Kiefer Sutherland: EXCEPTIONALLY SMOOTH VINTAGE
Kiefer Sutherland’s new Red Bank Whisky perfectly reflects its heritage and the award- winning Canadian actor’s roots.
Red Bank, Nova Scotia, a shingle beach located on the province’s south shore across the bay from from famed Peggy’s Cove, is open to the North Atlantic and its winds, which, along with its hard history, have produced its craggy, gravelly appearance.
Actor Kiefer Sutherland, born to famous Canadian actors Donald Sutherland and Shirley Douglas, lived in London until he was 10 years old. He moved to Canada where, at 17, he began his career as a director, producer, singer and award-winning actor, with a now-craggy appearance and gravelly voice that have been hardened by experience and history.
Given those similarities, it’s perhaps no surprise that Sutherland and three partners co-founded Red Bank Whisky, which has now launched in the Ontario market. To paraphrase a quote from A Streetcar Named Desire, Kiefer Sutherland and Red Bank have had this date from the beginning.
The brainchild of Sutherland and partners Gary Biggs, Shawn Hiscott and Rob Steele, Red Bank Whisky pays homage to the rich heritage and tradition of Canadian whisky while offering an exceptionally smooth and premium taste that seeks to capture the essence of Canada’s wild and wind- swept East Coast.
It has been crafted with care by award-winning Master Blender Michel Marcil, who created its distinctive flavour as a celebration of cherished memories and the anticipation of unforgettable moments with loved ones, the foundation of good times in Canada’s Atlantic provinces. “An evening with friends, memories for a lifetime,” says Sutherland. “You can bank on it.”
A masterful blend of rye, corn and wheat whiskies, Red Bank Whisky has taken Canada by storm and already has a devoted following in the Maritimes, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba among whisky connoisseurs, newcomers to the taste and mixologists alike, who all agree that its captivating taste enhances life’s most memorable shared moments. It is certain to become a symbol of Canadian excellence in the world of whisky, just as Sutherland has honoured our country with his considerable talents.
Sutherland’s own Canadian roots run deep, though he was born, in 1966, in the Paddington district of London, where his parents were living and working. His maternal grandfather was Scottish-born Canadian politician and former Premier of Saskatchewan Tommy Douglas, who is widely credited for bringing universal health care to Canada.
In 1970, two years after they’d moved to California, Kiefer’s parents divorced, and in 1975 he moved with his mother to Toronto, eventually entering his parents’ line of work with his screen debut in Max Dugan Returns, which also starred his father, Donald. Encouraged by that success, Sutherland moved to Hollywood to pursue his career in acting, where his first roommate was Robert Downey Jr.
Stand By Me, directed by Rob Reiner, was the first film Sutherland made in the United States — not a bad film and not a bad director for your “coming out” party — and his next hit in his early years of success was the Western film Young Guns, where he starred alongside Emilio Estevez and Lou Diamond Phillips. In the dog- eat-dog world of Hollywood acting, Sutherland had made it; he was officially one of its hottest young stars.
He enjoyed steady work throughout the 1990s; he appeared in Twin Peaks, A Few Good Men alongside Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, as well as The Vanishing, until his biggest break occurred in 2001.
Never considered a so-called pretty-boy actor, his rugged good looks and gravelly voice were perfect for the role of secret agent Jack Bauer on the critically acclaimed television series, 24. The mercurial Bauer clearly had a complicated past, which we never really saw, but much like James Bond, he was saving the world every week, so perhaps the less we knew about him the better.
The show was a hit from 2001 to 2010 and again in 2014, and for his role Sutherland won an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and two Satellite Awards. Sutherland is a member of both the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Canada’s Walk of Fame and has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Zurich Film Festival.
Sutherland’s newest venture, Red Bank Whisky, launched in 2022, distills the finest Canadian whisky for enthusiasts around the world. It was born to reflect Nova Scotia’s rocky shores and true Canadian spirit, while being handcrafted with Canadian ingredients as an authentic expression of its roots. The same could be said about its co-founder, Kiefer Sutherland. He and Red Bank have always had this date together.
