The tasting will feature Bushmills Original, 16- and 21-year old whiskeys. Ireland’s oldest distillery, Bushmills traces its history back more than 400 years to 1608, when King James I granted a royal license to distil “the water of life” in County Antrim. The first recorded reference to the Old Bushmills Distillery dates to 1743; it was said to be owned by smugglers. The company was officially registered for operation in 1784. When the government levied a tax on malted barley in 1850, many distillers switched to a mixture of malt and un-malted barley, but Bushmills stayed true to its original recipe.