On the nose: Much more peppery compared to the Original. The heavier sherry aromas are more obvious as well. Despite being more pronounced, the sherry aromas are also initially very muddled. As it slowly opens up, I get light, brief but full aromas of blood orange, dried dates, ripe plums, cherry & berry pie, raisins, and prunes. As someone who doesn’t have extensive experience with Bushmills, a part of me wonders how good they really are, and whether their being the second best-known Irish whisky brand is well-deserved or simply due to being one of the Irish whisky brands for a long time. Yes, there is more competition now. But is there really a formula to find out how long it will take for the new brands to catch up to the reputation the older brands have? Continuing in my st-paddy's day's theme I went to my favorite liquor store and bought a bottle of 10 years old bushmills. I usually go for the 1608 original bush, but felt like going a bit older this time. Nothing in the Terms shall exclude or limit our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or for death or personal injury resulting from gross negligence or willful misconduct by us. We may sell, license, transfer, assign or in any other way dispose of the Service (including Members) to any third party without any notification to you, e.g. (but without limitation) in connection with any reorganization, restructuring, merger or sale, or other transfer of assets.

Added to the review now is the La Maison Du Whisky 1992 Cognac Cask finish 28 year old. Distilled 09/04/1992 and matured in a combination of bourbon and sherry casks for 11 years this was then recasked on 19/12/2003 for a further maturation of approximately 17 years in ex-cognac casks before bottling on 10/04/2020. This is at natural cask strength of 46.7%, non chill filtered and natural colour with an outturn of 500 bottles. Our Service is an online platform which provides Members with information (e.g. bottle facts, market-indices, market values and prices) on (mostly) whisky and allows Members to add information to the platform. We do not sell, nor does the Service provide any option to buy, any alcoholic products.Regardless of whether the Service offers the functionality to contribute, you are solely responsible and liable for any content and information that you create, upload, post, publish, link to, duplicate, transmit, record, display or otherwise make available on the Service or to other Members, such as chat messages, text messages, videos, audio, audio recordings, music, pictures, photographs, text and any other information or materials, whether publicly posted or privately transmitted (“Contributions”). Sherry, dark fruit, nuts, toffee, char, spice, honey, cocoa and a bit of citrus and raisiny dark fruit. Nose: An open fruit basket from the off, with a sprinkle of roses on top just for good measure. A few strands of liquorice can be found woven in between the pears, grapes, peaches and bananas, all of which are giving off an intense aroma as they ferment in the sun. Some honey is drizzled on top just to douse the resultant smoke, leaving us to enjoy a densely sweet nose of sublimely fortified fruit. 2.5

There’s nothing offensive about the Original, yet there’s also nothing exciting to be excited about. It’s a light, easy-to-drink session whisky. The sherry influence is not too noticeable, but I think it also makes sure this blend doesn’t end up being flat or has a sudden drop off of flavor. Something as light as this makes me think it’ll be good as a Japanese highball. Water makes the whiskey a bit more “cereal-forward” with some porridge notes and Nilla wafers taking center stage. Lovely either way, but I prefer it neat. A few of the more interesting things I learned about Bushmills: the name comes from the River Bush. They also use 100% Irish Malted Barley. Their barrel entry proof is 85%, which is something I’m not too fond of, as the spirit can over-extract the cask’s flavors. We may, but are not under any obligation, to release new functionalities and tools or other features for the Service every now and then. Any new functionalities, tools and features shall be part of and governed by the Terms from the moment they are launched and/or available. Further, we reserve the right to modify, change, discontinue the Service, add or remove features, update the Service, change its appearance, temporarily and permanently, at any time, in whole or any part thereof. Palate (undiluted): light arrival, floral, honey, milk chocolate, a touch of salted butter, more apples

Taste: Soft and silky mouthfeel with a distinctive toasted nut character, hints of allspice and a punch of ripe peaches Finish: Short. Longer than other Bushmills (notice the repeating refrain?), but still not very long by the standards of other all-sherry cask-aged whiskies. A simple persistent sweetness lasts the longest.

If any provision of these Terms is held invalid, the remainder of the Terms shall continue in full force and effect. Whiskybase B.V. is the Dutch private limited liability company, having its statutory seat in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and its office at Zwaanshals 530, 3035 KS Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Whiskybase B.V. is registered with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce under no. 52072819. Every bottle of Bushmills carries the year 1608 on. This was the year that James I of England (James IV of Scotland) issued a licence to distil County Antrim in Ireland. Bushmills Distillery itself, however, wasn’t registered until 1784 by Hugh Anderson. Nose: Big, bold aromas of rich fruitcake and the intense sherry sweetness characteristic of Pedro Ximénez casks Firstly, this was mentioned to be an Asia-exclusive release. So, this is different from the Bushmills 12 Year Old Distillery Reserve which was reviewed by Phil before. According to Phil’s review, the Distillery Reserve is fully aged in ex-oloroso sherry casks, but this Asia exclusive is aged in three types of wood (ex-bourbon, ex-sherry and ex-marsala).

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On the palate, the initial hit is quite balanced: neither too sweet, nor too dry. But then, it starts to develop. You get the sweetness of malt and corn, that turns into something like milk chocolate, then strawberry, then classic malt. Finally we get the wood notes of spices and a touch of corn and flowers. All in the all, this is probably the first truly decent Bushmills that I’ve had. It would make a good introduction for someone interested in experiencing sherry finishing, without jumping right into a sherry-bomb. But I really think the casks used here have seen too many previous refills – they just seem a bit tired. And I can’t fathom why they bottled this at such a low 40% ABV. Bushmills Sherry Cask Reserve is pure single malt whisky, not a blend like the cheaper Bushmills. While it is a no-age-statement (NAS) whisky, it is matured exclusively in Oloroso sherry butts. That certainly sounds at least minimally promising – although it is disappointingly bottled at the minimum strength of 40% ABV.

Us whiskey nerds here in Ireland have known for years that Bushmills was a slumbering giant just waiting for someone to show it a bit of love and attention and reawaken it....and boy have Casa Cuervo done just that. With releases like this anyone starting to make malt whiskey in Ireland will have along way to go before they can compete with, never mind topple Bushmills. All in all, it is better then the regular bush. But not by much. The nose is what impresses me the most. It's got something Clynelish about it. Which, to me is quite good. Some diageo connection there? Probably more to do with the quality of the malt and yeast used. Without prejudice to the section Liability below, the Service may be temporarily unavailable during maintenance, updates, etc. We shall make reasonable efforts to inform you of any unavailability due to maintenance or updates. Whiskybase B.V. (“Whiskybase”, “we” or “us”, company details below) offers a whisky enthusiasts online platform that provides its members access to the most comprehensive, transparent and trusted resource of whisky bottles and allows and stimulates its members to contribute information about whisky bottles to the platform (“Service”). I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for Bushmills since James Joyce mentions it by name in Ulysses. I’m a fan of everything Joyce wrote, so my scoring may not be purely objective.This 12 Year Old doesn’t speak to me. It feels like the three types of wood are clashing, resulting in this whisky’s smells and tastes being muted. There aren’t any offensive flavors here. But it’s disappointing and annoying to know this whisky has more things to offer but you can’t gain access to it. Letting this breathe for 20 more minutes didn’t help it change. I like it. It's an easy whiskey, easy to drink, easy to taste. It has the softness of a kiss of Ireland. Triple distilled and matured in two woods, presumably American oak and sherry casks as the 16 year old, but without the finishing. In the mouth: Just as peppery as on the nose. But the sherry notes here are more bitter than the sweet tastes the sherry bomb lovers are more used to. I get subtle but slightly lengthy tastes of cherry-flavored lollipops, dried dates, dried figs, blood orange, goji berry, prunes, and raisins. In-between those are just as subtle but only flashes of apples, lemon peel, guava, pears, and star fruit. Score: 5/10 On the nose, it's apple. Baked apple, fresh apple, calvados. Some orange peel. I also get quite bit from the sherry cask: chocolate, ripened grapes, wood. I'm quite impressed so far.