Transportation Whiskey Showcase | 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/23/052

They came 11,000 miles. We hopped on the Glider. And somewhere inside the Angel & Two Bibles on a Thursday afternoon in October 2023, the distance between Belfast and Tasmania collapsed into six drams and a room full of people who couldn't quite believe what they were tasting. The fourth and final session of Belfast Whiskey Week's landmark Tasmanian Tasting series brought Spring Bay, Killara, Hunter Island, and the utterly fascinating Transportation Whiskey together under one roof — and it was, by any measure, a highlight of the festival calendar.

About This Event

Time for a Taste of Tasmania. They have travelled a total of 11,000 Miles to get here to let you sip their whiskies! We just need to get out of bed, jump on the Glider and pop into one of our great bars in Belfast to support them on their quest to showcase Tasmanian Whiskey with our Festival Goers. 8 brands have made the trip around the World to join us at Belfast Whiskey Week. We have 4 Showcase Sessions this week with our Tasmanian Whiskies, a Co-Event with Killowen and a Fine Dinning Experience at one of Belfast’s most sought after restaurant. Please note the four distilleries involved in this session: Tasmanian Tasting: (4/4) Spring Bay, Killara, Transportation Whiskey & Hunter Island These Sessions are not to be missed and are a highlight of the Festival. Grab some snacks and relax as we meet our new found friends. Timeslot: 3pm-6pm Start Time: 3pm Duration: 3hr Venue: Angel & Two Bibles Drinks: 6 Drams Type: Showcase 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

There's a particular kind of pleasure in discovering that a whiskey made on the other side of the world shares a bloodline with traditions you thought you already knew. Transportation Whiskey is a Tasmanian single pot still whiskey, triple distilled, built consciously and carefully on Irish whiskey heritage. Australian in provenance, Irish in method and spirit — it's a dram that carries its own seanchas, its own story of craft crossing oceans. Sitting with it in the Angel & Two Bibles, a venue that wears its own character with confidence, felt less like a tasting and more like a conversation between two island traditions separated by time and latitude.

This was Session 4 of 4 in the Tasmanian series, and by Thursday afternoon the festival crowd had developed a genuine appetite for what Tasmania was bringing to the table. Those who'd caught Session 1 — Killara, Belgrove, McHendry & Spring Bay — arrived already primed, already curious, already asking questions. The room had the easy energy of people who had done their homework and were ready to go deeper. Six drams across four distilleries gave everyone the breadth to compare, contrast, and eventually just sit back and appreciate how much craft was concentrated in that one afternoon slot.

Transportation Whiskey drew particular attention, and rightly so. There's something about a spirit that wears its influences openly — the triple distillation, the pot still character, the Irish method transplanted to Tasmanian barley and Tasmanian air — that invites conversation rather than simply demanding admiration. It poses a question with every sip: what does tradition become when it travels? The answer, in this case, is something genuinely its own. The whiskey is available to explore further here if the story has you intrigued, and it should.

The Angel & Two Bibles provided exactly the right setting — unhurried, atmospheric, the kind of place where snacks appear and time stretches pleasantly. The 3pm–6pm window allowed for proper engagement rather than the rushed intensity that can sometimes grip evening sessions. People lingered. Conversations spilled from the whiskey itself into the wider week — the Irish language uisce beatha session that had caught some by surprise earlier in the festival, the energy building around homegrown craft, the broader question of what whiskey's global future looks like when places like Tasmania are producing liquid this good.

Belfast Whiskey Week has always believed that the world's great whiskey stories deserve a platform here, in this city, beside our own. The Tasmanian programme of 2023 — four sessions, a collaborative dinner, an expo presence — made that belief concrete. Transportation Whiskey was a central part of that story, and its appearance at Session 4 was a fitting close to a series that left its mark on everyone who attended. Sláinte mhaith to the distillers who made the journey. It was worth every one of those 11,000 miles.