Bushmills Distillery

With 1608 on every bottle of Bushmills, the distillery is clearly proud of its title of “World’s Oldest Whiskey Distillery”.

For a distillery around for as long as Bushmills has been, it has seen its share of momentous events. From a small venture in the 1700’s to great island wide fame by the mid 1800’s. Attempts to benefit from the decimation of cognac producing vineyards in France failed, industry financial issues also hampered demand and then the infamous decline of all Irish whiskey brands in the early 1900’s. Despite these hazards Bushmills remained standing, while other Irish brands had lost out and closed down.

The distillery was taken over by Irish distillers in 1972, who were in turn bought by French company Pernod Ricard in 1988. In 2005 drinks giant Diageo purchased the distillery and stated a large advertising campaign to help regain the brands prominence.

The prestige of the distillery was shown by the decision in 2008 to issue sterling banknotes in Northern Ireland with an image of the Old Bushmills Distillery on the back.

The trading of the distillery between larger beverage companies continued in 2014 when Diageo sold the distillery, this time to the Mexican company Jose Cuervo.

The demand for Bushmills shows no sign of abating and the faith of the new owners in the brand was shown by the announcement of their £60 million investment to increase production at the distillery.