WD O'Connell 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/21/556

On the 31st of July 2021, Belfast Whiskey Week welcomed participants from across the globe into the world of WD O'Connell — a brand that takes the craft of independent Irish whiskey bottling seriously, without ever taking itself too seriously. Session 78 was a full MasterClass in every sense: six generous 50ml samples, a proper glass, and the kind of guided conversation that rewards patience and curiosity in equal measure.

About This Event

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

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

WD O'Connell is a name that carries weight in Irish whiskey circles. Founded by Bill O'Connell, the brand stands apart from the crowd of independent bottlers by placing a genuine emphasis on cask selection, transparency, and that quietly confident approach that lets the whiskey do the talking. Six expressions arrived in the tasting pack — a breadth of styles that gave BWW 2021 attendees an unusually complete picture of what independent Irish bottling can achieve at its finest. From lighter, floral single malts to richer, cask-forward expressions, the range told a coherent story about provenance and patience.

What made Session 78 particularly well-suited to the MasterClass format was the space it gave for reflection. Unlike a festival floor or a crowded tasting room, the online format — which BWW 2021 leaned into with real confidence — allowed participants in the USA, Australia, Sweden, across Europe, and closer to home in both the Republic and the North to engage at the same level. The depot collection option, offered to reduce delivery costs for those outside the islands, was a practical gesture that reflected BWW's genuine desire to make uisce beatha accessible rather than exclusive. The sheugh between continents shrank somewhat that afternoon.

The conversation around each dram was rich — this was a session steeped in the kind of seanchas that makes whiskey culture worth caring about. Participants reported that the MasterClass format encouraged them to sit with each sample rather than rush through, building a cumulative appreciation for how WD O'Connell approaches the relationship between distillery character and cask influence. It was the sort of afternoon that reminds you why whiskey, at its best, is a duchas worth preserving. If you're curious about how this session fits into the broader landscape of Irish whiskey explored across BWW 2021, the BWW Whiskey Map is a good place to orient yourself.

For those who found their interest in independently bottled and single malt Irish whiskey sparked by this session, BWW 2021 offered plenty of adjacent territory to explore. The Bushmills Causeway Collection MasterClass offered a similarly in-depth look at cask maturation from a rather different — and deeply Ulster — perspective, while the Sexton Deconstruction Showcase gave attendees a chance to understand how a single malt single pot still expression is built from the ground up. Taken together, these sessions formed a loose curriculum in the diversity of Irish whiskey — and WD O'Connell's contribution sat proudly at its more contemplative, enquiring end.

Session 78 was, in short, exactly what a MasterClass should be: an invitation to pay attention. At £80 for six samples and the time of an expert guide, it represented real value — not just in the liquid, but in the knowledge carried home alongside it. Sláinte mhaith to everyone who raised a glass that Saturday afternoon, wherever in the world they happened to be sitting.