Interview with Stephen Magennis
Global Head of Sales at The Echlinville Distillery and Dunville’s Irish Whiskey.
September 02 | 7 minute read
Dublin & Cork Airport Duty Free: Give us some background on The Echlinville Distillery and Dunville’s Irish Whiskey?
Stephen Magennis: Echlinville became the first Single Estate farm distillery in Ireland when it began production in 2013. The stillhouse, malting floor, cask warehouses and bottling facility are all situated amid our farmland on the Ards Peninsula in County Down, where we also grow and harvest our own barley.
Echlinville was among the first in a new wave of distilleries that spearheaded the Irish whiskey renaissance. Since then, we have established a reputation for quality and authenticity, particularly for our Dunville’s Irish Whiskey and Old Comber Whiskey brands – both heritage brands, which dominated Irish whiskey back in the 1800s and have now been revived under Echlinville’s guardianship and restored to their former glory.
Dunville’s in particular has really made its mark on the global whiskey industry, with well over one hundred global awards. Our sherry cask finishes have won Irish whiskey’s biggest accolade three times in the past four years, with Dunville’s picking up the overall winner’s title of Ireland’s Best Whiskey at the Irish Whiskey awards in 2023, 2025 and 2026. That’s an achievement we are hugely proud of, and it gives our customers the confidence that we are producing some of the best whiskeys in the world.
Dublin & Cork Airport Duty Free: Dunville’s has a long and fascinating history. Tell us more about that and how it affects your approach to whiskey making today?
Stephen Magennis: Dunville’s Irish Whiskey dates back to 1808 when it was founded by John Dunville in the city of Belfast. Five generations of the Dunville family led the brand’s growth at the famous Royal Irish Distilleries, and Dunville’s came to dominate the global whiskey industry. It was, and still is, a cornerstone of Irish whiskey heritage and its legacy can be found all over Belfast, Ireland and around the world.
When we revived Dunville’s around fifteen years ago, we did so with our sights set firmly on one outcome – to restore The Spirit of Belfast to its rightful place among the world’s best whiskeys.
We at Echlinville see ourselves as the guardians of the Dunville’s name. That means staying true to the brand’s proud heritage while finding new and innovative ways of doing things. It’s about balancing tradition and innovation. With more than two hundred years of history to rely on, we try to keep those traditions going. We are an independent company, which allows us to be 100% in control of the liquid, the packaging and everything in between. We do things the right way, not the easy way. Whiskey without compromise – that’s the ethos we live by.
Dunville’s was synonymous with quality from day one. From their iconic bottle and label designs, to their superior whiskey and marketing strategies that were way ahead of their time. We have kept the packaging very traditional, in keeping with the label designs of the mid 1800s, and we put a huge emphasis on the quality of the liquid and cask finishes. Exceptional Irish whiskey matured for long periods of time in the finest sherry casks.
Our award-winning single malts are matured for a minimum of 7-14 years in bourbon casks and then transferred into sherry hogsheads for a further 3-7 years. That’s what gives the ‘sherry bomb’ flavours that customers love and expect from Dunville’s.
We have a great team at the distillery – we are all passionate about whiskey, and sherry cask whiskey in particular. We look at brands like Glenfarclas, Glendronach and Glengoyne – the big sherry cask finishers - and try to produce that rich sherry cask aroma but in a sweeter style more symbolic Irish whiskey.
Dublin & Cork Airport Duty Free: What is special about these latest releases for the IWC? How would you describe these whiskeys?
Stephen Magennis: We are delighted to announce not one but two exclusive releases for the Irish Whiskey Collection. The first is a single cask bottling from Cask 4370 – a 12 year old single malt, matured in ex-Bourbon casks for 9 years and finished in an Oloroso sherry cask for a further 3 years. Bottled at cask strength 56.3% abv, Cask 4370 boasts notes of rich red fruits, banana and decadent chocolate, finishing with toasted almonds and buttery roasted hazelnuts.
Alongside this big hitter from our Single Cask Series, we are also launching a slightly lower strength bottling of the same 12 Year Old Oloroso Sherry Cask Finish expression. Bottled at Dunville’s standard 46% abv, customers can expect ripe banana, crème caramel with a rich nutty and luxurious chocolate finish.
Following our debut release for the IWC in 2025, these whiskeys further extend The Spirit of Belfast’s presence in this iconic collection and enhance Dunville’s visibility in Ireland’s principal airports.
Dublin & Cork Airport Duty Free: Dunville’s is renowned for its exceptional sherry cask finishes. Tell us more about the cask selection for this IWC release?
Stephen Magennis: Cask management and maturation are engrained in Dunville’s DNA. It’s what we’re best known for. We find the finest casks from bourbon to sherry to a more experimental cask like cherry, peach or apricot brandy for our Dunville’s 1808 Cask in Bond series, and then we wait.
We only release a cask when we believe it has hit its maximum potential. For single cask releases in particular – like Cask 4370 - we always bottle at the optimum abv for the best possibly quality and flavour.
For top tier releases, we believe the customer should be brought on a journey. All their senses - smell, taste and sight - should be challenged. From the choice of cask, to bottle design and packaging, we don’t compromise on quality at any stage of the process. This is why we are continually recognised as one of the best in the industry.
For these releases, our team worked closely with Dublin & Cork Duty Free’s Whiskey Ambassadors to ensure whiskeys that are truly worthy of their place in the Irish Whiskey Collection.
Firstly, we shortlisted a group of casks that were drinking particularly well and continued to monitor those very closely. Over time, we narrowed our focus to Oloroso Cask 4370 – a 12 year old single malt that stood out from the others. Then we sampled this at various strengths, eventually deciding that cask strength 56.3% abv best showcases this whiskey’s character and flavour profile.
We then selected two further Oloroso casks that perfectly complement each other, carefully blending the component parts to craft a 46% abv expression that sits beautifully alongside its cask strength counterpart, with similar aromas and flavours but a little less intense on the palate with lower abv allowing the lighter fruits to take centre stage.
We are delighted with both whiskeys and can’t wait to share them with your whiskey club members, from those who are already well acquainted with Dunville’s to anyone who might be trying our whiskeys for the first time.
Dublin & Cork Airport Duty Free: What else can we expect to see from Echlinville and Dunville’s?
Stephen Magennis: For Dunville’s, the future is bright and filled with new ideas and old traditions. There’s no denying that Irish Whiskey is facing some challenges, but Dunville’s is built upon a solid foundation of quality, character and authenticity and we are confident that the Spirit of Belfast will continue to go from strength to strength.
We are always expanding our core range of Exceptional Sherry Cask Finishes. It’s what we do best and will always be at the heart of our portfolio. Alongside that, our Dunville’s 1808 Casked In Bond Series has been particularly successful over the past few years, so you can expect to see more experimental finishes in our Casked In Bond collaborations with top venues and whiskey retailers around the world.
With regard to Dublin & Cork Duty Free, customers can expect to see Dunville’s and Echlinville’s presence continue to grow in-store, and we are planning an exclusive tasting experience just for Whiskey Club members. More on that at a later date!
And for those who are more of a pot still persuasion, we are working on a higher age statement expression of our single estate Old Comber Sing Pot Still Whiskey.
So as always, there’s a lot going on. But that’s just how we like it!
Dublin & Cork Airport Duty Free: Give us some background on The Echlinville Distillery and Dunville’s Irish Whiskey?
Stephen Magennis: Echlinville became the first Single Estate farm distillery in Ireland when it began production in 2013. The stillhouse, malting floor, cask warehouses and bottling facility are all situated amid our farmland on the Ards Peninsula in County Down, where we also grow and harvest our own barley.
Echlinville was among the first in a new wave of distilleries that spearheaded the Irish whiskey renaissance. Since then, we have established a reputation for quality and authenticity, particularly for our Dunville’s Irish Whiskey and Old Comber Whiskey brands – both heritage brands, which dominated Irish whiskey back in the 1800s and have now been revived under Echlinville’s guardianship and restored to their former glory.
Dunville’s in particular has really made its mark on the global whiskey industry, with well over one hundred global awards. Our sherry cask finishes have won Irish whiskey’s biggest accolade three times in the past four years, with Dunville’s picking up the overall winner’s title of Ireland’s Best Whiskey at the Irish Whiskey awards in 2023, 2025 and 2026. That’s an achievement we are hugely proud of, and it gives our customers the confidence that we are producing some of the best whiskeys in the world.
Dublin & Cork Airport Duty Free: Dunville’s has a long and fascinating history. Tell us more about that and how it affects your approach to whiskey making today?
Stephen Magennis: Dunville’s Irish Whiskey dates back to 1808 when it was founded by John Dunville in the city of Belfast. Five generations of the Dunville family led the brand’s growth at the famous Royal Irish Distilleries, and Dunville’s came to dominate the global whiskey industry. It was, and still is, a cornerstone of Irish whiskey heritage and its legacy can be found all over Belfast, Ireland and around the world.
When we revived Dunville’s around fifteen years ago, we did so with our sights set firmly on one outcome – to restore The Spirit of Belfast to its rightful place among the world’s best whiskeys.
We at Echlinville see ourselves as the guardians of the Dunville’s name. That means staying true to the brand’s proud heritage while finding new and innovative ways of doing things. It’s about balancing tradition and innovation. With more than two hundred years of history to rely on, we try to keep those traditions going. We are an independent company, which allows us to be 100% in control of the liquid, the packaging and everything in between. We do things the right way, not the easy way. Whiskey without compromise – that’s the ethos we live by.
Dunville’s was synonymous with quality from day one. From their iconic bottle and label designs, to their superior whiskey and marketing strategies that were way ahead of their time. We have kept the packaging very traditional, in keeping with the label designs of the mid 1800s, and we put a huge emphasis on the quality of the liquid and cask finishes. Exceptional Irish whiskey matured for long periods of time in the finest sherry casks.
Our award-winning single malts are matured for a minimum of 7-14 years in bourbon casks and then transferred into sherry hogsheads for a further 3-7 years. That’s what gives the ‘sherry bomb’ flavours that customers love and expect from Dunville’s.
We have a great team at the distillery – we are all passionate about whiskey, and sherry cask whiskey in particular. We look at brands like Glenfarclas, Glendronach and Glengoyne – the big sherry cask finishers - and try to produce that rich sherry cask aroma but in a sweeter style more symbolic Irish whiskey.
Dublin & Cork Airport Duty Free: What is special about these latest releases for the IWC? How would you describe these whiskeys?
Stephen Magennis: We are delighted to announce not one but two exclusive releases for the Irish Whiskey Collection. The first is a single cask bottling from Cask 4370 – a 12 year old single malt, matured in ex-Bourbon casks for 9 years and finished in an Oloroso sherry cask for a further 3 years. Bottled at cask strength 56.3% abv, Cask 4370 boasts notes of rich red fruits, banana and decadent chocolate, finishing with toasted almonds and buttery roasted hazelnuts.
Alongside this big hitter from our Single Cask Series, we are also launching a slightly lower strength bottling of the same 12 Year Old Oloroso Sherry Cask Finish expression. Bottled at Dunville’s standard 46% abv, customers can expect ripe banana, crème caramel with a rich nutty and luxurious chocolate finish.
Following our debut release for the IWC in 2025, these whiskeys further extend The Spirit of Belfast’s presence in this iconic collection and enhance Dunville’s visibility in Ireland’s principal airports.
Dublin & Cork Airport Duty Free: Dunville’s is renowned for its exceptional sherry cask finishes. Tell us more about the cask selection for this IWC release?
Stephen Magennis: Cask management and maturation are engrained in Dunville’s DNA. It’s what we’re best known for. We find the finest casks from bourbon to sherry to a more experimental cask like cherry, peach or apricot brandy for our Dunville’s 1808 Cask in Bond series, and then we wait.
We only release a cask when we believe it has hit its maximum potential. For single cask releases in particular – like Cask 4370 - we always bottle at the optimum abv for the best possibly quality and flavour.
For top tier releases, we believe the customer should be brought on a journey. All their senses - smell, taste and sight - should be challenged. From the choice of cask, to bottle design and packaging, we don’t compromise on quality at any stage of the process. This is why we are continually recognised as one of the best in the industry.
For these releases, our team worked closely with Dublin & Cork Duty Free’s Whiskey Ambassadors to ensure whiskeys that are truly worthy of their place in the Irish Whiskey Collection.
Firstly, we shortlisted a group of casks that were drinking particularly well and continued to monitor those very closely. Over time, we narrowed our focus to Oloroso Cask 4370 – a 12 year old single malt that stood out from the others. Then we sampled this at various strengths, eventually deciding that cask strength 56.3% abv best showcases this whiskey’s character and flavour profile.
We then selected two further Oloroso casks that perfectly complement each other, carefully blending the component parts to craft a 46% abv expression that sits beautifully alongside its cask strength counterpart, with similar aromas and flavours but a little less intense on the palate with lower abv allowing the lighter fruits to take centre stage.
We are delighted with both whiskeys and can’t wait to share them with your whiskey club members, from those who are already well acquainted with Dunville’s to anyone who might be trying our whiskeys for the first time.
Dublin & Cork Airport Duty Free: What else can we expect to see from Echlinville and Dunville’s?
Stephen Magennis: For Dunville’s, the future is bright and filled with new ideas and old traditions. There’s no denying that Irish Whiskey is facing some challenges, but Dunville’s is built upon a solid foundation of quality, character and authenticity and we are confident that the Spirit of Belfast will continue to go from strength to strength.
We are always expanding our core range of Exceptional Sherry Cask Finishes. It’s what we do best and will always be at the heart of our portfolio. Alongside that, our Dunville’s 1808 Casked In Bond Series has been particularly successful over the past few years, so you can expect to see more experimental finishes in our Casked In Bond collaborations with top venues and whiskey retailers around the world.
With regard to Dublin & Cork Duty Free, customers can expect to see Dunville’s and Echlinville’s presence continue to grow in-store, and we are planning an exclusive tasting experience just for Whiskey Club members. More on that at a later date!
And for those who are more of a pot still persuasion, we are working on a higher age statement expression of our single estate Old Comber Sing Pot Still Whiskey.
So as always, there’s a lot going on. But that’s just how we like it!