Most Canadian whiskies are blended multi-grain whiskies. These are often casually called "rye whisky" although they contain proprietary blends of corn (maize), barley, and rye. Since 1991 Glenora, an independent distillery in Glenville, Nova Scotia, on Cape Breton Island, has been producing unblended malt whisky in the Scottish style. Their product, Glen Breton Rare, was as of 2003 the only single malt whisky produced in Canada, and the oldest of only two produced in the Americas, the other being San Francisco's Old Potrero.
Canadian whisky featured prominently in illegal imports (known as bootlegging) into the US during Prohibition in the 1920s. Hiram Walker and Seagram's have distilleries on the Detroit River across from Detroit, Michigan that easily served small, fast smuggling boats. The long mainly unpatrolled US-Canadian border made smuggling fairly easy.
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Canadian Whiskies