The Still & The VineSchool of Wine & Spirits
Dunville's Very Rare 18 Year Old Single Malt PX Cask
Irish WhiskeyIssue 120

Dunville's Very Rare 18 Year Old Single Malt PX Cask

Dunville's · Echlinville Distillery (bottled); sourced malt aged and finished by Echlinville

92 proof18 Year OldCounty Down, Northern Ireland
A masterclass in restrained PX finishing — the cask enriches rather than smothers, and the 18 years of prior maturation give the spirit the backbone to hold its own. Beauty pulled from a brand that spent a century in the dark.

Kit Aromas

Tasting Notes

Nose

Dark honey and Pedro Ximénez raisin lead, followed by fig paste, roasted walnut, and a whisper of leather-bound old books. Beneath sits orange oil and a faint whiff of cocoa dust.

Palate

Dense and oily on entry — dried date, black cherry macerated in sherry, milk chocolate, and toasted almond. Mid-palate reveals clove, cracked pepper, and a resinous oak grip that keeps the sweetness honest.

Finish

Long and warming, with lingering espresso, bitter orange peel, and a final flicker of tobacco leaf. The sherry sweetness fades into dry, spiced oak.

Specifications
Distillation
Copper pot stills
Maturation
Matured in ex-bourbon casks, then finished in first-fill Pedro Ximénez sherry hogsheads
Single Pot Still
No
Chill-Filtered
Non-chill filtered
Serve & Pair

Cocktail Suggestion

The Royal Irish — 2 oz Dunville's 18 PX, 0.25 oz PX sherry, 2 dashes orange bitters, 1 dash Angostura. Stir over ice 30 seconds, strain into chilled coupe, express orange peel and drop in.

Food Pairing

Aged Coolea cheese with fig jam, or a slice of dense date and walnut cake.

The Story

Dunville's Belfast distillery fell silent in 1936 after decades of family tragedy and industry collapse, but the name was resurrected by County Down's Echlinville Distillery in 2012 — every bottle now a quiet act of restoration.

Train These Aromas
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