Shelter Point Ripple Rock Whisky
Just as 2020 was drawing to a close, Shelter Point Distillery in Campbell River, BC, released a new whisky to celebrate the 1958 Ripple Rock explosion. It was an episode in local history so meaningful that Canada has since designated it a National Heritage Event. Lurking below the Seymour Narrows was a rocky underwater mountain top with an appetite for taking down ships and the people aboard. After several above water attempts failed, engineers tunnelled under and into Ripple Rock and packed it full of explosives.
As John Candy so eloquently put it in SCTV’s Farm Film Report, “it blowed up real good.” The earth shook for 10 seconds as debris fell into the water. Sea lions, whales and porpoises near the blast amazed marine biologists with their sudden ability to float on their backs. Not really. We made that part up. No animals were harmed.
It would take a little over 50 years for another Ripple Rock explosion to occur. This one, 30 minutes south of the original blast at Shelter Point Distillery. This time the distillery crew packed a new whisky full of explosive flavour that detonates on the palate.
To make this whisky, which they have nostalgically named “Ripple Rock,” Shelter Point began with a maturing single malt that had already spent a little more than 6 years in ex-bourbon barrels. They transferred it into heavily charred virgin oak and left it for an additional 18 months of maturation. These no. 4 charred barrels set a flavour fuse during this stint, adding caramel, vanilla and spices to an already malty whisky.
Eight Years Was Long The Standard
At eight years old, Ripple Rock Whisky is about the same age as many highly praised Scotch single malts were when the original Ripple Rock blasted skyward. In 1958, eight-year-old whiskies were coveted by distillery workers and connoisseurs alike. They didn’t reach for the older whiskies that marketing managers now promote, with eyes lit up by dollar signs. Blast it! No! Those in the know sought whisky at its prime and in 1958, 8 years old was it.
By 1989, Michael Jackson’s Scotch Whisky Companion shows age statements creeping into the 10 to 12-year range, although many of the most popular ones, including Talisker and Highland Park, were still preferred as 8-year-olds. And Talisker, interestingly, was said to explode on the palate.
A Blast of Flavour
Ripple Rock Whisky packs 1,279 metric tonnes of earth-shattering flavour into a 750 ml bottle. Rich malty notes with chocolate cake, coffee beans, dry straw and rip currents of vanilla and caramel open a spectacular palate channel. Spicy and hot with thunderous oak and sweet fruity notes bound together by an intricate braid of ginger, oak tannins, pipe tobacco and fudge. These then slide into a satisfying oaky, spicy finish that remains far longer than the 10-second finish of the 1958 blast.
A Whisky Heritage Event
Broadcasting live television across Canada began with the Ripple Rock explosion. People in nearby Campbell River joined the rest of the country and watched the blast from their living rooms on a flickering black and white television. And, perhaps this first coast-to-coast broadcast is the main reason why it has become a National Heritage Event. But it really was a milestone in the development of Canadian technology, just as its namesake whisky is a milestone in the evolution of Canadian single malt. We don’t doubt that the same reaction would occur if national media gave this Ripple Rock Whisky coverage equal to what they gave the blast.
As Shelter Point's master distiller, Leon Webb, wryly put it, “We’re going to end this interesting year in quite a bang… I’m absolutely delighted with it; it’s a great whisky. Kaboom, it’s just such intense flavour.”
Give it time. Shelter Point’s Ripple Rock takes Canadian single malt into new territory with a Whisky Heritage Event that clears a new passage for Canadian single malt whiskies to come.