Tasting Notes: Bushmills: 2000 The Causeway Collection – Port Cask

Bushmills: 2000 The Causeway Collection – Port Cask (Irish Single Malt Whiskey: 20 Years: 54.1% ABV)

Visual: A deep heavy gold with fast, thick streaks that come from the spirit.

Nose: Summer fruit gateaux. Raspberry and strawberry. Smooth but recognisable alcohol. Plums. Pencil shavings. Lightly citrus fresh behind that – jiff lemon. Honey cakes. Crunchy nut cornflakes. Water makes very smooth. Clearer honey. More wood notes.

Body: Slightly drying alcohol. Sticky, yet smooth in how it delivers the alcohol character. Plums. Honey. Treacle. Fig rolls. Strawberry. Clean feeling sheen. Red cherry and black cherry. Water makes super smooth. Toffee. Spotted dick. More strawberry. Light greenery.

Finish: Fig rolls. Sherry. Golden syrup sponge cake. Lightly peppery. Soft citrus sheen. Water adds much more red fruit, especially strawberry. Light butter note. Thin sulphur candles air. Light charring.

Conclusion: Ok this is so port dominated – shocking I know for something that has spent 20 years in port wood – but what is actually surprising is somehow that base Bushmills character is still just about there underneath it all. This is so very unusual for a Bushmills but you can still recognise it as one.

Neat it is especially unusual, the 20 years age and triple distillation keeps the alcohol smooth despite an over 50% abv, but it is drying and sticky in a way that I have never encountered in Bushmills or even Irish whiskey before. It is pleasant, somehow managing to not be harsh even it indulges in this very unusual mouthfeel.

Here it leans towards darker fruit, with figs and plums and such like, with some lighter red fruit notes darting around that. It is quite heavy flavour, yet there is still a clean, lightly citrus note that is a recognisably Bushmills feel and flavour. It isn’t super obvious, just a light sheen under the far heavier notes. There is honey sweetness to treacle under everything, holding it all together which makes for a very different and sticky dram.

Water adds a much more recognisable smooth Bushmills character and really helps the red fruit notes shine out. Even more water, as this can take a lot, brings out a light sulphur note in the finish. There is so much room to play with the water here, you can keep neat or just with a few drops and keep the dry stickiness, or go deep with water and get super smooth and still rewarding.

Genuinely a great example of a whiskey, great use of the cask strength for mouthfeel and range of flavour, great use of the unusual barrel ageing to unlock huge flavours and somehow still got notes that marks it as a Bushmills even if that part is not the most obvious, it is still impressive it has not been utterly overwhelmed by the port ageing.

I am so very impressed indeed.

Background: Ok, I have been a Bushmills fan for a long while, but the odder releases tend to be very hard to get. Then I saw this in the Whisky Shop in Bath – 20 years old (Well possibly 21, it says bottled 2021 so hypothetically it could have an extra year but as it is distilled right at the end of 2000 it seems unlikely), aged solely in Port wood – first fill at that – and at cask strength – all very unusual elements for a Bushmills. I was a tad nervous at first fill unusual casks for such a long time in case it utterly dominated the character, but after much thinking – as this was a pricey one – I succumbed and bought it and hoped. Like many Irish whiskeys this is triple distilled which tends to lean towards a lighter smoother character, again something that should be interesting to see how it interacts with the high abv and unusual wood. Music wise I went with Pure Hell: Noise Addiction – I had just been watching Wendell and Wild and noticed a Pure Hell sticker on a cassette player in it, so had the urge to listen to them again. Also that is a great movie with a great soundtrack.

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Tasting Notes: Bereta: BBC Maple Syrup, Toasted Pecans, Cloves Imperial Stout

Bereta: BBC Maple Syrup, Toasted Pecans, Cloves Imperial Stout (Collab with Cristi Tiuca) (Romania: Imperial Stout: 10.5% ABV)

Visual: Black. Still. Thin brown dash of a head.

Nose: Cinnamon. Cloves. Cream. Vanilla. Walnuts. Maple syrup.

Body: Smooth chocolate liqueur. Thick texture. Cinnamon. Mulled wine. Orange zest. Walnuts. Nutty coffee.

Finish: Mulled wine. Cinnamon especially. Vanilla to vanilla custard. Chocolate liqueur. Sherry trifle touch.

Conclusion: Ok, so this is one of those beers where if you have read the name you have a pretty good idea of how it will taste. Mainly because it lists all its special ingredients in the name. Innovative naming this does not have. This clarity of flavour is both a blessing and a curse but I really can’t claim this beer does false advertising.

There is the chocolate liqueur like base imperial stout – it is thick of body and yet slick of feel – nothing out of the ordinary but solid and well made. Over that, oddly, the first impact is an unexpected cinnamon character, it has a huge, kind of Crunchie chocolate bar taste as it mixed with the base chocolate flavour in the stout. Ok, I am aware this undercuts my point that all the flavours are in the beer’s name, but stick with me here.

Then after that introduction the more Christmas mulled wine like cloves notes come it, lightly on the nose, moderate in the body they very full mulled wine in the finish. Then, revealing more layers, the nuttiness comes out. To me it felt more walnut to nutty coffee flavours, but I will take their word it is, in fact, toasted pecan. The maple syrup is the least evident element. It is there but in general the sweetness is more chocolate, vanilla or cream like.

Overall, bar the cinnamon character, it does exactly what it says on the tin. The nuttiness works as a lovely savoury backdrop to what could otherwise have been an overly sweet beer. The Christmas spice is well balanced and not overpowering, which can easily be an issue with clove like flavours. The only real flaw I can see is there is not really much to examine outside the unusual ingredients. There is a touch or orange zest, lots of vanilla, but the special ingredients do the heavy lifting – I generally prefer to be able to examine the base beer more.

Still super enjoyable despite those minor quibbles.

Background: Ok, most of the information for this is already in the name really. It is an imperial stout made with the ingredients listed. The specific ingredient list on the can is not in English so I’m not 100% but it looks right at a quick reference. It is also, as listed, a home-brewer collaboration with Cristi Tiuca. Here I will have to admit I know nothing really about Bereta or Cristi Tiuca, so this section isn’t adding much this time. This was picked up from Independent Spirit as I felt it was time for some big Imperial Stout fun and this looked like it may do the job. Also always a sucker for a new brewery. Went with Slipknots new album “The End So Far” when drinking. Not grabbing me as much as their last album that got me back into Slipknot, but it is growing on me.