Bushmills 12 Year Old, Marsala Wine, and The Smoky Soda Bread
Bushmills 12 Year Old is the new front door to the Irish whiskey distillery’s single malt range. It’s replacing Bushmills 10 Year Old, having already done the rounds internationally, picking up strong traction in the US and Asia, and collecting a Gold Medal at San Francisco along the way.
It’s triple distilled, of course, and matured across three cask types that all have a job to do. Oloroso sherry butts for depth and dried fruit. Bourbon barrels for sweetness and structure. A finishing spell in Marsala wine barriques to add something slightly off-piste without getting weird about it.
Last autumn, at a tasting hosted by Bushmills’ UK brand ambassador Janice Snowden at Irish bar The Wee Sister in Chelsea, we made our acquaintance. Here’s what we thought.
You can buy Bushmills 12 Year Old now.
Bushmills 12 Year Old is here
A quick word on Irish whiskey, because context matters
To start, Janice gives us some context. Ireland has a long memory. There’s no exception when it comes to whiskey.
Ireland was once basically a great ship on a sea of whisky. In the late 1700s, distilleries were everywhere. John Jameson, George Roe, and more are all doing their thing. By the Victorian era, Irish whiskey was outselling Scotch eight to one. Scotland was producing around 200,000 gallons a year. Ireland was pushing a million.
Then it all unravelled. Politics, war, Prohibition, protectionism, you name it, that happened. Distilleries closed en masse. At the lowest point, just two were operating. These were the bad times, the sad times, and literally as Janice is telling us about this, Dirty Old Town plays, and those sad lilting Irish notes float across the room like a hymn to what was, what could have been, what we lost. It’s all so very Irish.
Fast forward to now, and Irish whiskey has spent most of this century getting carried away with itself, riding a great strapping Celtic tiger into the sunset. There are more than 50 distilleries now, and more are on the way. The good times will never end, history be damned. I mean, the likes of Midleton and Tullamore D.E.W have paused production, and Waterford becomes the Waterworld of the whiskey world, but other than that…
Bushmills has kept churning away throughout, sometimes a little too quietly, but one thing it has always done particularly well is pair good wine casks with its mighty fruity liquid. Next, Janice takes us to Marsala town.
Good thing Marsala has wine, it has nothing else going for it
What is Marsala?
From Ireland to Sicily. The star cask that takes Bushmills 12 into new territory is Marsala, a fortified wine from a town of the same name in the western part of the island. It is traditionally made from local grape varieties like Grillo, Catarratto, and Inzolia, then fortified with grape spirit and aged oxidatively, often in a solera-style system.
Marsala comes in a range of styles. It can be dry, semi-dry, or sweet, and aged for varying lengths of time. The good stuff benefits from long ageing, exposure to oxygen, and time in wood build complexity. Think of it as a cousin to sherry rather than a dessert wine you cook chicken in and forget about.
John Woodhouse and Marsala
You can’t tell the story of Marsala without talking about John Woodhouse. As unlikely as it sounds, the dessert wine owes a lot to this English merchant. Back in the late 18th century, he spotted that local Sicilian wines, when fortified, travelled exceptionally.
That oxidative ageing and fortification meant stability, longevity, and flavour development. He began exporting Marsala across Europe and beyond, and the regional wine became a serious international player.
What Marsala tastes like
Marsala is not sticky or syrupy, at least when good. It layers nutty warmth, dried fruit, citrus, and warm spice alongside a slightly savoury, umami-adjacent edge. There is often a gentle saltiness, too. Maybe even some fabled rancio…
Those flavours and the oxidative ageing benefits are exactly the sort of characteristics that make for interesting casks later down the line. Marsala tends to bring sweetness without excess, nuttiness without bitterness, and a rounded warmth. If you can integrate that, you’re laughing.
Here’s our review of Bushmills 12 Year Old
The tasting and the brand ambassador
In order to understand the wine better, Marasla was served. In fact, we tasted Bushmills 12 Year Old with it, then 16 Year Old with Port and the 21 Year Old, with Madeira. A wine pairing that matches the cask types is one of the most useful ways to actually understand what a cask brings, rather than just nodding and pretending you do. It’s also tremendous fun. Try it.
There was also food pairings. Let me tell you something. I had soda bread. At a whiskey tasting. The Irish people reading this will understand. Smoky soda bread, no less. I could have cried. And it all tied together. Entering my ninth year of this work (yikes), the whole event was a nice reminder that whiskey has the capacity to surprise you. Ambassadors who care about the details and the people in the room, not just the brand deck, have the capacity to do that. Take note, brands.
Side-by-side, we see that the Marsala finish rounds Bushmills 12 Year Old out, adding sweetness without cloying, nuttiness without heaviness, and a gentle savoury edge that sits beautifully alongside Bushmills’ house style. You notice it, but you do not trip over it.
It’s an incredibly servicable dram, one that you drink because it’s good and life is short and great company is abundant. Pair it, mix it, swirl it around and marvel at the pretty colours. Appreciate all the things worth appreciating. Live like John Woodhouse and spread the cheer. There may be no Celtic tigers, but there is a giant by the causeway that keeps plugging away. It’s worth a toast.
Bushmills 12 Year Old Tasting Note:
Nose: Honey and dried apricots lead with peanuts and brown sugar right behind. Then red apples, new leather, sherried spice, and deep, rich caramel.
Palate: The texture is silky with glossy candied apple, caramel, and honey once more. The nuttiness is distinctive, like salted, roasted peanuts and creamy hazelnuts, with raisins, gingerbread, and brown sugar shimmering on rock buns in support. Some textbook Bushmills tropical fruit sticks to the backdrop.
Finish: Orchard fruit, nuttiness, toffee, a little apricot, and a final sweet-salty lick.
