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Canadian Club Sherry Cask

For many serious whiskey drinkers, Canadian whisky is little loved.  Among the types of whiskey, Scotch and Bourbon are most renown for their complexity and the breadth of the possible flavor profiles.  (Try an Old Forester Bourbon then a Woodford Reserve and you will get a sense of what we are am speaking of. Or, try a Glenfiddich Single Malt then a Laphroaig 10 Year.) Meanwhile, there are plenty of interesting goings-on in Irish whiskey as we have detailed in Whiskey: A Global History.

We ourselves picked on Canadian whiskey a bit in our examination of the evolution of the American palate in the 20th century.

But, truth be told, things are changing in Canada, and have been for a while.  Don’t believe us?  Well, just check out http://www.CanadianWhisky.org/, which carries smart writing on the very interesting developments in the Canadian whisky world.  The nation now is producing respectable single malts, and even the big producers have upped their game.

Take Canadian Club, for example.  Recent years have brought  Canadian Club Classic 12 Year  and Canadian Club 30 Year, both of which we enjoyed.

And there is Canadian Club Sherry Cask, a product that hit the market perhaps a decade ago.  A big knock against Canadian whisky has been its light flavor—the result of it being made with lots of grain neutral spirits.  Canadian Club Sherry Cask attacks this problem by aging the whisky 8 years in once-used American white oak bourbon barrels, and then finishing it in sherry casks from Jerez, Spain.  The result is a much richer drink—a whiskey (82.5%) that carries sweet wine notes.  Take it neat or with a little ice—either way you likely will find it quite pleasant and worth the $27 a bottle.  (Rating ***3/4)

You might find a bottle at your local liquor store, or you can order Canadian Club Sherry Cask via our preferred online retailer.

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