Bushmills: 12 Year: Marsala Finish (Irish Single Malt Whiskey: 40% ABV)
Visual: Deep bronzed gold. Medium speed and thickness streaks from the spirit.
Nose: Pencil shavings. Greenery. Red grapes. Spicy red wine. Water adds plums and sultanas.
Body: Ribena. Spicy red grapes. Vanilla. Oak. Peppery. Greenery. Water adds fruitcake and sultanas.
Finish: Mossy. Slightly bitter. Nutty. Spicy red grapes. Slight metallic air. Sour dough. Cooked rice. Black-cherry. Water adds brown bread and fruitcake.
Conclusion: Well, this is a thing. So, normally I find whiskey tasted when the temperature is a bit warmer in the room is a bit sub optimal. And when I tried this it was on the just cooling night of a darn heat wave. However, I had tried this a bunch of times before the night of doing the tasting and found it fairly mediocre and a disappointment for me as Bushmills fan, so I was not too bothered, I had 90% worked out what I was going to write over my past half a bottle of experiencing it.
So, yeah, there I was trying in on an annoyingly warm UK night, ready, my thoughts primed from my previous experience and…eh, it was actually not bad. I know that letting the whiskey air can remove some of the rough fumes, but it had been doing that for ages, somehow this extra heat seemed to have aired out a lot of the shit notes.
The finish is still not the best, overly mossy, kind of metallic alcohol sheen and cooked rice notes that are not my fave. However before those elements were present to more or less degree throughout. A very sub optimal experience as you might imagine. Also, having recently had the amazing 18 year at 46% abv, I felt like I could REALLY feel the lack of the extra abv here.
However, here, in a well aired half bottle, in annoyingly humid heat, a lot of those off notes vanished mid body. There is now a lot more room for the dark fruit to roam – spicy red wine meets ribena when drunk neat, more sultanas and fruit cake with water. If it wasn’t for the rough finish I could actually recommend it like this.
But.. a big but, the finish is still rough. AND most of my experience of this was not like this one experience, so I have a feeling it is unlikely to continue being as good. So I cannot recommend it, even if somehow at this one moment in time I seem to have found it at its best.
Still buy something else.
Background: My love of Bushmills is probably well known to readers of this blog, one of my first exposures to Irish whiskey, and I have tried many expressions since. I still miss the 12 year, Caribbean rum finish travel exclusive from, like 2 decades ago. I also recently have come to conclude they really should release versions at 46-50% abv rather than the usual 40% as it adds SO MUCH to the whiskey. Though I get why, like so many big distillers, they go for the most cost effective 40%. Anyway, saw this in Sainsbury’s at a discounted price, so did not cost too much to give it a try. Marsala finish, not my beloved Caribbean Rum finish, but should still be interesting. Went with Rumkicks: Born Rude for backing music, just wanted something light and fun to back it up.
