Women Who Whiskey Talk | 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: 4 min
Ref: BWW/23/068

On a Friday afternoon in October 2023, something quietly significant took place on Upper Crescent. Tucked into the elegant surroundings of The Regency, one of Belfast's most distinguished addresses, a room full of whiskey lovers settled onto the sofas for On the Couch with Women Who Whiskey — a session that was as much about breaking open a conversation as it was about breaking open a bottle. This was Belfast Whiskey Week doing what it does best: bringing people together around the uisce beatha, and making sure the right voices were in the room.

About This Event

With the Striking Recency on Upper Crescent, we have designed an Elegant Series of Bespoke Collaborations with Belfast’s most Desirable of Residences. We want you to Savour Great Whiskies, Meet New Faces and Experience the Attention to Detail and Opulence as well as the Excellent Customer Care that the team at the Regency has to offer. In This Session (1 of 6), On the Sofa with…”Women Who Whiskey”, we welcome some very Influential women in the Whiskey Industry. We want you to have an Intimate Conversation with our Guests, as you get the chance to drink, eat and chat to those who have shown that ceilings can be broken, that dreams can be achieved and that Whiskey is no Longer Yer Da’s Drink! Expect to have the opportunity to ask questions about distillation, blending, production, distillery ownership and corporate progression. We have some exceptional drams and bespoke cocktails for you to sip, accompanied with local produce; while you get comfy and discover what women are achieving in the Whiskey Industry. Timeslot: 3pm-6pm Start Time: 3:30pm Duration: 2hrs Venue: The Regency Drinks: 3 Drams Type: Talk 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

The Regency on Upper Crescent is the kind of venue that does the work before a single word is spoken. All period detail and considered calm, it lent the afternoon an intimacy that a conventional conference room never could. Guests arrived to find the scene already set — local produce laid out, bespoke cocktails being prepared alongside a carefully chosen flight of three drams — and the effect was less seminar, more seanchas: the old tradition of gathering, of story, of knowledge passed between people who want to listen as much as they want to speak.

The session itself drew together some genuinely influential women from across the whiskey industry — voices from distillation, blending, production, ownership and corporate life — and gave the audience something increasingly rare at any drinks festival: unhurried access. From 3:30pm the conversation ranged freely across questions that matter — how the industry is changing, where the barriers still stand, and what it actually takes to build a career or a brand in a world that spent too long assuming whiskey was somebody else's drink. The phrase that lingered in the air, and rightly so, was a simple one: whiskey is no longer yer da's drink. Nobody in that room needed much convincing.

Three drams accompanied the discussion, each chosen to complement rather than distract — sipped slowly, returned to, talked about. The bespoke cocktail element added a lightness of touch that suited the afternoon's mood, and the local food pairings grounded everything in a sense of place. This was a session that understood its own tír — its own territory — and wore it well. For those who'd spent the rest of the week moving between tastings and masterclasses, there was something restorative about sitting down and simply listening to people who had earned the right to be heard.

This event was the first of six Regency collaborations woven through BWW2023, each designed to bring a different kind of intimacy to the festival programme. If you're curious about what the broader Regency series offered, the On the Couch with Paul Kane and Annie Bethell discussing Why Whiskey Clubs? session made for a compelling companion piece — different guests, same spirit of honest conversation. Elsewhere in the week, those with a taste for sweeping perspectives could lose themselves in Around the World in Eight Drams, while heritage-minded attendees found much to savour at Powers: History, Legacy & Taste.

What the Women Who Whiskey session offered, above everything else, was proof that the festival's ambitions extend well beyond the glass. Sláinte to everyone who filled that room on Upper Crescent — to the guests who shared their stories, and to the audience who came ready to hear them.