The Sexton

'Sexton' - derived from the Latin word 'sacristanus' meaning 'custodian of sacred objects'. Thus Sexton's were employed in their local parish as custodians of the local church and graveyard and traditionally would have actually also been the local gravedigger. I assume the top hatted skeleton on label is a suitable nod to the old traditions.
The Sexton brand is the brainchild of Alex Thomas based in my local distillery, Bushmills and it was launched around two years ago now. Just like the Red Bush, The Sexton was actually released in the U.S. first before finally being made available for retail here in the U.K. and Ireland in December 2018.

Alex has been at Bushmills since 2004, initially working with Colm Egan in distillation and maturation. This led to Alex becoming fully qualified with a distillation diploma in 2012 before pushing ahead with the task of building The Sexton brand. Speaking to Master of Malt Alex explains why she settled on the name of The Sexton, "I wanted a name that would represent what I do. 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’. I wanted it to be something different, something approachable".

The bottle shape is quite clearly a homage to the famous hexagonal stones of the Giant's Causeway just a stone's throw from the distillery at Bushmills. The black bottle also is a nod to the dark colour imbued on the spirit by the oloroso sherry casks used in the maturation (more on that later).

So what's in the rather fetching looking bottle? Well it's a four year old single malt aged entirely in oloroso sherry casks. This malt is actually distilled in Bushmills Distillery to Alex's specification. But The Sexton is a Proximo Spirits brand (although Proximo are also the parent company of Bushmills). So although it is distilled in Bushmills it isn't a apart of the Bushmills Irish Whiskey family.