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Whiskeria Winter 2021/22
A Time in History
The land of the giants Showing strength in times of adversity, Brian Wilson explores the history of Bushmills Distillery and discovers how it adapted in times of hardship to become the globally recognised brand it is today. F EATU R E IL LU STR ATION: K AT IE SMIT H
Knowledge Bar Bushmills 1991 The Whisky Shop Exclusive
The Whisky Shop's latest Bushmills single cask exclusive has been finished for no less than 16 years in Madeira casks, following a maturation period of 13 years in a mix of ex-oloroso sherry butts and bourbon barrels. This spectacular expression follows on from last year's exclusive Feuillette cask bottling, which sold out at The Whisky Shop within a matter of hours. We don't expect this new release to hang around for long, either.
A triangle of destinations in the very north of Ireland make it, by any standard, a special part of the world. If your particular interests happen to be golf, geology and whiskey, then this is the centre of the universe. To the west, lies Royal Portrush Golf Club which hosted the Open Championship in 2019 and has just been named as venue for 2025. Drive a few miles eastwards and you will come upon that extraordinary phenomenon, the Giant’s Causeway, with its 40,000 hexagonal basalt columns merging into the sea. Five miles inland, at the apex, sits the village of Bushmills and its eponymous distillery. It’s tough competition but it would be fair to say that Bushmills is possibly the best-known name of the three around the world. That all rests on the reputation of the world’s oldest licensed distillery. Like all good whiskeys – with or without an ‘e’ – Bushmills owes its existence to a pure and plentiful water supply. The River Bush flows more than 30 miles from the Antrim Hills. ‘Bush’ is a corruption of the Irish word for victory, ‘an Bhuais,’ but which particular victory is lost in the mists of battle-scarred time. What matters is that the river flows through a fertile valley with a mineral base that makes it particularly pure and suitable for distilling. The water from one of its tributaries, Saint Columb’s Rill, is exclusive to the distillery. As Master Distiller Colum
Egan says: “They called it after me before they knew I was coming.” Colum, who has been at Bushmills for 20 years, makes a direct link between geology and the distillery. “Basalt rock is very prominent in this area and that is really what the water flows over. It’s what lays the foundation for everything else. We have our own unique taste, and the water is fundamental to that. Bushmills is a lot about authenticity. It sounds simple but the hardest thing is to make the same thing every day. We have our consistent water source, we are very specific about the malted barley, we use the same casks. My favourite place to have a drink is on the basalt rocks – you could be in the same place, drinking the same whiskey, in the same environment a century ago.” Bushmills’ status as the world’s oldest licensed distillery stems from a disposition made by James I of Great Britain (and VI of Scotland) in 1608, against a background of political upheaval in Ireland; particularly the province of Ulster which has resonance down to the present day. The key player was a military adventurer, Sir Thomas Phillips, who was prominent in ensuring a rebel defeat in the Nine Years War which kicked off in 1593, prompted by Ulster chieftains resisting the spread of London rule. Their defeat is seen as the beginning of the end for ‘Gaelic Ireland’ and promptly led to the Plantation of Ulster. For his efforts,
