Hiram Walker, a successful grain merchant, founded what would become Canadian Club® (or CC) in 1858. CC’s first distillery was established in Walkerville, Ontario because of the exceptional quality of the local grains there. In those early days, if you wanted whisky, you took your own jug or bottle to the local store and filled it from a generic barrel. CC didn’t care for that idea. CC’s whisky was different—smooth and easy to drink and we wanted people to know who made it. So they branded their barrels with CC’s name on it, as a signature of confidence and assurance of quality.
Canadians soon took a liking to CC whisky, and came to love it as one of their own. In America, it was considered special, because it was sold exclusively in the finer gentlemen’s clubs of the era. Soon, the whisky came to be known by the name “Club Whisky.” It wasn’t long before Club Whisky began to cultivate popularity around the world. Eventually, its popularity began to affect the sale of American Bourbon in the United States. This forced the U.S. Government to require all Canadian distillers to put the country of origin on their label. And so Club Whisky became Canadian Club® and a legacy was launched.
