Michael Bublé serves whiskey to army of Santas

The Holly Jolly Christmas crooner gatecrashed a SantaCon event in New York to offer liquid refreshment in the form of his Fraser & Thomson whiskey.

There were red suits and fake beards aplenty at this year’s SantaCon, a festive charity bar crawl that sees hundreds of Santas descend on the city’s drinking dens.

But rather than warm milk and cookies, the hoards of Father Christmasses were sipping North American whiskey courtesy of singer Michael Bublé who popped up to promote his new brand.

Bublé surprised drinkers by appearing at bars along the route, including popular sports bar Legends and Irish pub The Keg Room, to pour measures of his Fraser & Thomson whiskey.

The musician’s whiskey brand and its parent company, the spirits incubator WES Brands, also made a charitable donation to SantaCon, allocating the donated funds to City Harvest, an organisation that works to battle hunger in New York.

A blend of Canadian and Bourbon whiskies, Fraser & Thomson launched in October, named after the point at which two major rivers in British Columbia converge.

Bottled and blended by Heaven Hill Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky, the whiskey has”sweet fig and blood orange on the nose”, with a subtle finish of  “caramel, vanilla, and a hint of spice”.

The whiskey is the result of a partnership with friend and Master Distiller and Blender Paul Cirka, but according to a press release “dozens of beverage alcohol professionals” have been involved in the collaboration.

Cirka began producing Canadian whiskey in his Montréal distillery in 2016, under the brand name Cirka. The company became the first in the region to produce spirits from grain-to-bottle, which the brand says “gives us full control over our base product to make it perfect”.

Three years were spent perfecting the final blend of Fraser & Thomson, which includes an unspecified amount of Kentucky Bourbon, and bottles are available in limited quantities.