Tap 8 Sherry Finished 8y Rye with Dan

Tap 8 Sherry Finished 8y Rye. Possibly the best rye ever, and that’s me saying that.

Tap’s web presence is broken at the moment – the stylesheet’s not loading so it looks a little web 1.0. There’s a contact phone number at the bottom that when you search lands you at 375 Park Avenue Drinks, a brand covering Tap, Old Pulteney, Balblair & anCnoc. Search the address 375 Park Avenue and you find out it’s the old headquarters of Seagrams. Except that Seagrams got broken up a while ago, and while wiki points to Pernod, the 375 website says they are part of Sazerac now. But it says it’s distilled at the oldest distillery in Western Canada which, when searched, points to Alberta Distilling, which contracts to Beam-Suntory. I officially have no idea who owns this brand.

Beverage corporations are like dynastic families. Like court politicking.

Interesting. Most of the time when we see “something finished” it refers to the type of barrels the whisky is aged in. In this case, they’ve taken advantage of Canadian Whisky having a 10% other ingredient allowance by blending actual Spanish sherry into the mix. Pretty cool, here’s what we thought:

nose
Dan – vanilla coke & cherry blossoms, hints of wood shavings
Simon – vanilla, butterscotch liqueur

neat
Dan – licorice, spice, bitter sappy wood
Simon – mature but burn. toffee & grain

finish
Dan – medium, same feeling after eating spicy food
Simon – long chest warmth

splash
Dan – sweet coca-cola with a mouthfeel of dry-ish barrel taste. slightly tobacco
Simon – sweetened, smoother, good light burn

free association
Dan – Jolene
Simon – September bbq

overall
Dan – 8.5/10 (9.5/10 for rye)
Simon – 8.6/10 (9.2/10 for rye)

Tap 8 Sherry Finished 8y Rye – 41.5% 750ml – $45.95 – Alberta

Try it? Yes! Buy it? Yes, while you can!