Ireland, County Antrim. Distillery operational. Owner: Tequila Cuervo La Rojeña

Remaining until 2005 in the fold of the French company Pernod Ricard, which at the time had a monopoly on Irish whiskeys, Bushmills developed near to its southern counterpart Midleton and enjoyed a solid reputation among fans of Irish whiskey. A master of triple distillation, awarding it an inimitably fruity character, and carefully orchestrated maturation, in the late 1990s the distillery released a number of magnificent cask strength, single cask vintages (1988 Rum Barrel, 1991 Sherry Cask, 1990 Bourbon Barrel). The arrival of the new millennium led to the creation of a series of 1975 vintages entitled Millennium Malt. While its two successive owners, Diageo (2005-2014) and Cuervo (2014-present) have continued these bottlings, there have sadly been few innovative developments over recent years.

A Bushmills 12 year old distilled in 1975 and bottled in 1988. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) was founded in Edinburgh in 1983 by a group of friends with a particular passion for whisky. The club selects casks whose bottles are then only available to members. The name of the distillery is not mentioned on the label, but each distillery is given a number as the malt is bottled. The first cask selected by the SMWS, for example, was Glenfarclas, and it therefore uses the number 1. The second number refers to the number of bottlings from each distillery. The club was sold to Glenmorangie in 2004 and then to a group of investors in 2016.