Bushmills Steamship Collection Port Cask Reserve

Nose: Dark, sweet, plummy fruits. Oak cask, marzipan, vanilla and malt extract aromas. There is some orchard fruit on the sidelines which becomes more noticeable over time. The berry notes control this nose but surprisingly it remains clean and fresh. As it opens the nose becomes broader but never loses its freshness. Palate: Sweet, full and very faintly tannic on the arrival. It blooms with red grape, blackberry, mulberry, black cherry and port wine in the development. Chocolate and cappucinno notes emerge later together with rose-water Turkish delight and tamarind muhalbiyah. The mouth-feel is very juicy and the texture is velvet and satin. Finish: Medium. Red fruit notes like port-wine jelly drift into the aftertaste accompanied by mild cinnamon and lingering milk chocolate. The port cask utterly dominates this whisky but fortunately it does so in a very pleasant and well engineered manner. Engineered - that's the keyword here, but for once it's not a term of disparagement. Whether or not you like this will depend entirely on whether you enjoy highly "designed", cask-driven, sweet-profile whisky. If you are a hard-core purist you'll probably think it is over-dressed and trivial, but it's hard to resist its sumptuous nature. It's just plain fun. It does not have a complex or multi-layered profile. Everything is up front, proudly flaunted and it is a very focused experience overall. However it would be almost cruel to call this simplistic or accuse it of being one-note. It would be like harshly punishing a cute and adoring puppy for being mischievous (you monster!). In many ways this is the ideal TRE whisky as it would be fine for your own enjoyment or as a present both for whisky enthusiasts and those who only occasionally indulge. The abv is at the minimum of 40% but it does not seem to matter as the character is so rich and flavourful, and lower alcohol makes it more widely approachable. Really, you'd have to be pretty heartless and snobbish to reject this. My only reservation is the price, which I feel is just a bit too expensive. Tasted from a 30 ml sampler. If it was 2/3 the price I'd buy a bottle without thinking twice. "Good" : 83/100 (3.5 stars)

★★★★★ A third steamship Dear diary.... OMG! A whiskey exactly made for me. He doesn't need much to get a perfect score. Probably its shy spicy side that didn't give me the last shiver I expected. There is everything in this whisky that makes it an exceptional product. I wish I could get my hands on a bottle one of these days...

The nose is full of plums and bing cherries. There's a little floral background, like rose petals. On the taste a touch of cinnamon accompanies the stone fruits from the nose. The finish is light, but long, and maybe a touch minty? Glorious.

Light orange and spice on the nose. Sweet chocolate, honeycomb and pepper on the tongue. Decent spicy finish. Trying a taster - just googled the bottle. 100e is a bit toppy to be honest. There's 50 other whiskeys I'd buy first.

Nose: apple, cinnamon Palate: light, cinnamon, apple, ginger Finish: ginger, honey, apple, some tartness

Dark chocolate, fruit, nut. Delicious, but no finish... Needs more alcohol