Bushmills Private Reserve 2025 Arrives For St. Patrick’s Day

By Richard Thomas

St. Patrick’s Day falls on Monday the 17th this year, so the party will begin on the preceding weekend. But the trickle of new Irish Whiskeys began entering the market in February, to get the word and the product out in time for the emerald holiday. So it is with the latest consignment of Bushmills Private Reserve, a set of four Irish single malts that emerged in America just a few weeks before St. Pats.

Keeping in mind that this is the time of year to pick up a new bottle of the Irish, or else order something made in Ireland from the top shelf of your favorite pub, should it be one chosen from this quartet of Irish whiskeys? The original batch of Private Reserve was not released for St. Patrick’s Day, coming out as it did in December 2023, but the concept is the same. These are Bushmills single malts, aged for 10 or 12 years, and given a finish in a specially chosen cask. This year’s installment consists of a 10 year olds finished in Amarone and Moscatel hogsheads; and 12 year olds finished in Bordeaux and Tequila casks.

Now in that notional Irish pub, there are always going to be the people who scoff at Bushmills as “Protestant Whiskey.” That seems to be more of an Irish-American thing than genuinely Irish, however, and for my part all I have for such statements is the amusement of an adult listening to children saying something asinine. Far more important to me is that Bushmills already has 10 year and 12 year olds as part of their standard line-up already. The only thing special about these single malts is their cask finishes.

Mind you, those cask finishes were not used to justify a huge increase in price, at least from Bushmills themselves. At their official price point, the Private Reserve whiskeys are negligibly more expensive than their standard siblings. You should be able to pick up any bottle that has “Bushmills” and a 10 or 12 year old age statement on it for $60 or $70, but we know retailers love to take words like “private reserve” and use them to justify mark-ups.

In sampling the quartet, I found Bushmills Private Reserve 12 Year Old Bordeaux Casks to be the best, and the only one that was a real improvement on the standard 12 year old. It was a creamy malt with an appreciable current of tropical fruits laid over the honey, toffee, straw and pepper I expected.  I also enjoyed the Bushmills Private Reserve 10 Year Old Amarone Cask. It had a musty, mulled wine meets malty honey quality that carried it a mark above the normal Bushmills 10 Year Old.

On the other hand, I found the Bushmills Private Reserve 10 Year Old Moscatel Cask disappointing. That has a lot to do with my background with Portugal, the origin of the hogshead used to put the secondary finish on this whiskey. I imagine I’m the only whiskey writer who regularly imbibes moscatel, and I was left scratching my head as to what the moscatel influence on the whiskey actually was. In fact, in most respects I thought this cask finish wasn’t as good as the standard Bushmills 10.

I also didn’t care for the 12 Year Old Tequila Cask whiskey either, but in fairness I chalk that up to my antipathy to using tequila and mezcal casks for secondary maturation. I have yet to encounter an example I thought justified the effort, and although I know that opinion is not just my own, I admit I could be biased against it.

So, I encourage you to keep a look out for the Bordeaux and Amarone cask whiskeys in your St. Patrick’s Day revelry. Just keep a close eye on what the label actually says, though, because I feel the Moscatel and Tequila casks should get a firm pass.