We were doing other thing on the actual day.
Bushmills 21yo b.2004 (40%, OB, Madeira Wood Finish, b#16296): nine years, one month and two days have passed since we latest had this. Unfathomable. Nose: a musty cellar. And that does not mean fruity dunnage warehouse, in this case, but a musty cellar. It has a blend of damp clay, woodworm and cured meat, which is unexpected. Further onward, we find glue and wallpaper, as if someone had wallpapered the wooden shelves of a larder (if you lived through the 1970s or 1980s, you know). It gains more and more wood with time; oaken shelves so old they are starting to crumble, nuts kept in a basket for years, if not decades. Very slowly and gradually, that morphs into charred-chestnut spread wet with pressed-prune juice and a drop of nail varnish. Tilting the glass brings synthetic scents such as linoleum and flooring glue, but also a drop of urine. We swiftly go back to prunes, now served in a lacquered-ebony case. The second nose is screaming CURRANTS and PRUNES, RAISINS and SULTANAS. That comes with the Madeira finish, presumably, yet it is still a bit surprising, following that musty first impression. Okay, there are fortified-wine-glazed button mushrooms to prolong the cellar-y theme going, but it is not the same... until we dig up potting soil, which comes much closer to the damp clay from before. Ha! Ha! Mouth: a soft -- I dare not call it 'bite' -- introduces a silky mouthfeel. Following an initially-woody taste (oiled mahogany), it becomes fresh and presents pressed Mirabelle plums and physalis. There may even be filtered lychee juice in it. Chewing catches one off guard, however: a tide of tropical fruits floods the palate, with lychee indeed, rambutan, mangosteen and dragon fruit gracing the roof of the mouth. It has a tame wine-y touch too, somewhere between rosé, vin jaune and sangria. That could spell a catastrophe, but it works rather well. The second sip has a tame chocolate-y touch, augmented with a drop of cherry liqueur. Moving the liquid around the mouth revives the fruit -- the same as before, in the same order. Astonishing! Finish: it only has a modest kick, at the legal minimum of 40%, yet that is more than enough to trigger an incredibly-long finish that sticks to the gob like a good cough drop. We find as much wine (rosé, jaune, orange) and much less fruit, although that grows in intensity. Once again, we are talking about Mirabelle plum and physalis, rambutan, dragon fruit, perhaps even mangosteen, yet also dried cranberries and sultanas, some of them coated in yoghurt. The second gulp adds a pinch of cinnamon powder and one of mango powder, as well as chewy dried mango slices. Surprisingly, considering the low strength, the whole leaves the tongue and gums a bit numb. Finally, as the taste buds come back to life, they pick up sirop de Liège, or a berry paste out of a tube, thick, concentrated, sweet. This is good. 8/10 (Thanks, OB)
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