Douglas Laing Indie Bottlers Showcase | Belfast Whiskey Week 2023

Name: Belfast Whiskey Week 2026
Start: 2026-07-24
End: 2026-08-01
Location: Belfast

Filed: 15 Jul 2023
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 5 min
Ref: BWW/23/732

There's a particular kind of whiskey lover — and Belfast has no shortage of them — who has worked through the core ranges, lined the cabinet with the familiar faces, and still feels that itch. On the night of Saturday 22nd October 2023, Session 29: Indie Bottlers — Can We Expect Better? gave that itch somewhere worthy to go. Held across a generous late-night window at The Regency on Upper Crescent, the evening brought together some of the finest independent bottlings from Scotland and Ireland, with Douglas Laing leading the charge.

About This Event

Distilleries love the “Core Range” – We Love the “Core Range” — But once you’ve had them, and they are stocking up in your drinks cabinet, you have that itch that needs scratched. You need to venture to the Independent Bottler to taste some Cask Strength, Single Cask Bottles. Let’s enjoy the Evening with some Incredible drops from around Scotland and Ireland with the Indie Brands that you may or may not know. We all deserve that bespoke finish, or off-piste version of our favourite drams. Let’s raise a glass to the distilleries, and another for the bottle and bonders! Both Scotland and Ireland’s Whiskey Industry have been built on those Independent Bottlers, from Gilbey’s, Johnnie Walker, Ballentine’s, Black & White and Mitchell & Son of old, to the modern Douglas Laing, SMWS, W.D. O’Connell and Two Stacks, to name a few.

Timeslot: 9pm-12am

Start Time: 9pm

Duration: 2.5hrs

Venue: The Regency - Upper Crescent Drinks: 6 Drams

Type: Showcase

Disclaimers Please note that individual dietary requirements are not being catered for with any food at this event. Each Brand/Distillery and Collaborative Partner have agreed to our Min/Max Pour Policy. Please Respect this, and enjoy your festival responsibly. Festival Participants who are deemed to be too inebriated, or are not respecting themselves, will not be permitted into events and venues. ALL Hosts/Ushers/Collaborators and Venue Staff have the right to refuse participants without question and recourse. Please Drink Responsibly. All events are only available to those 18 years old and over. Do not purchase tickets if you are under the age of 18. Be prepared to produce ID if required. Venue staff & ushers may ask you to provide ID when showing your valid tickets. You may be refused enter to events if you can’t prove your age. Some venues may change, if they do, you will be notified. All events are subject to changes out of the control of the festival organisers. Any issues, please contact us @belfastwhiskeyweek on socials, or via email on marketing@belfastwhiskeyweek.com or 07773675179 (8am-8pm) to discuss. NO Refunds will be given. Please only buy tickets if you are prepared to attend the event. Tickets are transferable. If you are going to transfer tickets please email, marketing@belfastwhiskeyweek.com

Looking Back

The question posed in the title was, of course, a provocation — the good kind. Independent bottlers don't replace the distilleries they draw from; they reveal them. A single cask pulled at the right moment, bottled at full strength without apology, can show you a side of a spirit the distillery's blending team might never have let you see. That's the promise of the indie world, and on this particular Saturday night in Belfast, it was a promise well kept. Six drams, two and a half hours, and a room full of people who knew exactly why they'd stayed out until midnight on a festival weekend.

Douglas Laing's presence at the heart of the evening felt entirely right. Family-run since 1948, the Glasgow operation has spent three-quarters of a century doing what the big blending houses eventually grew too large to bother with — hunting down exceptional individual casks and getting out of their way. Their Remarkable Regional Malts range gives you Scotland by geography and character, from the maritime peat of Islay to the orchard-fruit gentleness of Speyside, and the bottles that appeared at Session 29 reminded attendees why Douglas Laing has earned its loyal following on both sides of the sheugh. Braw, in a word.

What made the evening particularly worthwhile was its historical grounding. The event didn't treat independent bottling as a niche curiosity or a collector's hobby — it positioned it correctly, as the very foundation on which the Scotch and Irish whiskey industries were built. Names like Gilbey's, Ballantine's, and Mitchell & Son weren't footnotes; they were the industry. The modern heirs — Douglas Laing, the SMWS, W.D. O'Connell, Two Stacks — carry that duchas forward, that inherited sense of craft and curation. Hearing that lineage laid out while turning a glass of something cask-strength and singular in your hand had a way of making the dram taste even better.

For those who had attended Douglas Laing's earlier BWW sessions — the introductory evenings of Session 16 and Session 75 from previous festivals — this felt like a natural, more adventurous progression. Where those sessions had opened the door, Session 29 walked you through it and turned off the lights behind you. The tone was knowledgeable without being exclusionary, the pours were generous within the festival's sensible pour policy, and The Regency proved itself a venue that understands atmosphere. Upper Crescent at that hour, with good uisce beatha in hand and seanchas flowing freely — there are worse ways to spend a Saturday night in this city.

If Session 29 left any lasting argument, it was this: the core range is where you start, not where you stop. The indie bottlers are where the real conversation begins. Sláinte to the distilleries, and another round for the bottlers and bonders who make these discoveries possible.

The Brand: Douglas Laing

Family-run since 1948, Douglas Laing hunts down exceptional Scotch whisky casks. Their Remarkable Regional Malts range covers Scotland with real depth.