Douglas Laing Remarkable Malts Food Pairing | Belfast Whiskey Week 2025

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

Filed: 15 Jul 2025
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 4 min
Ref: BWW/25/436

There are evenings at Belfast Whiskey Week that linger long after the last dram is drained — and the Douglas Laing Remarkable Malts takeover at Neighbourhood Cafe on the 24th of July 2025 was firmly one of them. Bringing together one of Scotland's most celebrated independent bottlers and one of Belfast city centre's most welcoming tables, this food pairing event proved that the space between uisce beatha and a well-considered bite of food is where something genuinely memorable happens. For thirty pounds and an open mind, guests stepped into an evening that was part tasting session, part feast, and entirely unforgettable.

About This Event

Belfast Whiskey Week is Collaborating with Neighbourhood Cafe each day during the Festival. This is an unprecedented step for both BWW and Neighbourhood; with each event being completely different! Keep a lookout for our other collaborations.

Douglas Laing’s ‘Remarkable Malts’: If you have never had the pleasure of sipping a Timorous Beastie, or sniffing a Scallywag, or devouring a Rock Island or downing a Big Peat or addressing an Epicurean; then now’s your chance. We welcome you to an unforgettable opportunity to try various expressions of whiskies crafted by one of Scotland’s oldest family run bottle and bonders. You’ll also love the food that will compliment each of the cask finishes, small bites, with big flavours.

Looking Back

The collaboration between Belfast Whiskey Week and Neighbourhood Cafe was one of the most talked-about strands of BWW2025 — an unprecedented daily takeover series where no two events were quite the same. This particular evening belonged to Douglas Laing, a family-run operation that has been seeking out and bottling exceptional Scotch whisky casks since 1948. There's a real duchas — a sense of inherited craft and belonging — in what Douglas Laing does, and it translated beautifully into the intimate, neighbourhood-scale setting that the cafe provides. The warmth of the room matched the warmth in the glass.

Guests made their way through the Remarkable Regional Malts range, a lineup that reads like a tour of Scotland's most characterful corners. The Timorous Beastie, that bold and honeyed Highland blend, arrived first and did exactly what it always does — disarmed any sceptics and drew in the room. The Scallywag, Douglas Laing's Speyside offering, brought its characteristic marzipan sweetness, while Rock Island offered that coastal, briny edge that speaks of Atlantic wind and tidal air. Big Peat — never one to be ignored — made its presence known with characteristic swagger, and the Epicurean rounded things off with an elegant, urbane finish that felt entirely at home in the city centre surroundings. Each expression is a distinct personality, and in the context of a tasting like this, the contrast between them told a richer story than any single bottle could alone.

The food, prepared by the Neighbourhood Cafe team, was designed to complement rather than compete — small bites with, as promised, genuinely big flavours. The kitchen understood the brief: this was not dinner with whisky on the side, but a considered conversation between the plate and the glass. Smoked and cured elements echoed the peated expressions; richer, sweeter accompaniments drew out the fruit and oak in the blends. It was the kind of pairing that makes you reconsider both the food and the whisky, each one revealing something the other might have kept hidden. Those familiar with the Morning Star's Nose to Tail bespoke lunches from previous BWW festivals will have recognised a similar philosophy at work — that whisky paired with honest, considered food is a form of seanchas, a storytelling through taste and tradition.

For many attendees, this was a first encounter with the Douglas Laing stable. If you have never had the pleasure of sipping a Timorous Beastie or addressing an Epicurean, as the event description so memorably put it, then this was the ideal introduction — unhurried, unpretentious, and guided by a brand that carries its seventy-plus years of expertise lightly. Those who had already encountered the range through earlier BWW sessions, including the introductory tastings and Douglas Laing's MasterClass, found new dimensions here that the food pairing format unlocks in ways a straight tasting cannot. Context changes everything, and Neighbourhood Cafe provided the right context entirely.

BWW2025's Neighbourhood Cafe series reminded the festival — and perhaps Belfast itself — that the best whisky experiences are rarely about rarity or price points alone. They are about the company, the setting, the food on the table, and the story behind the bottle. Douglas Laing brought all of that in abundance. Sláinte mhaith.

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.