Good day Ladies & Gentlemen. We haven't had an Irish Whiskey featured on my blog for over 3 weeks! Let's change that. Today I thought we will take a look at a 1L Travel Exclusive release from Bushmills. When it comes to Irish Whiskey, I like Bushmills a lot. Their cheap Black Bush bottling was the first Irish Whiskey I really liked due to it's high malt proportion. I picked this Travel Exclusive bottle up in a regular store, not on the airport. Sometimes these bottlings find their way to stores after a while. I got it for 45 EUR. I think it's an amazing value for a 1L 46% 10 yo bottle. But is the whiskey good? I found very contradicting information about it, some people loved it some people didn't like it at all. Let's see what I think.

About the distillery

The Old Bushmills Distillery is an Irish whiskey distillery in Bushmills, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, founded in 1784 and owned by Proximo Spirits. Bushmills Distillery uses water drawn from Saint Columb's Rill, which is a tributary of the River Bush. The distillery is a popular tourist attraction, with around 120,000 visitors per year.

The company that originally built the distillery was formed in 1784, although the date 1608 is printed on the label of the brand – referring to an earlier date when a royal licence was granted to a local landowner to distil whiskey in the area. Over 400 years later, whiskey is still being made in Bushmills, thanks to experience and craft passed down from generation to generation.

In the 1850s, the Crown imposed a tax on those distilling in Ireland through a tax on barley. Even then, malted barley was known throughout the world to make the finest whiskey, known as "pure malt" whiskey. When only malted barley is used in distillation, and made at a single distillery, you have the very definition of "single malt" whiskey. That tax, however, forever changed Irish whiskey, as almost every Irish whiskey distillery began substituting corn or other inferior grains for barley.

After various periods of closure in its subsequent history, the distillery has been in approximately continuous operation since it was rebuilt after a fire. In 1885, a disastrous fire destroyed The Old Bushmills Distillery but we pulled together, were soon rebuilt, and back in full production to meet soaring US demand.

Bushmills is more than just a whiskey. It's a village, where family, friends and neighbours work side by side at the distillery. As we often say, "without the village there would be no whiskey, and without the whiskey there would be no village". 

Triple distillation is the open secret of Bushmills Distillery that makes its whiskey unique and smooth. After Midleton Distillery, Bushmills is the second biggest Irish distillery with an annual production capacity of 4.5 million liters and stills are running seven days a week.

There are ten big pot stills and six spirit safes are the heart of the Old Bushmills Distillery and they perform the triple distillation that is typical for Bushmills Whiskey. Production is modern and computerized at Bushmills and it only needs one man to conduct the fermentation- and distillation process.

Bushmills 10 yo Sherry Cask Finish 1L Single Malt Irish Whiskey - Natural Color (?), Chill filtered (?), 46%

"Here we have a whole litre of the glorious Bushmills 10 Year Old Sherry Cask Finish. The folks at Bushmills have taken their triple distilled, Irish single malt whiskey, and treated it to an additional stay in sherry casks, for an extra helping of rich honey and soft fruits, in this expression originally released for the Travel Retail market."

"Aged for a minimum of 10 years in ex-bourbon barrels, then finished in Oloroso Sherry casks for a rich and complex flavor profile. Imparts notes of dried fruit, toasted almonds, and a hint of spice, with a smooth and silky mouthfeel and a warm, long-lasting finish. Packaged in a 1L bottle, perfect for sharing with friends or as a gift. Enjoy neat, on the rocks, or in a classic whiskey cocktail."

Nose: Right away very sherry dominant. It must have been in a very active cask. However, the usual Irish Whiskey notes are right there. Very nice fruitiness. Green apples, pears and lovely peaches. A strong malty base with some yeasty notes. A little bit of an alcohol smell comes out. Very sweet and oaky. Honey, nuts, figs, brown sugar, chocolate, raisins, caramel and vanilla. Not a wow so complex nose, but rather an OK, pleasant nose that is inviting.

Taste: The whiskey is dominated by many sweetened sugary fruits in the taste, such as canned peaches, mango, pineapple and pears. Overly sweet(?). Spicy, peppery sensation. Ginger and black pepper giving way to some heat. Then comes dark chocolate, espresso and some sour red apples. Oak. Figs, raisins, and chocolate coated oranges. One thing I have to note. The alcohol is not so well integrated. It stands out a bit, and it bothers me. Adding a drop of water helps a lot. Perhaps in this case, this would have been better if it was bottled at 43 or 40% ABV.

Finish: The finish is quite short for 46% ABV. I think in this whisky as I said before, the ABV just makes things worse. Not sure why they ended up bottling it at this strength. Very mild and delicately malty with hints of sour apple and espresso. Oak and some spices and pepper. Not bad.

Overall I think this whiskey is OK. However I think it would be better at a lower strength. There are almost 0 cases that I would say this. But here I think the ABV works in the wrong direction and makes this whiskey worse. But as I said before. 45 EUR for a 1L bottle is awesome. You can also water it down to either 43% or 40% ABV. In these cases if you choose the 43% ABV you get 1.07L and if you choose the 40% ABV then you get 1.15L. Just to put it into perspective for a 0.7L 40% version of this whiskey according to these calculations you would pay 27 EUR. That's insane value. And believe me, this whiskey is much better if you water it down. I think it's worth to buy a bottle of this. It's not bad by any means, more like untamed. And the tool to tame it is water! I will give this whiskey 82 / 100. Not the highest score but it indicates that this is an OK whiskey.

Bushmills is actually one of my favourite Irish Whiskeys. I really like their flavor profile and I love the shape of the old and new bottles too. 

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Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. To many more. Sláinte.