Time for some more Canadian whiskey. Today with one of the better known brands – Canadian Club. This expressions is a bit unique, as it was finished in Sherry casks. If you’re a scotch aficionado, chances you won’t be blown away by this procedure of finishing a whisky in sherry casks, as it’s very common in scotch these days, but for Canadian whisky, a finishing technique is not very common (probably since you can add actual sherry to the whiskey and still call it whiskey by Canadian whiskey standards). Anyways, this whisky started its life in American oak for 6 years, then transferred into 27 sherry casks for another two years, adding sweet, nutty, and dried fruit flavours to the whiskey, resulting in a richer whisky profile.
Canadian Club Sherry Cask batch SC-020 , 41.3% ,$30-$40 (CAD)
Nose: Starts quite rich with big luscious sweet sherry notes. Dark sweet raisins, tobacco, plums ,dates and some peaches too. Oak and spices and a slight fresh lemon sort of touch.
Palate: Starting sharp with the rye effect then getting sweeter with a lot of that chocolate sherry combo. Raisin, golden syrup and more nutty milk chocolate and tobacco leaves. Dark and sweet with bitter edges.
Finish : Dry. Sherry. Dark chocolate truffles. Cherries.
Bottom line:
This is a delicious whisky, and clearly those Sherry butts from Jerez did the job quite nicely adding another sweeter dimension with chocolate and spice, which work rather well with the 6 year old spirit. For that price, it’s a no brainer, and a very nice session whisky.
Score: 85/100
thank you Davin for the sample.