Bushmills is a whiskey distillery in Bushmills, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, set up as a company in 1784.1,2,3 The 1608 on its label marks a licence to distil in the area, not the founding of the distillery.1,2,4 In 2023 a new distillery took its capacity from five million to 11 million litres of alcohol a year.5 It is triple distilled from unpeated malted barley.6,7,8
2023 Exclusive to World Duty Free at Heathrow · 1989 vintage
This bottle was signed for us by Alex Thomas master blender, and man what a pour. Berries, raspberries, lingonberries, sweet and tart, a touch of leather…
fresh berry
antique leather
soft musk
tobacco
Silent, 1939–today
1784185019001950Today
From smugglers to a registered distillery
In 1608 King James I granted Sir Thomas Phillips, a local landowner, a licence to distil in the area.1,2,4 The first record of a distillery here, from 1743, shows it in the hands of a band of smugglers.3,9 In 1784 Hugh Anderson registered the Old Bushmills Distillery, which made about 10,000 gallons of whisky a year, mostly for the West Indies and America.1,2,3 Official records show no sign of the distillery working in 1802 or in 1822.2
Fire and rebuilding
In 1860 James McColgan, a Belfast spirit merchant, and Patrick Corrigan bought the distillery, and in 1880 they formed a limited company.2,3 On 25 November 1885 a fire that began in the oil store and malt house destroyed every building but the grain store.2,4,9 The distillery was soon rebuilt, and a later Whisky Magazine interview said most of its buildings dated from the late 1880s.2,4,9
Barnard's account
Alfred Barnard's book, published in 1887, records two pot stills with room for two more, four washbacks (large fermentation vessels) and its own malt floors.3,8 He also noted a boiler for heating the stills, a metal worm tub in the yard, and an output of 100,000 gallons a year.3,8
Prohibition, war and new owners
When US Prohibition ended in 1933, the distillery had large stores of whiskey ready to export.1,2 Belfast merchant Samuel Wilson had bought it 10 years before.1,2 In 1939 World War II halted production while Allied troops were housed at the distillery, and production resumed after the war.1 In 1972 Irish Distillers took over, which gave that firm control of all Irish whiskey production at the time.2 In 1986 David Quinn, later Bushmills' Master Distiller, came to Bushmills from Midleton, Bushmills' sister distillery in Cork.10Pernod Ricard bought Irish Distillers in June 1988.
Next: Prohibition, war and new owners, From nine stills to ten, Diageo, Cuervo and Causeway, How it makes its spirit
In 2001 the stillhouse had nine stills: four wash stills for the first distillation, three for the second and two for the third.10 The final spirit came off at around 80% alcohol and was reduced to 63% before filling into oak casks.10 In July 2008, after refurbishing its mash house in 2007, it announced an investment to refurbish all nine stills and add a new tenth still.11 In 2012 the owner said the old distillery had ten fairly small stills with tall, slender necks, and that this combination with triple distillation gave a lighter, smoother spirit.8
Diageo, Cuervo and Causeway
In June 2005 Diageo agreed to buy Bushmills from Pernod Ricard for about £200 million, and it completed the purchase that August.2,12,13 Diageo later said it had invested over £80m in capacity, infrastructure and maturing stock at the distillery.2,12,13 In November 2014 a deal was announced in which Diageo traded Bushmills to Jose Cuervo for the 50% of Don Julio tequila it did not own.2,9,13 Its parent company, Proximo, later put £60m into single malt distilling and maturation at Bushmills.2,9,13 In 2021 Alex Thomas succeeded Helen Mulholland as Master Blender.4 In April 2023 the £37m Causeway Distillery opened beside the old one, with 10 more copper pot stills, eight washbacks and one mash tun making the same triple-distilled spirit.4,5,6 Master Distiller Colum Egan says its stills are larger, but their body and neck keep the same proportions.4,5,6
How it makes its spirit
Its water comes from Saint Columb's Rill, a stream that flows into the River Bush.2,3 In 2012 its malt was unpeated, dried with hot air rather than over a peat fire.8,10 In 2001 its malt came from Cork and Kildare.10 In 2001 Black Bush, a blend, held 80% Bushmills single malt, mixed with grain whiskey made for it at Midleton Distillery.10 In 2012 the owner said Bushmills made both blends and malts.8
