We didn't make it this far by staying the same. Like the land we come from, we've endured through resilience and perseverance. Weathering conflict, fire, and famine, emerging from each trial with a newfound strength and commitment to our cause.
Along the north coast of Ireland, where arctic storms rage against the jagged cliffs and where the crisp waters of the River Bush cut through volcanic rock, generations have passed down an ancient distilling tradition.
Bushmills is named for the mills that made the barley and the River Bush, which remains the water source to cut our whiskey to proof today. First to do it. Second to none. Triple distilled.
In the 1850s, the Crown imposed a tax on those distilling in Ireland through a tax on barley. Even then, malted barley was known throughout the world to make the finest whiskey, known as “pure malt” whiskey. When only malted barley is used in distillation, and made at a single distillery, you have the very definition of “single malt” whiskey. That tax, however, forever changed Irish whiskey, as almost every Irish whiskey distillery began substituting corn or other more inferior grains for barley. To this day, the biggest and most infamous Irish blended whiskeys use only corn.
Bushmills continues to distill malted barley and is the only Irish distillery still using malted barley in all its whiskeys.
In 1885, a disastrous fire destroyed nearly all The Old Bushmills Distillery. On the doorstep of destruction, we did what the people of Bushmills always do. We got back to work. We defiantly rebuilt bigger and better than ever.
Renewing our vow to our craft and proving our resilience, we went on to win the only gold medal for whiskey at the Paris 1889 Expo, once again affirming our credentials as a great whiskey of the world.
