Some call the amber liquid the nectar of the gods. To others it's the devil's buttermilk. Scholars say the word whiskey comes from the Irish phrase 'uisce beatha', meaning 'water of life'. But to Helen Mulholland, the first woman Master Blender at the 400-year-old Bushmills Distillery, whiskey is even more important than that. She gives Jane Bell an education on the finer pointsIt's a tough job but somebody's got to do it. As the first woman Master Blender at the Old Bushmills Distillery, Helen Mulholland nurses some of our finest whiskeys through long years of maturation to the very pinnacle of perfection.
Like a mother with her children, she knows the nuances of all her brood - from the "gentle giant" Original, with its "sweetness in the cheeks" aftertaste, to the "loveable rogue" Black Bush which " kind of does it its own way", packing a velvet gloved punch.
The fragrant 10-year-old evokes memories of apple pie baking in Granny's kitchen, while the full-bodied 16-year-old has a hint of dark chocolate and leather and the luxurious, elegant 21-year-old bursts with flavours " full of Christmas".
Helen waxes lyrical about whiskey the way other women salivate over designer shoes. For a woman who spends most of her working day in laboratory conditions, she has the soul of a poet. Helen is the Jilly Goulden of the hard stuff.
Belfast Telegraph:
I'm not sure if this article is about whiskey or sex (c:=
