Color: golden orange both clear, brilliant, and deep. Polished pennies. Thick layer of tears upon gentle swirling. Nose: spiced boozy sweet apricots and peaches followed by oak and cracked pepper. Saffron wafts by upon a gentle breeze. Touch of flambéed banana in the middle – bananas foster comes to mind. Candied pineapple chunks. Heat is a gentle tease in the back. Palate: sweet then oily then spicy and hot, with the heat growing softly and slowly in the back of my throat and just before it becomes too much, it levels out. Peppercorn and embers. Bananas foster and flambéed banana peel. Saffron and cracked pepper in the breath. Boozed, stewed, succulent peaches and apricots. Finish: long, lingering, and mischievous. A dry spiced raw oak heat warms the chest and invites long lingering nights lounging in a lazy chair by the fire before finishing with a soft soothing honeyed kiss. Certainly not the black sheep of the Bushmills family by any means, the venerable spunkerific Black Bush was welcomed into the family fold in 1934 as the “Old Bushmills Special Old Liqueur Whiskey”. That tongue twister has since been shortened down to the aforementioned Black Bush. Featuring a generous malt whiskey content, the finished distillate is aged in specially selected previously used Spanish Oloroso oak casks mature to add further complexity to the malt before it is blended into a much lower ratio of sweet single grain whiskey, hence the nice spicy kick to one’s tastebuds. Yowzum! Innovation. Tradition. Soul. Pride. Many more prophetic adjectives could be used to describe the enduring legacy of Bushmills with my words being yet another offering to the angels share and everything in-between and after. It is privilege to savor Black Bush and every time I pour a dram and share a dram, the great legacy of Bushmills lives on. Liquid history. Know it. Share it. Drink it. Cherish it.

Kristyn Lier, Vero Beach (20th St. ABC Fine Wine and Spirits) -- read more of her reviews and musings on her website: beerambassador.net.