Cherries. Brown sugar. Toffee. Light oak. Light cinnamon.

The palate opened with butterscotch, cinnamon, caramel and vanilla. The mouthfeel was nicely viscous, which allowed those flavors to stick around longer.

The finish wasn’t especially complicated, but it didn’t need to be. Buttery toffee, cinnamon and a surprising return of tart cherries made this a very enjoyable pour.

This was the new leader.

Score: 80.94.

Four down. Four to go.

Sample E

Solid copper color.

The nose opened sweet: brown sugar, butterscotch, light cinnamon and caramel.

The palate started with light oak and butterscotch, followed by mild cinnamon, caramel and brown sugar.

And this one immediately separated itself.

Not necessarily because the flavors were exotic. They weren’t.

It was because everything worked together.

The mouthfeel was lightly creamy and oily. The finish was modest in length, but delicious while it lasted — buttery, sweet, lightly spicy with cinnamon and just enough oak.

My tasting note summed it up before I ever knew what was in the glass:

This one is delicious.

I hadn’t calculated the final score yet, but I already knew it was going to be at or near the top of the flight.

It was.

Score: 82.89.

Sample D had just been passed.

Sample F

Mid-copper.

The nose was lighter and oakier than most of the others, with mild caramel, vanilla and cardamom.

The palate brought a little cinnamon alongside the cardamom, followed by caramel, oak and perhaps a touch of cherry.

The mouthfeel wasn’t bad, but it still shaded closer to thin than thick. The finish disappeared a little too quickly, leaving brown sugar, cherry, caramel and cinnamon behind.

Pleasant.

If somebody poured it for me, I’d enjoy it.

But I wasn’t going to reach for it every night.

Score: 79.42.

Sample G

Solid copper.

The nose was both sweet and savory, with a little ethanol trying to cover caramel, nutmeg, vanilla and oak.

Thankfully, the alcohol backed off on the palate.

In its place came buttery toffee, toasted oak, cinnamon, nutmeg and creamy vanilla.

The mouthfeel was lightly viscous. The finish was fairly quick, but enjoyable while it lasted, with cinnamon, toffee and oak.

Good whiskey.

Not the winner.

Score: 80.51.

Sample H

One last glass.

Light to mid-copper.

The nose leaned savory, with toasted oak, nutmeg, brown sugar and caramel.

The palate opened with a burst of cinnamon, apples and toffee, with caramel and vanilla waiting behind them.

The mouthfeel was a little thin, but the finish was better than expected. Cinnamon, caramel and apple hung around nicely.

And somewhere during that glass, I had a thought.

I wondered whether this might be one of the Benchmarks.

I still didn’t know.

But whatever it was, I liked it.

Score: 80.40.

Eight glasses. Eight scores.

Sample A finished at 78.23, C at 79.21, F at 79.42, B at 79.96, H at 80.40, G at 80.51 and D at 80.94.

One whiskey had clearly separated itself from the field.

Sample E.

82.89.

Now I could finally turn the bottles over.

The final order was:

8. Benchmark Small Batch — 78.23
7. Old Forester 1870 — 79.21
6. Rivertown Reserve Founder’s Selection — 79.42
5. Evan Williams Single Barrel 1998 — 79.96
4. Benchmark Top Floor — 80.40
3. Uncharted — 80.51
2. Buffalo Trace Single Barrel — 80.94
1. Forty Creek Copper Pot Reserve — 82.89

The Canadian won the blind.

And not by a hundredth of a point.

Forty Creek scored 82.89.

Buffalo Trace Single Barrel finished almost two full points behind it at 80.94.

That’s where this gets particularly interesting for the Bourbon Cheapskate.

I already liked Forty Creek Copper Pot Reserve. Finding those old bottles on the shelf had reminded me of that.

But memory is unreliable.

Labels are even worse.

Put Buffalo Trace Single Barrel next to a Canadian whisky and tell me which one I’m supposed to expect to win, and I know what most bourbon drinkers are going to choose before either bottle is opened.

Take the labels away, and suddenly none of that matters.

I wasn’t rewarding Forty Creek because I wanted the old bottle I’d rediscovered to be good.

I didn’t know I was drinking Forty Creek.

My palate simply preferred it.

And looking back over the notes, I think the mouthfeel had a lot to do with it.

Several whiskies in this flight tasted good. But at this proof range, some of them suffered because they were thin. Good flavors arrived and then disappeared before they could really develop.

Forty Creek didn’t have that problem.

Its lightly creamy, oily texture carried those familiar dessert flavors — butterscotch, caramel, brown sugar and cinnamon — longer than several of the whiskies around it.

It wasn’t the most complicated whiskey I’ve ever tasted.

It didn’t need to be.

Sometimes complexity gets overrated.

Sometimes delicious wins.

And on this particular night, delicious came from Canada.

Bourbon Cheapskate verdict: Buy.

Even if I have to temporarily rename the column the Canadian Whisky Cheapskate.

Enjoyed this? Subscribe and get future reflections, bourbon notes, and assorted nonsense delivered straight to your inbox.

Copyright © 2026 Doug DeBolt