Dunville's Core Range Masterclass | 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/23/980

On a Saturday lunchtime in October 2023, a small and fortunate group gathered at the Regency on Upper Crescent for one of Belfast Whiskey Week's most intimate sessions of the year. Event 17 — Dunville's: Core Range Exploration — offered three unhurried hours in the company of Echlinville Distillery's Séamus Óg Birt, four considered drams, and a conversation about where one of Ireland's most celebrated whiskey names is heading next. It was, in the best possible sense, the kind of event you don't want to end.

About This Event

Dunville’s Irish Whiskey Core range is growing, and we need to be kept up to speed. There has been a huge push by the Echlinville Distillery in the past few years to expand the core range to include Older Aged expressions, similar to their single cask programme. For those that want to taste some of Ireland’s most sought after Irish Single Malts using various Sherry Cask Finishing, then this session is for you. Join Séamus Óg Birt at the Opulant Recency on Upper Crescent, for a very intimate tasting and discussion on the future of the Dunville’s range. Let’s have a welcome Cocktail, some Light Bites and Delve into Dunville’s. Timeslot: 12pm-3pm Start Time: 12pm Duration: 3hrs Venue: The Regency Drinks: 4 Drams Type: Masterclass 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

Dunville's is a name with deep roots in Belfast's uisce beatha story — a Victorian-era giant that fell silent for most of the twentieth century before Echlinville Distillery breathed new life into it from their farm on the Ards Peninsula. When Echlinville was granted its distilling licence, it became the first new distillery to open in Northern Ireland in over 125 years, and the revival of Dunville's under that roof has always carried the weight of that history. This masterclass wasn't just a tasting; it was a piece of seanchas — living tradition, passed across a table with a dram in hand.

Séamus Óg Birt led the session with the kind of easy authority that comes from genuine belief in the liquid in the glass. The focus throughout was the expanding core range, and in particular the move towards older aged expressions and sherry cask finishing — a direction Echlinville has been pursuing with quiet ambition. Each of the four drams told a part of that story, tracing a thread from the distillery's estate-grown Ards Peninsula barley through to the complex, dried-fruit-laden whiskeys that the sherry finishing programme produces. For those who had been following Dunville's single cask releases, this was a chance to see how those learnings are now shaping the permanent range.

The format suited the material. Tickets were priced at £40, and the session ran from midday through to three in the afternoon — long enough to breathe, to ask questions, and to let each dram settle properly before moving on. Light bites accompanied the tasting, and a welcome cocktail eased everyone in without ceremony. There was nothing rushed about any of it. The Regency, with its warm interior and sense of occasion, was a fitting stage for whiskeys that reward patience. It was the kind of afternoon that reminds you why the masterclass format, done well, is worth every penny of the ticket price.

Echlinville is one of the festival's anchor presences, and rightly so. Their commitment to a genuine field-to-bottle philosophy — growing barley on the estate, distilling on site, maturing with real intention — gives their whiskeys a coherence that you can taste. Those who wanted to go deeper into the Echlinville world could also look to Event 66: Distillery Day — Welcome to the Warehouse, which brought guests out to Kircubbin for an immersive look at the production side. Together, the two events offered as complete a picture of the Dunville's story as BWW2023 had to offer. You can explore the full Echlinville Distillery range if this retrospective has left you with a thirst.

BWW2023 was a Saturday well spent for anyone who found their way to Upper Crescent that afternoon. The session sat comfortably alongside the festival's broader programme of in-depth whiskey conversation — if the rare and aged end of the spectrum is your duchas, the On the Couch sessions with Micky Plummer offered their own kind of quiet revelation. But for those whose loyalty runs to Northern Irish single malt, to the tir of the Ards Peninsula, to a name that nearly disappeared and came back stronger — Event 17 was exactly where you needed to be. Sláinte mhaith.