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TORONTO • A new Toronto distillery that says the Ontario taxes it collects are unconstitutional since the legislature never voted on them, will get its day in court Thursday.

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Jim Murray flew into Toronto the other day from Northamptonshire, England, to promote his new book, Jim Murray’s Whiskey Bible 2016. His reputation preceded him; a few days earlier he had anointed Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye his 2016 World Whisky of the Year

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Toronto Distillery Co. Ltd. opened its doors two years ago, and also opened its own retail store, to sell the liquor it distills from rye, corn, wheat and beets.

It is the first distillery to open in Toronto since 1933. The two owners, Jesse Razaqpur and Charles Benoit, are both lawyers, a training they say is key when navigating Ontario’s complex and byzantine regulations around the distillation and sale of spirits.

A bottle of winter wheat whisky at Toronto Distillery costs $33.34. Of that, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario gets $13.17, Ottawa gets $2.19 in excise tax, and Otttawa and Ontario share $3.82 in HST. The province collects a 14 cents bottle levy, a 10 cents container deposit and a nine cents environment fee. The distillery keeps just $13.83.