Patience Pays For Dunville’s And Echlinville Distillery

Patience Pays For Dunville’s

And Echlinville Distillery

 We were told to expect sherry bombs from Dunville’s Jarlath Watson (right) during Sunday’s masterclass in Cask. No shortage of sherry influences but it seems Dunville are more about patience.

The patience is required to keep their spirit in cask until it is good and ready to go. And then they have a good steady climate (no extremes) in their corner of the Ards Peninsula, more temperate than even areas quite close to them.  

And Jarlath also spoke about the land, part of their own particular terroir. “We are a fifty acre working farm… we grow all our own barley… it is floor-malted (not the most economical method!)." And everything is done within a three mile radius. Thanks to their use of various sherry casks (an endangered species, by the way), they have many different expressions from their own micro-terroir.

This is all centered around the Echlinville Distillery. But while you can get Echlinville gin, you’ll have to wait for their whiskey. The makers have patience and that will have to extend to the customers! Maybe something later this year, if they are ready!

Dunville's is a old Belfast brand that they got in 2011 and fills the gap while waiting for Echlinville very own whiskey. All spirits for the Dunville are bought in and finished in sherry casks. Dunville’s has quite a fascinating story. Founded in 1808 and originally produced at the Royal Irish Distilleries in Belfast, Dunville’s was was among the world’s most famous whiskey brands until the distillery fell silent in 1936. Read more here.

Ready to roll in Cask

Now it is back and we started in Cask with their Three Crowns, an average age of 7 years, 70% grain and 30% malt “married after five years”. “It is lazy, mellow, chilled out, a light breakfast whiskey,’ said Jarlath, jokingly or not I don’t know!

Sherry didn't really feature in the next whiskey. This cask sample came via Dick Mac’s in Dingle where the casks had been used to produce the Kerry brewery's Honey & Hemp IPA. When they came back to Echlinville, they were filled and left for an expected six months. But they decided to keep it for another two years. Now they feel it is really finished and you may well be able to get their honey prominent whiskey in a couple of months.

Sample #3 was a favourite of mine, and quite a few others, and it is in bottle but you’ll have to travel to Fairley’s in Coleraine to get it as it was especially made for their “very old bar”. It is a 13 year old whiskey, raised in sherry casks from the bar, weighs in at 57% and is very impressive indeed.

On then to another different take, a whiskey made in a rather special Armagnac cask from Gascony (warning: don’t ask for Cognac if you’re in that area). Again Jarlath is expecting more from this one and is gambling on another two years, knowing that patience pays off sometimes as it did with the IPA.

“The big hitters are coming now,” said Jarlath as he introduced a 22-year old whiskey that has spent its last 6.5 or 7 years in Palo Cortado casks. Palo Cortado casks are very scare. “For every 6,000 bottles of sherry sold, just one is PC.” But going by this gorgeous drop, they are worth seeking out!

A 20-year old followed having spent the last 4.5 years in Oloroso cask and came with all the Christmas cake aromas and flavours you’d expect. And it was here that Jarlath reiterated their patient approach: “We don’t put it out too early. We keep it until ready… and then it should be excellent.”

There was one for the road and it was amazing. It was a 21-year old (finished for 3.5 to 4 years in Pedro Ximenez cask). The sweetness of the PX was a  feature of course but the distillery achieved a perfect balance. One to savour as we hit MacCurtain Street, the home of the superb Cork Whiskey festival 2023. Here’s to 2004!