Wild Atlantic Distillery Tasting | Belfast Whiskey Week 2025

On the final day of Belfast Whiskey Week 2025, a select gathering made their way to Donegall Street for something quietly special — a private Straight Whiskey Tasting with Wild Atlantic Distillery, held in the warmly familiar surroundings of the John Hewitt. Day 7 is always a bittersweet one, the festival's energy still humming but the end drawing close, and this intimate session felt like exactly the right note to close on.

Filed: 15 Jul 2025
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 2 min
Ref: BWW/25/756

Looking Back

The John Hewitt is a particular kind of place. Named after the great Ulster poet, it sits at the heart of Belfast's Cathedral Quarter with a duchas — a sense of belonging — that few bars in the city can match. It has long championed local arts, community, and honest conversation, and its considered selection of Irish whiskeys makes it a natural home for events like this. On a Thursday evening in late July, it hosted something a little out of the ordinary: a tasting guided by the people behind Wild Atlantic Distillery, bringing the spirit of the western seaboard to the north.

Wild Atlantic Distillery draws its identity from the rugged Atlantic coastline — that tír of salt wind, stone walls, and deep-running water that shapes Irish whiskey making in ways both subtle and profound. The distillery carries that landscape in its liquid, and the tasting gave attendees the chance to explore exactly how. This was no casual dram at the bar; it was a structured, led experience, the kind of session where questions were welcomed, stories were shared, and the seanchas of how the whiskey came to be was as much a part of the evening as the uisce beatha itself.

Straight Whiskey Tastings at Belfast Whiskey Week have always offered something that the larger festival sessions can't quite replicate — intimacy, focus, and real access to the people who make the whiskey. Alongside events like the Glens of Antrim: Lir Whiskey Tasting and the globally-minded World Whiskies: Session 1, this Wild Atlantic evening represented the Irish half of that conversation — rooted, westward-facing, and unhurried.

Those who came with a ten-pound ticket and an open glass left with considerably more: a richer understanding of what Wild Atlantic Distillery is trying to do, and why the Atlantic coastline produces whiskey with such a distinctive character. The sheugh between Irish tradition and modern craft distilling is a productive one, and Wild Atlantic walk it with confidence. The John Hewitt, for its part, did what it always does — offered warmth, good pours, and a room where the conversation kept going long after the formal tasting ended.

If Day 7 of Belfast Whiskey Week 2025 had to end anywhere, it was hard to argue with this. For those who missed it, keep an eye on our Whiskey Map to explore the distilleries and producers that make the festival what it is — and check back when tickets for future festivals go live. Sláinte mhaith to Wild Atlantic, and to everyone who raised a glass in the John Hewitt that evening.