In the 1990s, with little fanfare, a new Canadian whisky began appearing on American liquor store shelves. Packaged in a clear nondescript bottle with a black and white label that looked as if it may have been run off on a photocopier, it was not something you’d buy to impress an important client. The whisky itself was pale yellow, almost like a well-aged white wine. But the notation”. Word started to spread, and a legend was born. Of course, we are talking about Bush Pilot’s Private Reserve, a 13-year-old, unblended Canadian whisky from the 1990s.

Bush Pilot’s Private Reserve was Marilyn Smith’s tribute to her father, Fred Johnson, a Detroit industrialist, automotive pioneer, and adventurer. Smith’s partner, Bob Denton, had stumbled across a cache of well-aged corn whisky while buying carloads of bulk Canadian blended whisky for his independent Detroit-based spirits company. The distiller had originally made this whisky to be used in an older Canadian blend, but seeing Denton’s interest, the distillery manager advised that there was no reason it couldn’t be sold as is. Denton decided to bottle it for Smith, unblended, and one cask at a time.