Bushmills Rum Cask #10635

Yes, I know it is March 18th, so I'm a day late with the rest of these...but I took my daughter and her friend on a ski trip to Blue Mountain for the week, so I wasn't in my oak-and-leather accented tasting room where I normally conduct these analyses. However, here I am, so I'll do the other three Irish whiskeys I had in mind for you.

This one is a single malt from Bushmills, though a very unusual one. It was distilled in 1991 and matured for 19 years in a single rum cask, then bottled exclusively for the Park Avenue Liquor Shop in NYC. It is non-chill-filtered.

The colour is a dark honey. On the nose we have pots and pots of honey, with light molasses, marzipan, semi-sweet chocolate and toasted oak. Buttery. Liquorice All-Sorts. Canned pears. Maltier (and lightly peated??) with water. Fruity and sweet, a lot of fun.

On the palate we have all of the above, with the addition of more liquorice, burnt dark brown sugar, crisp malt and cardamom. Meringue. Some citrus, with a hint of mint. Water adds a bit of spice. Delicious, but very unusual for an Irish single malt.

The finish is long and very fruity with blackberries and some oak at the very end. The nose is the star here, but it is all very interesting (and extremely drinkable), if a little odd. A bit too sticky-sweet for me, and the cask seems to slightly mask that distinctive Bushmills-malt quality, but worth picking up next time you are in Manhattan (and if they have some left).

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