In the second of our two-part report from a visit to Bushmills Irish Whiskey, Master Distiller Colum Egan talks about the impact of the new distillery, about taste profiles, consistency and community. Click here for part one, an interview with Master Blender Alex Thomas.
When The Causeway Distillery opened, Bushmills Master Distiller Colum Egan described it as “one of the greatest developments in Irish single malt whiskey in 200 years”.
Over dinner in his adopted home town of Ballycastle on the Antrim coast, with its views of Scotland’s Mull of Kintyre, one senses the deep love he has for this place 22 years on from his arrival, after spending time in various operations roles with food and drinks companies. He began here in tasting and blending and found he had an aptitude for it.
As ever in distilling, for Egan it’s about playing the long game.
“Our owner insisted on anything we did with the new distillery should be the best it could be, from the quality of the design to the use of local materials.
“When you build something like this you have to be thinking about its use 20 years ahead or even longer. So we put in the space to double capacity again over time, for more fermenters or more stills.
“We see technology and engineering innovation changing a lot but we still take the same barrel types and add ingredients in the same order. And with our stills, although now larger, the dimensions and proportions of body and neck are the same relative to each other so the style is not going to change. When you add our triple distilling to that, and the fact we spend so much time on wood to refine the spirit, our character is always going to be very distinctive.”
Echoing the views of Master Blender Alex Thomas (click here for our just-published interview), he emphasises the relentless pursuit of consistency and quality in the spirit.
“We survive on the basis of quality without compromise,” he says. “If it’s not the best spirit, in the Bushmills style, we don’t use it. In the end ageing is not about the number, it’s about the final result in the bottle.
“I can’t remember the last thing we rejected. We start with great ingredients each time and systems that are robust. If you do that your end product should be the same high quality.”
The story of the new distillery is also layered with a heavy sustainability focus.
“We do 30% more production with -30% less energy now,” says Egan. “We are always looking to see how we can adopt technologies to ensure energy recovery, because what we are doing is heating up spirit to cool it down time and again and that takes energy.
“We have designed a net zero energy solution but putting it in place is expensive and you have to make these investment calls at the right time. We are well on the way to achieving what we want in terms of extract from the barley, we are becoming more efficient in other areas and our site has zero waste in landfill.
“We believe we are much more sustainable than many other brands, and we are looking to see what we can do more. There is an active attitude to sustainability. If we do anything new or change anything in processes, we always look at how can we do it more sustainably.”
The Bushmills story is also about community, with the brand’s global story entwined firmly with its north of Ireland roots.
“As with many distilleries here or Scotland or elsewhere, you are in a beautiful area surrounded by people from the locality and multiple generations that have worked in the place, who have all that accumulated knowledge to share and a passion for what they do,” says Egan.
“We have so many people who know what we do intimately that it’s hard to go wrong. In effect we have our own focus group, people who know about whiskey and taste.
“It is a local story but I also can’t think of too many brand stories of success at scale from here that can rival Bushmills.”
That community is even involved in trialling taste. Egan says: “A few years ago we ran a programme looking for people across the business who could help on our tasting panel. Some people have a gift for this and a refined taste awareness, and it is that variety you want in a panel.
“Some are really good at recognising obscure tastes, some are good at mid-stream tastes. You want each type on your panel.”
On delivering for changing consumer tastes, Egan says: “Different markets want different things. Travel retail wants exclusivity, rarity and limited releases. Some markets want repeatability of a core range to help the brand grow, which is a longer term project over five to ten years, and you cannot change that each year.
“We share our ideas, set up a range of possibilities, and that range of possibilities should match the expectations of each market. We also need variety, allowing for the diversity of tastes that people have.”
Egan says he takes pride on how far Bushmills ranges have broadened in travel retail.
“When I began we had the core Bushmills and Black Bush range, then we created Black Bush 80/20 PX Sherry Cask Reserve, then the travel retail exclusive single malts range, driven by the gifting opportunity that travel retail represents, as well as the knowledge that you can only buy this item in this select channel.
“We aim to offer choice, variety, limited editions or even customised bottlings for some markets, including travel.”
In a moment when what was a thriving, growing market for Irish whiskey has become more difficult – not least in the face of the still-evolving story of US tariffs – how does the creative team view the business? Egan is not just a Bushmills representative here, but also a key figure in the movement to promote the wider Irish whiskey message to new audiences.
“We see uncertainty in the market at the moment, at a time when many of the smaller players are just seeing their own whiskeys coming out after three or four years. We hope they can work through this phase.
“As a larger player with a long history, we are more resilient and have stock going back 50 years. You can track much of the history of Irish whiskey in fact through our warehouses. We have survived crises before and we hope the industry can see the latest period off and continue to thrive.”
He notes that in some markets there remains work to do to ensure consumers differentiate Irish from Scotch or other whiskies.
He says: “As distillers we work together to protect the interests of the industry, promoting innovation while ensuring Irish whiskey can speak with a consistency everywhere. We have to support each other.”
Back to Bushmills and we ask what Egan would choose to do if money in the business was no object? His reply is telling. “Actually we are doing what we can very well already. We are very fortunate that, as an older brand, we have aged stocks, we have a range of single malts that others don’t have. We have always taken this long view, knowing that it takes time to get your money back.”
And although he is not going anywhere, he always has an eye out for creative, committed people who can fuel the next stage of the Bushmills journey – with Alex Thomas a recruit of whom Egan is naturally proud.
“We want to bring along talented people that have the ability to taste. Alex had it all along, it just needed nurturing and now she has the confidence to express it too.”
A final question: what Bushmills expression or indeed other drink would Egan take to his desert island, given the choice?
He pauses for a moment, though not too long, before replying: “I’m enjoying tasting bourbons and ryes at the moment, which carry a lot of variety and interest, but in the end my desert island choice would be either a 10 Year Old or 12 Year Old Bushmills. You’d need something elegant but light that you could drink every day on the island.”
A fitting elegy to a brand and its diverse selection that has become such a powerhouse of single malts today. ✈
