Bushmills: 10 Year – Sherry Cask Finish (Irish Single Malt Whiskey: 10 years: 46% ABV)
Visual: Deep darkened gold body with slow thick puckering coming from the spirit.
Nose: Planed wood. Orange skin. Ginger. Alcohol warmth. Watered down treacle. Water makes more evident treacle. Light charring. Light citrus. Lots of pencil shavings.
Body: Honey. Sherry cream and brandy cream. Raisins to fruitcake. Golden syrup. Toffee. White chocolate. Orange zest. Soft lime. Toasted teacakes. Water adds buttered teacakes and warm spice.
Finish: Golden syrup. Sultanas. Brandy cream. Slightly drying. Fig rolls. Sweet Danish pastries. Slight soot. Soft lime. Chocolate. Crumpets. Water adds spicy note, some turmeric.
Conclusion: Finally, an age statement Bushmills with non standard barrel usage that isn’t prohibitively expensive. So, exactly what I have been wanting for ages (Ok, it is sherry cask finish not Caribbean rum cask finish 12 year old, but you know what I mean, close enough). So, is it any good?
Heck yes. The texture is still that easy drinking, slighty shimmering feeling Bushmills and it seems the 10 years aged malt lets it handle the sherry flavours perfectly.
There is a ton of dark fruit and touches of sherry cream without committing fully to the fruitcake style that a more heavily sherried dram may have. Because of that it still has the light citrus fruity notes from the base Bushmills 10, though the encounter with sherry oak has changed them slightly with the most prominent being a delicious orange rather than the more usual green fruit. The real joy of this lighter sherried take though is that is, just, some of those brighter citrus notes showing – not massively but the base Bushmills style isn’t completely lost.
It is a lovely balance of the easier drinking Irish style, single malt smoothness of alcohol feel, sherry flavor and Bushmills style. No complaints. Ok, one complaint, as a 10 year Bushmills, even a sherried one, it should be cheaper. Bushmills recently have been changing above the odds for their more unusual cask bottlings. Still, welcome to 2023, it is everywhere now. Apart from that, love it, spot on.
Background: Another whisky I saw in the duty free selection on the way home from Japan, another one I could not buy due to KLM’s cancelling my flight – for which I am still struggling to try and get the due compensation from them. Gits. Anyway, my flight woes aside, thankfully despite being listed as a travel exclusive again I could order this online so now I have it. I am a big fan of Bushmills with odd cask aging but so many of the recent ones have been either no age statement, blended, or incredibly expensive. So this 10 year age statement, single malt and while more than I think it should be for a 10 year, still not super expensive bottle jumped out at me. The standard 10 year is an old favorite of mine, though, while I gave it a “My favourite” tag back in the day, years later and having drunk many more whiskies it probably wouldn’t these days – I leave the tag on as it is still a nostalgia favorite for me, if not up there with some of the other drinks I have tried. I continued my Le Tigre listening trip with Le Tigre: This Island as background music for this one.
