Whisky : Bushmills 15 Year SMWS 51.10 “Agave-induced invigoration”

Country/Region : Northern Ireland

ABV : 57.7%

Cask : First Fill Ex-Bourbon

Age : 15 Years (Distilled 22 May 2002)

Nose : Pleasant nose full of fruity hints of soursop, passionfruit, and dragonfruit— maybe a fruity refreshing sherbet.  Faint butterscotch and a scoop of creamy vanilla ice cream give the impression of creamy sweets.  Bits of fresh cut strawberry and warm scone promise breakfast.

Palate :  The creamy vanilla comes out first— almost effervescent in nature like a bubbling vanilla cream soda or maybe a vanilla-orange soda.  The flavors are clean and refreshing like a lemon granita or a fruity soft serve yogurt.  Loads of sharpe, sweet, tart, and slightly astringent citrus follow and dominate the palate as lemon peel, lemon scented cleaning products, and yuzu.

Finish : Medium length vanilla ginger cream soda fades in intensity quickly.

Score : 6

Mental Image : Soda Jerker slides over a tall fizzing glass of vanilla orange cream soda.  

Something Better : Caol Ila 17Y “Unpeated Style” (similar lemon/yuzu, more salt, funkier nose)

Something Similar : Glen Elgin 10Y SMWS 85.49 ‘Aloha!’ (similar effervescence/lemon, more astringent)

Something Worse : Trader Joe’s 10Y Highland Single Malt (similar lemon/citrus, less body, less finesse)

Notes :   I have never associated Bushmills with top-shelf.  It might sit at the top shelf at the grocery store, standing tall above things that come in 1 liter plastic jugs, but I have never associated it with quality.

When I saw this bottle I was game to give Bushmills a fair shake and try it out.  The question was which bottle to get?  SMWS-US had a trio of them available over the summer (possibly they are still there).  Reading through the descriptions, this one sounded as though it had the best shot at offering up some memorable tropical fruit flavors.  I would not say it disappointed— the nose had a lovely bouquet of tropical notes— but the body was ever so slightly on the thin side and the flavors not quite rich enough to linger on the palate.  Perhaps the influence of the bourbon cask dominated and a bit too much vanilla came through.  Sometimes its hard to pin exactly why a dram did not come together and most of the time there is no point— I did not distill it, I cannot do any better, I cannot go tasting sister casks to find one that really nails it on the head.

So cheers.  This bottle might not quite be worth the price of admission in my book, but it is the best Bushmills I have ever had by quite some margin.  It has been a joy to sip on during the hot late summer evenings— it has a lovely refreshing quality from the lemony acidity and slight astringency.  I could see someone who really enjoys sweeter Highlands or maybe Lowland triple distilled malts finding this to be quite excellent and probably deciding my grade was way off.