The Sexton 11 Year Old Single Malt Review

The Sexton was originally released in 2018 as a US exclusive release and it was the brainchild of current Master Blender of Bushmills Distillery, Alex Thomas. It’s a no age statement single malt that is distilled and matured at Bushmills and to me was essentially a single malt version of the famous Bushmills blend, Black Bush. As such in my review of it, I thought it was a solid, perfectly acceptable entry level single malt that was pretty good value, especially as it was fully sherry cask matured.

Alex joined Bushmills in 2004 working with Colm Egan in the distillation and maturation side of things which allowed her to gain a distillation diploma in 2012. After this Alex set to work on building The Sexton Brand.

What is a Sexton? Sexton’s were employed in their local parish to be custodians of the local church and graveyard and traditionally were the local gravedigger too. In an interview with UK online store Master of Malt Alex explained the idea behind The Sexton branding, ‘As a master blender and distiller, I am the caretaker of this amazing whiskey while it’s in the cask. The Sexton is about living life well before you meet the man that lays your body to rest, so that’s why I kind of came round the idea of naming it ‘The Sexton’.

Certainly the branding is unique and the bottle stands out with it’s hexagonal shape also giving a nod to the stones of the Giant’s Causeway just a short distance from the Bushmills distillery.

Recently I had friends visiting from Ireland who kindly offered to pick me up something from the travel retail and while there were lots of options available I decided to take a punt of the latest Sexton release which is this 11 year old single malt from Bushmills, fully matured in oloroso seasoned French oak and bottled at a slightly higher abv of 43%/86 proof and all for £35.

Now ordinarily travel retail can be a place to actually avoid whiskey, especially if they are exclusive releases, but at the price I just had to pick up a bottle of this.

Let’s Taste.

The Sexton 11 Year Old Single Malt 43% abv / 86 proof           £35 /$46 / E40

Maturation: fully matured in oloroso seasoned French oak casks

Nose: The nose is typically Bushmills – overripe banana and fresh peach plus nougat, Sticky toffee pudding, raisins, marzipan and Jamaican ginger cake. Vanilla pods, cinnamon and baked apples.

Palate: A decent mouthfeel which leads immediately into sherry notes of dried dark fruit like dates, fig and raisins alongside ginger, black pepper and cinnamon. There’s a nice toasted oak note along with black coffee and dark chocolate and in the background is baked apple from the nose and banana bread.

Finish: Medium in length with lingering cinnamon, caramel, fruit cake and toasted oak.

Score: 7 out of 10

Overall: For not much more than a bottle of Black Bush you are getting an 11 year old single malt with extra abv! Crazy good value for money. 

It’s not a bombastic sherry monster but it delivers gracefully. Dangerously sippable I think I’d recommend this over many of the Bushmills core range….it’s just a shame it’s only available at travel retail.