Get to Know Dr. Don Livermore

Dr. Don Livermore is the Master Blender of Hiram Walker & Sons Limited in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. He is responsible for some of Canada’s award-winning whiskies such as JP Wiser’s, Lot 40, and Pike Creek. After graduatiing in 1996 from the University of Waterloo with a degree in microbiology, Don started his career at the distillery as a lab technician. At that time Don pioneered the development of NIR for fermentation analysis. This transformed how the distilling industry monitored fermentations and has spoken around the world on this topic. Don furthered his education by completing a MSc and PhD in Brewing in Distilling at Heriot Watt University with a focus on how wood interacts with whisky. In 2012, he became the Master Blender of Hiram Walker Distillery and in 2019 and in 2020 he won the Canadian Whisky Master Blender of the Year at the Canadian Whisky Awards. Today, Don is a sought-after speaker on Canadian Whisky as he brings together all facets of distillery operations and maturation processes and how flavours are developed in whisky. He created the Canadian Whisky Flavour Wheel© which is a unique perspective on blending whisky. Always an educator and industry expert, Don published two books in 2022; The Canadian Whisky Master Class Volume 1 – The Keeper of History and The Canadian Whisky Master Class Volume 2 – Blending 101.