Hinch Distillery Showcase – Belfast Whiskey Week 2021

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

Filed: 29 Jul 2021
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 4 min
Ref: BWW/21/876

On the evening of the 29th of July 2021, Session 49 of Belfast Whiskey Week gave whiskey lovers near and far the chance to sit down with one of Northern Ireland's most exciting modern distilleries. Hinch Distillery, nestled on a County Down estate just a sheugh or two south of the city, brought a generous six-dram showcase to the table — a line-up that told the full story of what this young operation is already capable of. For £35, it was one of the week's most compelling value propositions, and the drams did not disappoint.

About This Event

This tasting includes 6 x 50ml Samples and will take place on the 29th @ 20:30.

This tasting comprises of:

Small Batch Blend
5 Year Old Double Wood Blend
10 Year Old Sherry Cask Finish Blend
Imperial Stout Finish
Peated Single Malt
New Make Spirit

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 pack opened at the very beginning, with Hinch's New Make Spirit — that clear, raw uisce beatha that most blends and malts begin their life as, but which rarely gets its moment in the spotlight. It was a smart choice to include it. Starting here gave attendees a proper grounding in the distillery's character: the grain, the still shape, the cut points. You can't fully appreciate where a whiskey is going until you understand where it starts, and Hinch's new make offered a clean, fruity vibrancy that hinted at good things to come.

From there, the session moved through the core range with purpose. The Small Batch Blend arrived as a gentle, accessible introduction to Hinch's house style — approachable without being anonymous. The 5 Year Old Double Wood Blend stepped things up, the second cask maturation lending it a roundness and a warmth that belied its age. These are whiskeys that speak to the distillery's confidence in their craft: no apology for youth, just honest, well-made spirit. You can explore the full Hinch range here, and it's a portfolio worth taking your time with.

The middle-of-the-night reveal was the 10 Year Old Sherry Cask Finish Blend — the most mature whiskey in the line-up, and it showed. Rich dried fruit, a touch of Christmas spice, the kind of depth that sherry seasoning draws out of a well-made base spirit. If any single dram in the pack made the case for Hinch's long-term ambition, this was it. There was a duchas to it — a sense of something inherited and properly tended. Alongside it, the Imperial Stout Finish offered something more unexpected: a collaboration with the beer world that brought roasted malt and dark fruit character into the whiskey, a nod to the creativity that defines the best of the new Irish distilling wave.

Saving the Peated Single Malt for the close was a canny move. Peat is not the most traditional note in the Irish whiskey canon, but Hinch wears it well — smoke present but not domineering, the distillery character still legible underneath. It sparked no small amount of conversation online as the session wrapped up, with attendees comparing notes across time zones. That global reach was itself part of the story: the festival's depot collection system meant that participants in the USA, Australia, Sweden, Europe, and across the island of Ireland could join the same evening's tasting, united by the same six bottles. The sheugh between continents felt a little narrower than usual.

Hinch has become a genuine cornerstone of Belfast Whiskey Week — turning up not just in showcases like this one but in Distillery Days, cocktail sessions, and pairings events across the programme. If Session 49 left you curious about how other Irish distilleries showed up across BWW 2021, the Sexton Deconstruction Showcase made for a fascinating companion piece, while the Bushmills Causeway Collection MasterClass offered a deeper dive into aged Irish single malt. All roads, as ever, led somewhere worth going. Sláinte.