Review #833 - SMWS 51.21 'Delightful Intervention' - Bushmills 19 Year
While the focus for the Scotch Malt Whisky Society is, well... Scotch malt whiskies, they do also bottle other spirits from around the world. This includes world whiskies, such as this Irish single malt, but also rums, Armagnacs, gins, and more.
Bushmills, or Distillery 51 as it's known in the Society, has been the source for relatively few bottlings for SMWS; at the time of writing, it's a total of 24 casks. This single cask called 'Delightful Intervention,' a 19 year whisky, is the 21st bottling from the distillery and bottler combination, so it's one of the more recent examples.
The first 17 years of this single malt's maturation were in an ex-bourbon barrel; after that, the final year or two was spent in a first fill barrique that previously held Sauternes, a sweet fortified wine from France. Sauternes finishes often lead to sweeter, brighter notes like honey and apples, as least in our experience, so we'll be on the lookout for that sort of flavor while we're tasting.
SMWS 51.21 'Delightful Intervention' - Bushmills 19 Year
Ireland - Single Malt
Price: USD 295 (2022)
Age Statement: 19 Years
Strength: 56.2% ABV
Cask Makeup: Ex-bourbon barrel, finished in a first fill Sauternes barrique
Details: Not chill filtered, no color added; distilled May 22, 2002; 169 bottles
Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 3 times (once blind) over 16 months from a sample. Tasted in a nosing glass each time, rested 15+ minutes
Nose: Cotton candy, grapes, and brandy. It's a bit spirity and intense, but we get lots of sweet malty flavors, along with icing sugar, perfume, bubblegum, and caramel. Cardamom and vanilla build, along with orange and a hint of plum; oak is strong, and it smells quite old.
Palate: The mouthfeel is medium-thick; it's a bit hot, but packed with flavor. Oranges, cinnamon, malt, and vanilla combine with brown sugar, honey, stroopwafel, and sugar cookies. It's quite sweet in general; we get further flavors of strong oak, candied pecans, and bruleed sugar.
Finish: Sweet notes of powdered sugar, cotton candy, and vanilla are juxtaposed by strong, leathery oak and hints of bitter coffee. Perfumed wood, plums, and a bit of orange peel come next; then it's yellow fruits like banana, creamy lemon, and peach in the aftertaste. This has a medium length finish.
Final Note: This is a sweet baking spice bomb packed with flavor. One of our favorite Irish single malts so far, this delivers with relatively strong oak to show that mature age statement, as well as plenty of lighter and more delicate flavors that show complexity and nuance. The fruity side really blossomed late in the finish, leaving us with a great aftertaste of sweet yellow fruit and effervescence.
Value is below average due to the high price point; because these Irish whisky single casks are quite rare when coming from SMWS, and well-aged Irish whisky is rare in general, this does come at a bit of a premium. Great whisky, but you have to love the distillery or profile to spend this much.
Our Rating: 7.9 / 10
In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.
Value Rating: 4.78
About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.
