Tasting Notes: Bushmills: Causeway Collection: 1991: Madeira Cask

Bushmills: Causeway Collection: 1991: Madeira Cask (Irish Single Malt Whiskey: 30 years: 50.2% ABV)

Visual:Deep bronzed gold. Fast thick streaks come from the spirit.

Nose: Big. Christmas pudding. Sherry trifle to sherry cream. Lots of raisins and sultanas. Suet. Crushed almond. Orange skin. Water adds sugared almond notes.

Body: Thick and sticky. Lime zest. Sultanas. Malt loaf. Orange skin. Suet. Sugared almonds. Lemon zest. Toffee. Water makes oily and more nutty.

Finish:Raisins. Sticky. Malt loaf. Drying. Suet. Dry fudge. Water makes spicier. Turmeric and paprika. Slight liquorice.

Conclusion: Whew, this is the biggest I have ever felt a Bushmills get, and previous Causeway collection releases were pretty big!

Neat it has a booming aroma, detectable from far from the glass. It is thick and sticky, but with no real alcohol burn – lots of alcohol weight, sure, but no burn. It has lots of dark fruit notes, Christmas Pudding like – with lots of the spirity cream notes to go with it – which is not unexpected for a whiskey that has spent so darn long in odd Madeira casks like this.

What is unusual though, is that you can taste the orange, lemon and lime citrus notes that I always associate with the house character of Bushmills Distillery. Somehow they have not vanished beneath 30 years on Madeira wood. They are not heavy notes, and not always present, but they are there- fresh bright notes against this sticky dark fruit beast.

Water does not really help, but nor does it make it bad, it just feels not quite as good. It makes it a more gentle and more generic sweet and nutty whisky, a bit more spicy with that was which is generally not my favourite style in a whisky. So my advice is to keep this one neat – even at 50% abv it doesn’t need the water to be easy to drink – the Bushmills character and 30 years of ageing does that wonderfully already.

It isn’t my favourite of the three Causeway collections I have now tried – that is a toss up between the 2000 and the 1997 with the 1997 being just in the lead at the moment, but every single one I have tried has been amazing – so this is still incredibly impressive.

This is a genuinely great dram that I unfortunately can not normally afford – even the 1997 is out of my normal price range and the 2000 is a stretch to grab! Still, due to this wonderful set I got to try them all and this is still a wonder of matching high abv with smooth character, and dark fruit with citrus notes.

Silly expensive normally, but that is the whisky industry these days, still a great dram.

Background: So, same as in Bushmills 16 and 1997 notes before “Ok this is incredibly good value. I picked up a set of mini Bushmills from The Whisky shop. It had 3 cl of Bushmills 10,16,21, Causeway Collection 2000 Port cask, 1997 Rum cask and 1991 Madeira cask. For 30 quid. The 1991 Madeira cask goes for 695 quid a bottle, which works out at just short of 30 quid for 3cl of that alone! I have no freaking clue how they sell this for 30 pounds. Any which way, a must grab for me. “ So this is the 1991 Madeira cask mentioned there, so, worth the cost of the box alone. I still cannot get over how they managed to do this set for such a low price. I’ve been a Bushmills fan for ages, but these Causeway bottlings have generally been outside my price range so was very happy to give them a try here. Music wise I went with Laura Jane Grace: At War With the Silverfish for audio backing.

Tasting Notes: Efes: Draft Beer

Efes: Draft Beer (Turkey: Premium Lager: 5% ABV)

Visual: Bright clear gold. Absolute mass of carbonation in the body. Medium sized loose white bubbled head.

Nose: Wheat. Toffee. Slight black liquorice. Crushed shredded wheat. Light cream.

Body: Quite thick bodied. Dry fudge. Slight black liquorice. Slight fizzy lemon sherbet. Some hop oils. Orange sherbet. Slight real ale like hop feel.

Finish: Toffee. Slightly dry. Slight flour. Hop oil sheen. Vanilla. Some bitterness and hop character. Some black liquorice. Some real ale like hop feel.

Conclusion: This is not bad. High praise I know – “not bad”. I best hold back lest I go overboard.

I was worried by the absolute mass of carbonation in the body when I poured this thing, fearing a horrid soda stream like, stomach punishing thing – but on sipping in the body it came across more like a kind of sherbety fizzy feel than anything painful.

In fact the body’s main impression was of something fairly malty in general with toffee and fudge notes, with those sherbety lemon and orange notes over it. What I find odd, and with that most interesting about it is it has a slightly, I dunno, slightly sulphur but gripping hop feel that reminds me more of the traditional middle of the road real bitters than it does a lager’s general use of hops. It isn’t bad just … unexpected. Beyond the maltiness it has a certain weight of body and character I did not expect.

So, with all that why am I only saying “Not bad”? Mainly because there is not much else there outside of that. Solid malt, nice sherbety character, odd but intriguing real ale like references – but not a point that grabs it and makes it a must have beer. Also, and this is a personal preference thing, there are dry black liquorice notes. Not always a bad note, but often, like here, a kind of crappy note to get in a lager.

So, I’m not complaining about having it, heck I may even have it again some time as it is interesting, but far from a must have. Make of that what you will.

Background: I cannot remember if I have ever had standard Efes before. I probably have, but have no firm memory of it. Anyway, this caught my attention for two reasons. 1) This is a less pasteurised version of the beer, so has a shorter shelf life, but hopefully more flavour for that. Saying that it still has a year best before date so its not like its a Stone brewing short dated IPA. 2) The bottle looks like a brown water cooler and that amuses me. Yes, once again I am that childish and easy to sell to. Anyway, another beer grabbed from Independent Spirit. Went back to the ever excellent Miracle of Sound: Level 12 for backing music. Apparently he is touring soon so hope he comes nearby.

Tasting Notes: Adelphi: Akkeshi: 3 Year: Cask 1011

Adelphi: Akkeshi: 3 Year: Cask 1011 (Japanese Single Malt Whisky: 3 Year: 57.8% ABV)

Visual: Very pale grain colour. Fast thick streaks come from the spirit.

Nose: Light salt. Alcohol strength. Soot and cigarette ash. Peat smoke. Moss. Smoked kippers. Slight vanilla. Lightly medicinal. Burnt marshmallow. Water adds toasted teacakes.

Body: Toffee. Alcohol strength. Burnt beef. Caramel. Moss. Peaty. Malt chocolate. Vanilla. Dry smoke. Smoked beef. Strawberry crème. Water adds golden syrup. Smoked bacon. More moss. Cherries.

Finish: Burnt marshmallow. Mossy. Soot. Mild lime cordial. Alcohol tingle. Vanilla. Water adds smoked bacon and sweet toffee syrup.

Conclusion: Ok, there is no way a 50% plus abv, 3 year old whisky should be this smooth. Ok, it does have a noticeable alcohol weight, warmth and a prickle, but compared to what you would expect from a dram like this? This is silk smooth by that measure. I mean apart from the peat natch, this is a freaking peat bomb.

While it has a slight salt and medicinal style that calls to having slight Islay influence that is definitely not the main point – but more on that later. But on the peat, yeah this is peaty, definitely emphasises by its youth so there has not been time for the peat to be lost. There is kind of kippers in the aroma but more into smoked meat in the body, going from more beef like neat, into smoked bacon with water, and with ash notes just lying around that. So, yeah, big peat, as I say really taking advantage if its youth to just punch out all the smokey strengths.

Like, if you want a comparison for intensity this feels like a somehow smoother despite being younger take on Ardbegs Wee Beastie for peat punch (Though this is significantly more expensive), offset slightly by vanilla notes from its time in the bourbon. A simple but effective style.

Water just mixes this all up. SO MUCH!

Like, the peat is still intense and the vanilla/toffee/etc sweet notes take on a watered down golden syrup style around the edges but more importantly the bright fruity notes come out, and not only the green fruit notes I would expect from a young whisky like this.

There are hints of strawberry and cherry, subtle but present. Is this the sign of the distillery character under the peat? Is my mind making shit up to compensate for the range of intensities it has just been hit by? No idea, but whatever the reason it made for delicious spirit.

When I first tried this a few weeks back I was viewing it as an excellent peat bomb, fantastic for its age, but, you know what you can get better for much cheaper. For example the aforementioned Wee Beastie. I was going to say only get this if you love trying new Japanese whiskies as you know that unfortunately, like most Japanese distilleries, new releases from this Distillery are just going to go up and up in price from here. So, while this is a great example of their whisky, generally I would recommend a cheaper dram.

Now, after it has had some time to air and I have returned to it a few times… well it is still mostly that, but the quality of the spirit, combined with that huge peat, it may just be worth the marked up price for such a young whisky. Maybe. Not sure but maybe. It is very good.

Background: Ohh this is exciting. While I was in a cool hotel whisky bar in Nikko, one of my fellow travels tried a dram of Akkeshi’s blended whisky and said it was very nice – at the time I presumed them to be the name of a blender and didn’t realise they were a distillery turning out their own single malts as well. So then this turned up at Independent Spirit I was very interested. A heavily peated expression, from Adelphi who tend to be a phenomenal independent bottler and at decent prices. Now about that price, despite this being three years old it was around the hundred pounds mark, which is a heck of a lot for a three year old whisky, even a cask strength one like this, however I’ve seen how much darn Japanese whiskies like Chichibu end up going for, with their new 10 year old being over a thousand pounds, so I figured this may be my only chance to try before it went out of my price range so decided to grab. On that age, this was distilled 2018 and bottled in 2023, yet is three years old? At best guess this spent some time travelling between Japan and UK in a contained that did not count for ageing which is why it is 3 year old despite that obviously not 3 year range of dates. One of only 253 bottles from cask 1011 which was a first fill bourbon barrel. Whew that is a lot of text, anything else? Oh yeah for a young peaty dram like this I wanted big music so went with Napalm Death: Apex Predator, Easy Meat.

Tasting Notes: Elusive: Sunken Knave : Overboard

Elusive: Sunken Knave : Overboard (England: Old Ale: 6% ABV)

Visual: Very dark brown to black. Moderate sized browned head that doesn’t last long.

Nose: Raisins. Brown bread. Light chalk. Malt chocolate.

Body: Slightly sour. Sour grapes. Vinous. Sherry soaked raisins. Slight chalk. Brown bread. Slight yeastie funk. Malt chocolate. Light sulphur.

Finish: Raisins. Sour grapes. Vinous touches. Sour red wine. Slightly chalky. Slight yeastie funk. Slight smoked cheese. Light bitter hop character. Cocoa dust.

Conclusion: I oft bemoan that some beer styles are so under-represented these days. Oft while I buy my 2000^th west coast IPA, So I admit I may not be helping there. I am a hypocrite some times, I know it. Anyway, the old ale style is definitely one that deserves more love, and here we have one.

This, made in conjunction with Sunken Knave who I can’t wait to try more from, utterly nails it.

It has that slight vinous sourness – a part I love and is oft ignored by the more mainstream takes on old ales, then it layers that over a maltly, slightly malt chocolate body. It also expresses dark fruit but does not rely on them as the main core. The sourness keeps it feeling fresh and yet solid.

There is this mix of sour grapes and sherry soaked dark fruit that feels so rewarding to explore, with light chalkiness and bitterness underlining the whole experience.

Do I like it? I’m on my third can I have bought and I’m only just letting it survive long enough for me to do notes on it. Yes I like it. There is a slight yeast funk that works really well with the sourness, and seems to give a light smoke like, sulphurous touch, very mild – but just enough that it adds to how this beer just nails everything I want from an Old Ale.

Another great Elusive beer, and I can’t wait to see what comes from Sunken Knave after this.

Background: Initially I grabbed this as it was an old ale and you don’t see enough of them these days. Later I found out Sunken Knave is a new brewery trying to bring focus back to traditional British beer styles, and classic recipes to try to gain them the kind of respect that the traditional Belgian beers currently have. Which you know what, I am behind. I love the craft beer movement and the new beer interpretations, but my problems with more traditional British beers in the old days were never the beer styles, but how so often the most dull versions were the ones available. A focus on the traditional British beer styles with an emphasis on quality sounds just the thing we need these days. I am looking forwards to seeing Sunken Knave’s solo work, hopefully soon. It also helps that Elysium, the main brewer for this is one I have gained massive respect for over the past year or so. Anyway, not much else to add. Grabbed from Independent Spirit and drunk while listening to Bikini Kill: Pussy Whipped. One of their albums I had not heard before.