Bushmills Distillery

Jameson and Bushmills are the two most widely known Irish whiskey distillers, and for a while they were actually owned by the same company.  Both whiskeys are triple distilled, and then brought down to proper proof by the addition of water and blended with other whiskey and neutral grain spirits.  The excursion went to the Bushmills distillery, which included a stop in the cafeteria for lunch.  No cameras allowed in the plant, since the distillery tour actually goes through the malting, fermenting, distilling, and bottling areas, unlike Jameson.  In fact, at present there is a bottling line for Jameson in the plant that is leftover from the joint ownership days and that still bottles Jameson until the Jameson bottling plant completes its current expansion.

Jameson makes much of the fact that it is Triple Distilled, and gives you a wee splash of bourbon, Scotch, and Jameson to compare the tastes of single, double, and triple distillation.  Bushmills triple distills its whiskey too, which is indeed a hallmark of Irish whiskey, but the tour doesn’t crow about it.  Like Jameson, it offers multiple lines of aged whiskey and even some single cask (unblended) whiskeys, as well as bottle-your-own 12 year old reserve. Your tour ticket stub entitles you to a shot of Bushmills 7 or 12 year whiskey.

Here’s proof of our presence.

  
And here’s James, doing his photobomb thing.