Flying Tumbler Introduction | Belfast Whiskey Week 2021

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

Filed: 23 Jul 2021
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 3 min
Ref: BWW/21/452

Belfast Whiskey Week 2021 was a festival that refused to be confined by geography, and Session 10 — the Flying Tumbler Introduction — was proof of that ambition. On 23rd July at 1pm, whiskey lovers from Belfast to Brisbane, from Stockholm to San Francisco, settled in with their 50ml samples and raised a glass together. It was, in the truest sense of the phrase, uisce beatha without borders.

About This Event

This tasting includes 3 x 50ml Samples & Glass and will take place on the 23rd @ 13:00.

For those in the USA, Australia, Sweden, Europe, the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland, you will be able to save on delivery costs by having your package to sent to a localised depot for collection. You will be charged a small fee upon collection, but the cost will be much cheaper than having packs delivered to individual addresses. If you would like to avail of this option, please make a note in the Special Instructions box, and we will contact you at a later date to arrange this and refund your delivery charges.

Looking Back

The Flying Tumbler was one of those quietly radical ideas that BWW 2021 made look effortless. Rather than asking attendees to come to the whiskey, the whiskey came to them — three 50ml samples and a glass, packed and posted to doorsteps across the world. For a festival rooted so deeply in the streets and sheughs of Belfast, there was something genuinely moving about seeing that same sense of duchas — that belonging, that rootedness — transmitted through a cardboard box to someone sitting at a kitchen table in Melbourne or Minneapolis.

The Introduction format was exactly right for a session like this. No prior expertise was required, no notebook needed. This was an open door, a welcoming hand extended to the curious. Three samples gave attendees just enough to explore — to nose, to taste, to compare — without overwhelming. The structure encouraged conversation, and in the chat windows and virtual rooms of a pandemic-era festival, conversation flowed freely. Sláinte was typed in a dozen time zones simultaneously.

What made the Flying Tumbler concept particularly well-suited to BWW 2021's international reach was the thoughtful logistics behind it. Participants in the USA, Australia, Sweden, across Europe, and throughout the island of Ireland were offered the option of depot collection — a small but meaningful gesture that kept costs manageable and underlined the festival's genuine commitment to accessibility. This wasn't whiskey tourism for the wealthy few; it was seanchas shared broadly, the stories of the glass passed around a much wider table than any single Belfast venue could hold.

The session sat comfortably within a wider constellation of BWW 2021 events that rewarded the curious and the committed alike. Those who found their footing here often went on to deeper dives — sessions like the Bushmills History MasterClass offered rich historical context, while the Bushmills Causeway Collection MasterClass pushed into rarer, more contemplative territory. For those drawn toward something a little different, the Sexton Deconstruction Showcase offered its own fascinating lens on Irish single malt.

Looking back, the Flying Tumbler Introduction was more than a tasting — it was a statement of intent. Belfast Whiskey Week has always understood that whiskey is at its best when it brings people together, and in 2021, when the world was still fragmented and cautious, this session found a way to honour that truth across thousands of miles. The glass may have been small, but what it contained — craft, connection, and a little of Ulster's generous spirit — was anything but.