Whisky Discovery #349

Bushmills Black Bush NAS (40% abv)
Irish Whiskey
Circa £25.00 70cl

This is the 'Flash Mob Blog Post' from Whisky Discovery! Let me explain:

There is a great whisky community on Twitter with enthusiasts based all over the globe, exchanging tweets, tasting notes and even whisky samples. In the New Year a Facebook page was created for whisky bloggers and membership has grown to almost one hundred of us now. The idea for this first came from our Facebook group, and I'll let Canadian blogger, Johanne McInnis (@Whiskylassie) from "The Perfect Whisky Match" (who has since taken the lead in initiating a number new 'projects on our Facebook page) tell you how it all came about:

Johanne says: "After a fellow blogger started our Facebook group, I found myself going on there quite often.  It has been great networking with lots of good reads. At one point someone asked a question like:  What do you do to keep your blogs fresh or new? I remembered a blog from last fall where I had sent some Canadian whisky samples to Dave Worthington of Whisky Discovery and how I thought it was fun how Dave, myself and Jean Francois (@jfpilon) all wrote about it together. (you can find that post here)  So, I shared that idea with the people from the Facebook group. 

I started a new post saying something like, this has worked for us and increased readership (something like that…) and the next thing I knew we had over 30 people saying, hey I’d love to do that too!  So the idea came to me rather quickly.  In a world where you often can watch Flash mobs on You Tube, why wouldn't we do the same on Twitter?   

With St. Patrick’s Day around the corner and one of their whiskies readily available just about anywhere (truly a global whisky), I thought, I'm going to throw this out there:  

A GLOBAL FLASH MOB REVIEW of one whisky, using social media.  The next thing I knew it was a go.  With 25 people spanning from Israel to California, the MOB BLOG as it’s come to be known was born… and will be taking place on St. Patrick’s day at 4:00pm GMT.

My First Bushmills:

Bushmills is widely regarded at the worlds oldest whiskey distillery, being officially registered in 1784. However a licence for whiskey distilling was issued to Sir Thomas Phillips by James I in 1608 which is the date embossed on every bottle of theirs. Although there is no direct evidence that the licence was issued to a distillery named Bushmills, it was issued to the district that the distillery lies, in County Antrim in Northern Ireland.

The Bushmills Black Bush is a blended Irish Whiskey and is said to contain around 80% single malts blended with grain whiskey all of which has been triple distilled before being matured in Oloroso sherry casks for up to seven years

So What Did I Think?

For me the nose opened up with a milk chocolate note the instant you pour it into your glass, but this quickly dissipated to give me lots of pear notes, Comice pears to be precise, and there's even a little candied lemon peel too. Sweet sherry notes follow, then spicy fruit cake and some light honey too. There's a grain element of 'green' barley or wheat, not quite ready to harvest, so the grains are still soft and chewy. 

The Comice pears lead the palate too, with a very smooth delivery, honey soothing the gentle spice that warms, before slipping back to gentle sweetness with some glacé cherries and finishes with some tannins, and a little bitter pith like note.

This is not a complex blend but it is so very drinkable, very reasonably priced and widely available. Great idea Johanne and good choice of whiskey too. I've noticed they have a range of single malts that look interesting and one of them is definitely on my '101' list. So let me raise my glass to all the whisky bloggers taking part in this Flash Mob Blog Post. Sláinte mhaith and Happy Saint Patrick's Day to you all!

The full list of all the blogs taking part in this Flash Mob Blog Post are now linked below, take some 'time out' preferably with a glass of Bushmills Black Bush and enjoy. We'd be happy to hear what you think too:

1. V-Log: Mark's Whisky Ramblings from Mark Dermul (Belgium)
2. Review: Connosr from Mark Dermul (Belgium)
3. Blog: Best Shot Whisky Reviews from Jan van den Ende (Brazil)
4. Blog: Miss Whisky from Aylwynne Gwilt (UK)
5. Blog: Whisky Israel from Gal Granov (Israel)
6. Blog: Freaky Whisky from Frank J Plamondon (Canada)
7. Blog: The Perfect Whisky Match from Joshua Feldman (USA Guest blogger)
8. Blog: A Dram Good Time from William Gemmell (USA)
9. Blog: What Tastes Good from Susannah Barton-Skiver (USA)
10. Blog: GJR's Whisky Blog from Gert-Jan de Ruiter (The Netherlands)
11. Blog: The Whisky Guy Blog from Rob Gard (USA)
12. Blog: A Measure of Whisky from Dave Smith (Canada)
13. Blog: The Malt Desk from Claus Rasmussen (Denmark)
14. Blog: A Wardrobe of Whisky from Miguel Angel Blanch (Spain)
15. Blog: Tom's Whisky Reviews from Tom Thomson (UK)
16. V-Log: Whisky Wednesday from Joe Ellis (UK)
17. Blog: It's Just the Booze Dancing from Angelo Veneziano (USA)
18. Blog: Malt Fascination from Sjoerd de Hann (Netherlands)
19. Blog: Whisky Girl from Femke Tijtsma Sijtsma (The Netherlands)
20. Blog: Chemistry of the Cocktail from Jordan Devereaux (USA)
21. Blog: Whisky Plus from Jean Francois Pilon (Canada)
22. Blog: The Perfect Whisky Match from Graham McKinney (Canada)
23. Blog: joshZie's Whisky Review from Josh Zollweg (USA)
24. Blog: The Casks from Peter Lemon (USA)
25. Blog: Malt Imposter from Malt Imposter (USA)