Table Of Contents
The Details
| Rating | 95 |
| Style |
Irish Whiskey Whiskey |
| Classification | Single Malt |
| Produced In | Ireland |
| ABV | 46.3% |
| Availability | Limited |
| Price | $12,500.00 |
| Reviewed By | |
| Reviewed | 2025-03-18 |
Bushmills 46 Year Old ‘Secrets Of The River Bush’ Review
Bushmills markets itself as the world’s oldest licensed distillery, with origins dating back to 1608. (It’s likely more accurate to point to 1784 as the current company’s true origins.) While it’s easy to debate lineage, what’s far less arguable is this: the Proximo-owned operation in Northern Ireland has some of the island’s oldest stocks of aging whiskey. And its newest ultra-premium release pushes Irish single malt into new territory.
The distillery’s latest and oldest-ever single malt is Bushmills 46 Year Old “Secrets Of The River Bush,” named for the body of water from which the distillery draws its water. (Well, a tributary from which, but let’s not split hairs.) The distillery’s previous oldest release was a 44 year single malt, which hit (very limited) shelves in late 2023. That 44 year release was sold via Dubai Duty Free and carried a price tag of $12,000.
At just a few years shy of a half century in cask, Bushmills’ 46 year-old, triple-distilled single malt is likely modern history’s oldest age-stated Irish single malt. (Midleton previously released both 45 year single malt and 46 year single pot still whiskeys.)
Bushmills 46 spent its aging cycle in Oloroso sherry butts sourced from Spain’s Antonio Paez Lobato Cooperage. It’s bottled at 46.3 percent ABV. According to the brand, “this rare and precious Irish single malt is an artful marriage of Bushmills’ most elusive single malt reserves, dating back to 1978.”
Just three hundred sequentially numbered bottles will be released globally, with a suggested retail price of $12,500. Let’s see how it tastes!
Bushmills 46 Year Old Single Malt: Stats and Availability
Bushmills 46 is a global release of just 300 sequentially numbered bottles. As of this writing, the brand hasn’t provided more specifics on where exactly those will be allocated, but it’s easy to expect boutique retail and high-end on-premise accounts. The suggested retail price is $12,500, though I’d expect that to climb somewhat on the secondary market over the course of coming years.
Bushmills 46 Year Old Single Malt Review
As with all of VinePair’s whiskey reviews, this was tasted in a Glencairn glass and rested for at least five minutes.
Nose
The nose starts with a variety of jammy, preserved, and dried fruit: fig, candied peach, prune, black raisin, and mildly ripe papaya. A thread of underlying malt punches through on a second inhale, though it doesn’t come close to pushing out the rich, fruity elements. Instead, it’s halfway between cream soda and a lightly carbonated malt beverage.
Wood-forward spice develops with more time in the glass, particularly ground allspice and licorice root. Scents of both sandalwood and a little cigar box carry even more wood influence. On some final deep inhales, pops of black raisins, sultanas, and smoked cherries bookend the aromas.
Taste
A first sip is full of intensely dark fruit, which meets baking spices on the front of the tongue. It’s spiced figgy pudding followed by cinnamon raisin bread, with sherry-soaked fruitcake gliding heavily across the palate from front to back. (And sticking along the sides for good measure.)
This isn’t quite “Christmas in a glass,” but it certainly evokes holiday spice and preserved fruit. However, the initial palate comes through as less sweet than I might have guessed. Lightly sour and tart elements keep that fruit grounded, ultimately leaning toward dried and moderately bitter cherry.
Tannins build across additional sips, enveloping that fruit in layers of cocoa, espresso bean, leather, and damp embers — with barely-there tastes of creosote and campfire smoke.
Finish
Raisins, charred tropical fruit, dried coffee beans, and more tanned leather accumulate on the finish, a fruity and moderately astringent pairing befitting of the whiskey's age and cask type. A final burst of extremely dark chocolate breaks free as a final goodbye. It’s a mid-length final act that falls a small step below the palate in overall experience — though to be clear, it’s far from a disappointment.
Bushmills 46 Year Old Single Malt Rating
95/100
Recap
Bushmills 46 matches its pedigree with robust flavors befitting a superlatively aged spirit. I was especially intrigued by the intersection of bold jammy fruit and tannins with fainter flavors of smoke and chocolate. It’s a captivating pour worthy of small sips and big conversation, and certainly among the most robustly flavorful Bushmills releases I’ve tasted. Cheers to those lucky enough to score a taste of this (for now) oldest-ever Irish single malt. Though given Bushmills habit of releasing continuously-older stocks, I wouldn’t expect this release to hold that title forever.
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