Dunville's To the Core – Tasting Session | Belfast Whiskey Week 2024

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

Filed: 21 Jul 2024
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 3 min
Ref: BWW/24/740

There are Belfast brands, and then there is Dunville's — a name so deeply woven into the city's story that tasting it feels less like a whiskey flight and more like an act of remembrance. Session 25 of Belfast Whiskey Week 2024, Dunville's: To the Core!, brought that story back to life in one of the city's most storied rooms: the Morning Star on Pottinger's Entry. It was a Straight Whiskey Tasting that felt, from first dram to last, entirely and unmistakably Belfast.

About This Event

Dunville's Irish Whiskey is Belfast Whiskey. Stating Belfast Whiskey on your whiskey bottles is like having the rubber stamp of perfection, the highest accolade in Irish Whiskey, akin to a Michelin Star or McKennas' Guide: Best in Ireland. Well, why not explore this exceptional Belfast brand within the historic Morning Star that also holds a plethora of accolades. We are delighted to welcome back the Morning Star, as they host a number of events during the Festival. The feedback from revellers last year boasted about the excellent food and service as well as the preservative of history of such an iconic space in the City.

Looking Back

If uisce beatha has a spiritual home in this city, Dunville's lays a strong claim to the address. Once among the largest whiskey producers in Ireland before the industry's long twentieth-century decline, Dunville's has been reborn with a quiet confidence that carries the full weight of that duchas — that inherited sense of place and belonging. Stating 'Belfast Whiskey' on a label is not marketing shorthand; it is a declaration, and one that the brand earns with every bottle. To sit with Dunville's in a room full of people who understand that history is to feel the seanchas of the city alive in the glass.

The Morning Star provided the ideal setting. Tucked into Pottinger's Entry, one of Belfast's oldest surviving laneways, the pub carries its own deep reserves of character — exposed brickwork, low ceilings, and a sense that the walls themselves have heard a few good yarns. Revellers from the previous year had spoken warmly of the food, the service, and the feeling of drinking somewhere that genuinely matters to the tír, and this session did nothing to dent that reputation. If anything, the atmosphere sharpened the focus on what was in the glass: a series of Dunville's expressions tasted carefully, comparatively, and with full attention.

As a Straight Whiskey Tasting, Session 25 was designed to let the liquid do the talking. Guests worked through the core range with the kind of unhurried attention these whiskeys deserve — noting the interplay of fruit and grain, the gentle oak influence, the clean and honest character that defines Dunville's house style. There were no theatrical distractions, no bells or whistles. Just well-made Irish whiskey, good company, and the particular pleasure of understanding a brand from the inside out. For those who wanted to go deeper on the craft of the Belfast distilling tradition, Session 83: Bushmills History offered a broader historical lens on Ulster whiskey-making, while Session 2: Bushmills Core Malts provided an illuminating comparison of how another great northern Irish distillery builds its foundational range.

What the evening captured, above all else, was the particular joy of drinking local. Sláinte is said everywhere whiskey is poured, but in the Morning Star, raising a glass of Dunville's felt like something more — a small, sincere toast to the city itself, to the people who brought a great Belfast name back from the brink, and to the festival that keeps finding new ways to celebrate the depth and breadth of Irish whiskey. Those who were there left with a fuller understanding of what 'Belfast Whiskey' really means — not just a label, but a lived commitment to place, quality, and craft. For anyone curious about where to find Dunville's and other exceptional Irish whiskeys year-round, our Whiskey Map is the place to start exploring.