One of two Bushmills bottlings this month – this is the younger of the two, having been matured in a 1st fill bourbon barrel for 15 years. Sweet, Fruity & Mellow profile.
Nose: Breakfast time! Kellogg’s Honey Nut Loops with a glass of steeped black tea. Fruits are varied, but pronounced - spit-roasted pineapple, reduced red berries and orange juice. There’s an array of additional aromas to be unpicked here – marshmallows, beeswax and pollen, basil leaf and some slight farminess (hay and stys). Water heightens the fruit levels, amplifying orange as well as adding in mango tropicalness. It also emphasises ginger spicing and baked biscuit tuiles.
Taste: Fruits and sweet sauces – Orange zest, nectarine and guava drizzled heavily with toffee and chocolate sauce. Buttery biscuit (base) is joined by bourbons and digestives and then livened with prickly cinnamon and crystalline ginger. The addition of water transforms the fruits, making them syrupy and seemingly tinned, as well as adding a pinch of white pepper and star anise.
Finish: Medium to long with mango and lychee fruit salad joined by white pepper spice and sugared double cream.
A delicious Bushmills packed full of concentrated bright fruits, balanced spice and well-judged cask influence. Whilst pricey (it’s single cask Bushmills right?), it’s equally as complex as it is tasty. Recommended.