This week, Macaloney’s Island Distillery won the prestigious award of ‘Canadian Whisky of the Year’ for its Peat Project Moscatel Barrique single malt at the 2025 Canadian Whisky Awards.
The awards ceremony was held on Thursday, January 16th, right here in Victoria.
Macaloney’s won by achieving the top overall score from a panel of 14 judges, who tasted and scored around 200 competing whiskies in blind tastings.
The Peat Project whisky was made by distilling local barley and using peat-smoked before maturing in a European Moscatel wine barrique.
“This remarkably well-balanced whisky, fully matured while brightly youthful, shows a tightly woven interplay of sweet malt, discrete fruitiness, brisk peppers and of course, peat smoke,” said Davin de Kergommeaux, Chair of the judging panel and author of Canadian Whisky: The Essential Portable Expert.
“Canada’s distillers are bringing new practices, sensibilities and flavours to the Canadian whisky landscape, and now, for the first time ever, a Canadian peated single malt whisky distillery has won Canadian Whisky of the Year.”
Macaloney’s wasn’t the only BC distillery to win an award at this year’s Canadian Whisky Awards either.
Bearface won Corn Whisky of the Year for their Triple Oak Canadian Whisky and the Sons of Vancouver Distillery won Rye Whisky of the Year for their Realms of Rye – Release No. 01 ‘Citrus & Botanicals.’
The Canadian Whisky Awards have been held annually ever since 2010 during the Victoria Whisky Festival in order to recognize the very best Canadian whiskies.
The awards are judged by an independent panel of experts who assign scores to each whiskey during blind tastings, based on criteria that reflect the industry’s highest standards.
Only whiskies that were distilled and matured in Canada are eligible to compete.
To see the full list of award winners and winners of past years, visit the Canadian Whisky Awards website.
