TORONTO – July 30, 2025 - From the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, Alberta Distillers Ltd. introduces Alberta Premium Golden Rye 9 Year Old, a new whisky expression that captures the essence of golden hour in every sip. Crafted with 100 per cent Canadian rye grain and aged for nine years, this release continues the brand’s tradition of excellence, while showcasing the full character and complexity of a matured rye. Made using local Canadian ingredients combined with meticulous crafting, Alberta Premium Golden Rye 9 Year Old launches across Canada this July. 

At the core of Alberta Premium Golden Rye 9 Year Old is a thoughtful aging process that draws on three distinct barrel styles - new white oak, ex-bourbon, and ex-Canadian whisky casks. This layered maturation process reveals richness, spice, and nuance, allowing the rye grain to shine while evolving into an exceptionally smooth finish. Distilled and crafted with locally grown rye, this premium whisky reveals what time, terroir, and triple-barrel aging can truly offer.

With a bold 45 per cent ABV, Alberta Premium Golden Rye 9 Year Old delivers a dynamic profile where aromas of caramel, subtle leather, and a whisper of coconut lead into a palate rich with raisin and molasses. The finish is where this expression truly shines; sweet, yet laced with signature rye spice, it lingers with exceptional smoothness and layered warmth. This release is a tribute to the golden hues of the prairies, the precision of Canadian whisky-making, and the pursuit of a smoother, more refined rye experience. Proudly crafted from grain to glass in Canada, made with 100 per cent Canadian-grown rye, distilled and bottled on Canadian soil, Alberta Premium Golden Rye 9 Year Old is a celebration of homegrown excellence in every sip.

“Alberta Premium Golden Rye 9 Year Old, represents the essence of Canadian craftsmanship, elevating it with a complex, layered whisky experience,” says Deepti Gurkar, Senior Director – National Marketing Canada and Global Canadian Brands at Suntory Global Spirits. “This launch is a celebration of what makes Canadian rye whisky so exceptional - bold flavour, rich heritage, and our continued commitment to innovation. It's a whisky made for those who value authenticity and are looking to explore deeper dimensions of taste.”

Alberta Premium Golden Rye 9 Year Old will be available across Canada beginning in July, at a suggested retail price of $37.95 per 750ml bottle. A testament to the mastery of Canadian whisky-making and the enduring appeal of 100 per cent rye, the new release invites both seasoned enthusiasts and new explorers to savour a whisky that balances flavour with remarkable finesse. 

Tasting Notes:

Aroma: Caramel, hints of leather and top note of coconut

Taste: Raisin and molasses

Finish: Sweet yet spicy

Toronto, July 28, 2025 – After a tumultuous first quarter, the outlook for the foodservice industry has moderated thanks to a cooling of tariff war rhetoric and a slight uptick in consumer confidence, but operators remain cautious, according to Restaurants Canada’s Q2 Quarterly Report. Restaurants Canada expects real commercial foodservice sales to experience -0.5% to 0.5% growth in 2025 and a 0.1% to 0.6% decline in 2026.

Quarterly Report at a glance:

• Commercial foodservice sales are expected to reach between $98.5 billion and $99.5 billion in 2025, a slight improvement over last quarter’s forecast, but still below pre-tariff war expectations.
• Seven in 10 restaurant operators rate the current economic conditions just fair or worse. Only 31% say they are “good” or “very good.”
• While consumer confidence has improved slightly over last quarter, 48% of restaurant operators expect to be less profitable in 2025 than they were in 2024.
• Food costs (83%), labour costs (80%) and a weak economy (55%) were the top three challenges cited by foodservice operators.
• To deal with rising operating costs, foodservice businesses are raising menu prices (85%), cutting staff or hours (60%), increasing hours worked by owners or managers (54%), or changing suppliers or ingredients (53%).
• Overall, 41% of foodservice businesses are operating at a loss of just breaking even. This is an improvement over 2024, but still far below 2019 levels, when only 12% reported operating at a loss or just breaking even. Only 9% of operators report making a profit above 10%, compared to 36% pre-pandemic.
• While tariff uncertainty continues to weigh heavy on the foodservice outlook, consumer confidence, spending and debt levels are improving, offering a glimmer of hope for an upswing in mid-2026.

GST/HST holiday provided needed boost to the foodservice industry

In the first four months of 2025, commercial foodservice sales grew by a solid 6.6%, supported in part by the GST/HST holiday in January. With headwinds picking up speed again and a majority of restaurants having to increase prices, Restaurants Canada is urging the federal government to permanently exempt all food, including restaurant meals, from GST/HST.

“Keeping food affordable needs to be a top priority for the government. Canadians from all walks of life rely on restaurants to feed themselves, whether it’s parents grabbing dinner on the way home from soccer practice, an elderly person who needs a hot meal delivered, or a busy student getting a breakfast sandwich on the way to school,” said Kelly Higginson, President and CEO of Restaurants Canada. “Removing the GST/HST from all food is a no-nonsense way to improve the quality of life of Canadians and support the foodservice industry.”

To sign Restaurants Canada’s petition calling on government to exempt all food from sales tax, visit .

Toronto, July 24, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Restaurants Canada welcomes and supports the collective call by Canada’s Premiers at yesterday’s Council of the Federation meeting for a more regionally responsive, transparent, and effective immigration system.

Labour shortages are having a devastating impact on the foodservice industry in Canada. Our sector employs 1.2 million Canadians, many of whom are youth, but those jobs are at risk if hard-to-fill and skilled positions, like cooks, remain vacant.

We urge the federal government to respond to the premiers’ call to reinstate Provincial and Territorial Nominee Program (PTNP) allocations to ensure access to economic migrants. With more than 78,000 job vacancies, current immigration levels threaten the viability of many restaurants, particularly in rural, remote and tourist areas. It is essential that foodservice be permitted to provide jobs for newcomers.

As Canada continues to welcome a significant number of asylum seekers, Restaurants Canada supports automatically granting work permits to them so that they can fully contribute to society and the Canadian economy while their claims are processed. As a major employer of newcomers across the country we have the ability to ensure a smooth transition into employment for asylum seekers. We also share the concerns of the premiers that processing times not just for asylum seekers, but for all immigration streams need to be faster.

 A collaborative federal-provincial framework that is responsive to regional realities is essential. We look forward to continuing this conversation with all levels of government.

• Kelly Higginson, President and CEO, Restaurants Canada

REIMS, France, July 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar is back on Earth after its debut flight into space. On 25 June 2025, the first champagne adapted to space launched on an Axiom Space mission from Florida, returning to Earth 15 July 2025 in perfect condition in its specially designed, state-of-the-art bottle. This historic event represents the culmination of nine years of research and experimentation, during which Maison Mumm, in collaboration with a community of experts, once again pushed the boundaries, continuing the explorations it began when it was founded in 1827.

To view the Multimedia News Release, please click: 

Beyond the technological achievement of this brilliantly executed mission, Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar is a powerful symbol of the spirit of celebration and conviviality, which – having united people on Earth for centuries – will in future extend into space.

An unprecedented mission, nine years in the making

The project that took Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar into space began in 2017, when Maison Mumm assembled an expert team: Octave de Gaulle, founder of SPADE, which specializes in designing products and experiences for human life beyond Earth; the CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales), France's national space agency; and Jean-François Clervoy, an astronaut with the European Space Agency, and the veteran of three NASA space missions.

The first prototype of Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar was presented in 2018, resulting in an initial set of observations, both technical and oenological. These were integrated into the design of a second prototype, produced in 2022, which also conformed to CNES specifications for safety and tasting in conditions of zero gravity. That same year, Maison Mumm announced its collaboration with Axiom Space, which would carry Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar on a future, real-life mission.

The final, crucial step before the mission could go ahead was a zero-gravity test flight, which was successfully completed in March 2025. And so, after nine years, on 25 June, Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar blasted off from Florida, as part of Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4). The Ax-4 Commander Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut and biochemistry researcher, was accompanied by an international crew. The mission returned to Earth on 15 July, with Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar in apparently flawless condition. In approximately five months' time, Yann Munier, Cellar Master of Maison Mumm, will be authorized to open the bottle and taste the world's first champagne to have voyaged into space.

A new frontier

The unique feat achieved by Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar perpetuates Maison Mumm's heritage of exploration, and once again demonstrates its capacity – in this case quite literally – to open new frontiers. The House's pioneering spirit has long been epitomized by Mumm Cordon Rouge, which – over a century before it launched into space – accompanied Commandant Charcot, the first Frenchman to lead an Antarctic expedition, on his historic quest to the Polar Circle in 1904.

From the ends of the earth to the outer reaches of space… "Over and above its contribution to space exploration, the significance of this project lies in what champagne represents – shared values, an enduring art de vivre, a symbol of our culture – and in the possibility of recreating it in an entirely new environment," comments César Giron, CEO of Maison Mumm. While Mumm Cordon Rouge is synonymous with earthly celebrations, Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar preserves, beyond the boundaries of our planet, the memory of a terroir, a climate, a savoir-faire and a ritual of conviviality – in short, a symbolic link to life on Earth.

Sébastien Barde, Deputy Director of Exploration and Human Spaceflight at CNES, adds: "The Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar project is a concrete example of the importance of considering conviviality and shared rituals in space. For CNES, these human dimensions are essential to the success of long-duration missions. By supporting projects like this one, we are exploring ways to improve the psychological well-being of crews and address the cultural challenges of human space exploration."

Pushing the boundaries of design and winemaking

Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar represented a two-fold challenge: of design and of winemaking. The design had not only to respect the stringent safety standards of a space mission, but also to preserve and ensure the precious champagne bottle remained intact. Futuristic in conception, it features a glass half-bottle secured by an opening and closing mechanism of stainless steel – the same material used by Maison Mumm for its vats in Reims. The bottle is protected within a sleek outer casing of aeronautical-grade aluminum, emblazoned with the iconic red ribbon of Mumm Cordon Rouge. The casing's long neck, ending in a cork secured by a metal ring, was designed to allow the champagne to be served in conditions of zero gravity.

The second, and equally important, aspect of the challenge involved the champagne itself. In order to counteract the dulling of the senses of smell and taste that occurs in space, the blend of Mumm Cordon Rouge had to be subtly tweaked. "The freshness and power of Mumm Cordon Rouge were retained, while the intensity of the aromas was heightened by extended aging and the addition of a dosage liqueur made from wines raised in oak casks," explains Yann Munier. 

Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar is a way of encapsulating our culture, the memory of the terroir and tasting ritual that make champagne what it is.