Highland Whisky MasterClass – Belfast Whiskey Week 2021

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

Filed: 31 Jul 2021
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 3 min
Format: Online Tasting
Ref: BWW/21/868

On the 31st of July 2021, at two o'clock on a summer afternoon, a gathering of serious whisky lovers turned their attention northward — past the Grampians, beyond the glens, and deep into the heartland of Scottish distilling. Session 70: Highlands was a MasterClass in the truest sense of the word, a six-dram journey through some of the most characterful and age-worthy expressions the Highland region has to offer. It was one of BWW 2021's most ambitious tastings, and for those who were there — or who cracked open their postal pack at home — it delivered in full measure.

About This Event

This tasting includes 6 x 50ml Samples & Glass and will take place on the 31st @ 14:00.

Cadenhead's Invergordon 26yo
SMWS 70.39 Balblair 2007 11yo 57%
Cadenhead's Aberfeldy 21yo
Glen Garioch 25yo
Edradour CS 2008
SMWS 122.30 Croftengea 2013 6yo 61%

Tasting packs will be posted out to you, but may not arrive in time for the tastings. If you wish to collect the pack in Belfast to ensure you have it in time, please contact grace@belfastwhiskeyweek.com after you order.

Looking Back

Six drams at £150 might raise an eyebrow at first glance, but one look at the lineup and the arithmetic makes perfect sense. This wasn't a casual introduction to Scottish whisky; it was a deep dive into the duchas — the inherited character — of the Highlands, assembled with real intent. The selection ranged from coastal to inland, from independent bottlings to distillery releases, and from the relatively youthful to the impressively aged. Together, they told the story of a region too vast and varied to be pinned down by a single flavour profile.

The session opened with Cadenhead's Invergordon 26 Year Old, a single grain from the great northern distillery that sits at the mouth of the Cromarty Firth. Grain whisky of this age and quality has a quiet authority to it — that long, slow maturation coaxing out notes of vanilla and soft oak that surprise people who expect grain to be the plain cousin at the table. It set a contemplative tone. From there, the SMWS 70.39 expression took attendees into the Society's characteristic world of playful obscurity — the distillery unnamed on the label, the whisky speaking for itself. For those who enjoy a bit of seanchas — the shared oral knowledge of a community of enthusiasts — decoding SMWS releases is half the pleasure.

Balblair 2007 11yo at 57% was a highlight for many. Balblair is a distillery that takes vintage dating seriously, and this expression showed why: a precise snapshot of a particular year's spirit, bottled at cask strength and brimming with orchard fruit and coastal air. It was followed by Cadenhead's Aberfeldy 21 Year Old — Aberfeldy's honeyed, waxy character given two decades to fully express itself, and Cadenhead's no-nonsense approach to bottling ensuring nothing was lost in translation. Then came the Glen Garioch 25 Year Old, a dram from one of Scotland's oldest distilleries, sitting quietly in the Garioch valley of Aberdeenshire. Age had given it complexity and gravitas without stripping it of warmth.

The final two drams turned up the heat. Edradour Cask Strength 2008 is exactly the kind of expression that reminds you why small distilleries matter — Edradour, Scotland's smallest, produces whisky with an almost handmade intimacy, and the cask strength release lets that character roar. Closing proceedings was Croftengea 2013 6yo at 61% via the SMWS — Croftengea being the peated expression from Loch Lomond, and at that ABV and that age, it was young, fierce, and unapologetically smoky. A fitting finale. If you were also drawn to BWW 2021's Irish whiskey offerings that same weekend, sessions like the Bushmills Causeway Collection MasterClass or the Bushmills Cask Strength Mini-MasterClass made for a remarkable cross-border pairing of traditions.

A practical note worth remembering: tasting packs were posted out ahead of the event, though the BWW team wisely offered Belfast-based attendees the option to collect in person to guarantee everything arrived on time. It was a small logistical grace that reflected the festival's broader character — a genuine effort to make things work for the people who show up, wherever they were joining from. Sláinte to everyone who made it to this one, dram in hand. You chose well. For a sense of what else BWW 2021 had on offer, have a browse of the Whiskey Map or explore the full BWW collection.