Buckle up. Bushmills Single Malt Whiskey 16 year old is is truly one of the great whiskeys of the world. Aged for about 15 years in a combination of Oloroso Sherry and bourbon-seasoned casks, and then finished for about 9 months in port wine pipes (large barrels unique to making port wine.) This single malt shows its layers of flavor, juicy fruits, nuts and spice, as well as a hint of ruby redness. It's best enjoyed neat. Okay, maybe one small cube of ice to open it up.
What you smell and taste in a whisky is highly subjective.
Even the pros do not always agree on the tasting notes. Therefore, we have combined the tasting notes from several sources into a cross-section Nose, Palate, and Finish to find the commonalities between two whiskies. We use the Aroma Wheel with its concentric circles of increasingly specific tastes and smells (general in the center; more specific the further out you go) to find Exact, Secondary, and General matches between two whiskies. We also take into account other important factors like mash bill, barrel type(s), ABV, region, ratings, price and more. We then weight each factor based on what we believe to be the approximate importance it has in determining whether two whiskies are similar.
We're all different.
Again, we cannot stress enough that what you smell and taste in a whisky is likely going to be different than the person you're drinking it with. Whisky Mates is meant to be a guide to help you find what you like drinking, using the best methodologies available. In the end, rely on your own palate to tell you what you like and don't like.