FEW Irish businesses will still be innovating beyond one century, let alone four. But Bushmills is . . .
The north coast institution, the oldest licensed whiskey distillery in the world, promised a decade ago that it has a range of brand new variations due for release to complement its 10-, 16- and 21-year-old staples.
And it has just put on sale the first in a series of new cask finish products.
The Caribbean Rum Cask Finish features the award-winning single malt used in Bushmills Original Irish Whiskey, finished in hand-selected fine oak Caribbean Rum casks.
Under the auspices of master blender Helen Mulholland, it is then blended with the brand’s signature triple distilled Irish grain whiskey to create tropical fruit and dry spice flavours.
Rich gold in colour and with a distinctive amber hue, the Caribbean rum cask imparts a lingering, sugary sweet finish to the whiskey, offering a new and unique flavour experience and underlining the brand's versatility.
Ms Mulholland says: “The launch of the Cask Finish series is an exciting and innovative move for us and adds an extra dimension to our acclaimed Bushmills Original.
“We’re hugely excited to bring our latest innovation to new and discerning whiskey drinkers across the island of Ireland and beyond.”
Last year Bushmills also launched its Causeway Collection series of limited-edition single malt whiskeys, the first release of ultra-rare cask-strength malts and marking a departure from the tried-and-tested.
And there is understood to be a number more innovations to come later this year from the Old Bushmills Distillery, which currently has more than 80,000 barrels of whiskey (16 million litres) under the maturation process (its most recent accounts revealed the business currently has £118.8 million of warehoused stock).
