[Review] Bushmills - 10 years old 40%

Welcome to my first Irish whiskey review. And for the first one, I am going to present the Bushmills 10 which actually is the only Irish whiskey I have in the collection. What made me go for it? I bought the bottle a few months ago now, I wanted to diversify my whisky experiences and it was on offer in my local supermarket. As usual, I did check online and read a few reviews of it whilst in the spirits aisle and they were good enough to let me have a go. Bushmills 10 is a single malt which has been triple distilled, so that should make for a lighter dram. It has been matured in Bourbon and Oloroso sherry casks and the whole production process (malts ditilling, blending, maturation and bottling) is carried out on the same site. Their malting process does not involve any peat and as I mentioned previously, the wash is distilled three times in large copper pot stills.


Bushmills 10 is bottled at 40%. As it is not mentioned anywhere on the bottle and I found no specific regulation for Irish whiskey (unlike for Bourbon), I presume this whiskey has received the standard treatment of chill-filtration and colouring. 

Nose: Citrus first and mineral notes before hitting the sweetness with honey and ripe fruit like mango and peaches

Palate: Again fruity and mineral, sweet with toffee and honey, milk chocolate. The mouth feel is rather light as I expected from a triple distilled dram. I find the nose fresher, more citrusy than the sweeter palate

Finish: not too long with some spicy sweetnes, still toffee and honey

With water: with a few drops the nose become sweeter, richer but still with some mineral notes. The palate is still sweet and fruity with a lot of toffeed honey. Reading other reviews of it, I came across one from Master of Malt which said "nectarine chunks in low fat yoghurt", and I would somehow agree with them!

I remember opening the bottle and finding it a bit too mineral for my taste but getting back into it a few months later, I must say I am enjoying it much more than I did at the time! However for around £25 to £30 I would go more naturally towards Highland Park 12 or Bunnahabhain 12 for my regular dram... I might just be missing the peat in here!


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