Bushmills 1975 / Millennium Malt

A golden oldie, so to speak. This Bushmills was distilled in 1975 and after a quarter century of maturation bottled in the so-called Millennium Malt series. Quite a few casks were bottled at that tiem – just over sixty if memory serves – to kick of the year 2000 with. The one I’ll try today was presented by to pals born in 1975 at their birthday tasting. I was unable to attend, but they provided me with a sample. Hurray.

Delicious and soft, fruity but mostly quite elegant nose on tropical fruit. Think papaya, banana, kiwi, starfruit, peach. Just a tiny bit of spices. Some lemongrass and a hint of mint. Slowly becomes somewhat waxy. This is almost delicate, in fact, but mostly just delicious.

On the palate a spicy touch of white pepper clearly shines through, wrapping itself around the tropical fruit. That fruit is now joined by litchi, gooseberry and grapefruit. The mint becomes surprisingly big and gives this Millennium Malt a fresh uplift. This is dangerously quaffable.

The finish is not very long – but certainly not short – and offers a surprising floral note. For a minute I detect some lavender (luckily without becoming soapy- before it dries your mouth.

Very, very nice! From time to time I see this appear on an auction, but other than that it has become completely unfindable, unfortunately.

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