Tag: canadian

Canadian Club Sherry Cask

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Maker: Some distillery or distilleries in Canada (Beam Inc.)

Age: 8 y/o

Style: Canadian Whisky finished in a sherry cask.

ABV: 41.3%

Appearance: Dark copper with thick legs. Like a tanned figure-skater.

Nose: Big, bold sherry flavors. Wood, butterscotch, caramel.

On the palate: Hot, but thick. Some sweet butterscotch candy, light fino sherry flavors, and caramel again.

Finish: Hot, but mitigated by the fruity sherry sweetness. Disappears fairly quickly in unfortunate Canadian Whisky tradition.

Parting words: This is an unusual whisky. The closest thing I can compare it to would be a super sherried single malt Scotch like Abelour A’bunadh. The sherry influence is very strong. Sometimes I think it’s too strong, sometimes I like the fact that the typical Canadian Club notes don’t come through. It works best as an after-supper sip. I didn’t have much left when I reviewed it, but I did have enough to try it in a Manhattan. It didn’t perform as well as a high-rye bourbon or rye but the sherry added an interesting twist to the drink. Canadian Club Sherry Cask gets a recommendation.

Canadian Club

JoshLeave a comment

Maker: Some distillery or distilleries in Canada (Beam Inc.)

Age: 6 y/o

ABV: 40%

Appearance: Copper with thick sticky legs.

Nose: Very faint maple sugar, alcohol, sherry, table grapes, a bit of oak.

On the palate: Full-bodied but very light in flavor. Sweet, with some wood, nutmeg and clove as a counterpoint.

Finish: Very long finish. Mostly hot, but with a bit of sweetness punctuated with solera sherry and sugar plum flavors.

Mixed: Does pretty well in an Old Fashioned. Lacks the punch and flavor to pull off a whisky sour.

Parting Words: I didn’t expect this to be too good, based on my past experience and honestly it wasn’t. My aim in reviewing Canadian Club was to establish a baseline for tasting Canadian whiskies. It works for that purpose. When it comes to taste, it’s not too bad but the nose is almost non-existent and the finish isn’t much better. All that said, it’s cheap, available in all sizes and does what it sets out to do. Canadian Club gets a mild recommendation.