Taste Test: This New Irish Single Malt Will Make Scotch Whisky Fans Swoon
Welcome to Taste Test, where every week our critic Jonah Flicker explores the most buzzworthy and interesting whiskeys in the world. Check back each Sunday for his latest whiskey review.
This isn’t exactly breaking news, but Irish single malts are really, really good. The fact is that many whiskey drinkers with a passing knowledge about that style of whiskey think it only applies to scotch (in which case it would be spelled “whisky”). But Ireland produces its fair share of single malts, although blended whiskey dwarfs the category in terms of volume and sales (as is the case with scotch). One of the stalwarts of Irish single malt is Bushmills, and this massive and popular Northern Ireland distillery just released a quartet of new expressions—with one that stands out in particular.
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Bushmills calls itself the oldest licensed distillery, citing 1608 as the year it started making whiskey. The reality is that Bushmills as we know it really got going in the late 18th century, which is still pretty old, and the distillery focuses on one style: single malt. Bushmills Original is its best known expression, but that is a blend that includes grain whiskey sourced from Midleton, the distillery in Cork that produces brands like Jameson and Redbreast. The core Bushmills lineup consists of age statement single malts ranging from 10 to 21 years old, with the more mature expressions getting some unique cask finishes. The Private Reserve range launched in late 2023 as a collection of 10 and 12-year-old single malts that were given secondary maturations in a variety of casks after initially being aged in bourbon barrels and sherry butts. The 2025 version of this series includes whiskey finished in barrels previously used to mature tequila, Bordeaux wine, Moscatel, and the subject of this review (the best of the lot, in my opinion), Amarone wine.
Amarone is a red wine from the northeastern part of Italy, and these particular barrels came from Verona. This 2014 vintage whiskey is made from 100 percent malted barley and has been triple distilled, like all of Bushmills single malts, before aging for four years in bourbon and sherry casks. Then the whiskey was put into the Amarone casks for at least six years and finally bottled at a robust 47.3 percent ABV. That’s a long finish that far surpasses the length of the initial maturation, and the results are clear upon the first sip. This is a complex and delicate whiskey, but one that reveals some more assertive notes as it opens up. Wine finishes can go quickly overboard, leaving the whiskey with an abundance of big, fruity, tannic notes that overpower its core identity. That’s not the case here, and while there are prominent juicy fruit and berry notes, the palate is balanced with layers of spice, vanilla, caramel, a hint of herbs, and a healthy dose of milk and dark chocolate.
The other expressions in the Private Reserve series are worth checking out, too, particularly the tequila finish (which presumably spent time in barrels used to age Jose Cuervo or one of its sister tequilas, since both Cuervo and Bushmills are owned by Proximo Spirits). But if you have to pick just one of these new whiskeys to try, make it the Amarone finish. Of course, an even better move would be to collect all four bottles and sample them side by side to see which one you like best.
Score: 91
100 Worth trading your first born for
95 – 99 In the Pantheon: A trophy for the cabinet
90 – 94 Great: An excited nod from friends when you pour them a dram
85 – 89 Very Good: Delicious enough to buy, but not quite special enough to chase on the secondary market
80 – 84 Good: More of your everyday drinker, solid and reliable
Below 80 It’s Alright: Honestly, we probably won’t waste your time and ours with this
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