The Steamship Collection is Bushmills' travel-retail single malt range, named in honour of the SS Bushmills — the distillery's own steamship, launched in 1890 to carry whiskey from the Causeway Coast to markets as far afield as America, Singapore and Hong Kong. It's a nice piece of history with a practical point: Bushmills has been an export distillery for well over a century, and the Steamship bottlings are a tribute to that reach.
The Sherry Cask Reserve is the richest of the series. Unlike Black Bush, which is a blend with a sherry-heavy malt component, this is a full single malt matured entirely in Oloroso sherry casks, then bottled at 40% ABV. That exclusive sherry maturation is the dominant note throughout — the nose is dense with raisin, date and cocoa, with polished oak and a little walnut underneath, and the palate picks up the same thread with dried fig, dark toffee, hazelnut and a quiet build of baking spice.
Triple distillation keeps the whole thing from feeling heavy; there's a silky elegance running through the middle of the glass that stops the sherry from taking over. It's a sipper rather than a mixer, and it rewards a little time in the glass to let the nuttier, more polished notes come forward.
Found mostly in airport duty-free and at a price around £55, the Steamship Sherry Cask Reserve is a characterful, well-made Irish single malt with a genuine story behind it. For sherry-cask devotees it's an easy recommendation.
