I’m a pretty flighty drinker. I rarely buy the same beer as the last one I purchased and I’m all over the place with wine. I used to be this way with whiskey but for the last few months I’ve found myself drinking Bushmills almost exclusively. Its round, soft flavors appeal to me.
Its distillery just turned 400. According to the Bushmills website “on 20th April, King James 1st grants Sir Thomas Phillips, governor of Ulster, a ‘licence to distil’ ulsce beatha (that’s gaelic for ‘water of life,’ or whickey as we know it today) within ‘the territory called the Rowte in County Antrim.’” Rowte would later be called the Bushmills area.
Here’s a nice, quick tour of the Bushmills distillery from BBC.com.
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I’m sure by now you’ve heard of George Washington’s distillery. In the years after his presidency Washington built a whiskey production facility on his estate in Mount Vernon, VA.
Well, it’s up and running. Back in the nineties a group of archaeologists descended on the site of the old distillery. They dug up copper pots and other implements of distillation. Now about ten years later a fair replication of the original has opened. In addition to full whiskey production from mash to cup there is also a museum and gift shop where visitors can buy bottles of the boozy Americana if they like. I know I’d like to try some.
Whiskey tourism has been around for a long time but it’s been growing in popularity in recent years. The bourbon trail in Kentucky has been a popular destination for years and Ireland and Scotland regularly see their fair share of whiskey tourists. But as more and more sites like this one pop up there are more destinations for whiskey tourists.
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