World Whiskies Awards 2018 for Northern Ireland

Two Northern Irish producers of Irish whiskey have won major awards in this year's World Whiskies Awards.

The two whiskies from Northern Ireland are from Echlinville from Kircubbin in county Down and Derry's The Quiet Man.

Echlinville's Dunville 17-year-old VR rum finish was selected as the winner in the category for 13-20 year-old whiskies. The distillery's Dunville PX 10-year-old gained gold in the Single Malt 12 years and under.

Dunville Three Crowns Peated Whiskey also won gold in the category for blended whiskies aged 12 and under. Echlinville produced its first whiskey from grain grown on the company's estate last year and is also a producer of Echlinville and Jawbox gins.

Echlinville was the first distillery in Northern Ireland to be licensed in over a century. It relaunched the historic Dunville brand in 2016. Dunville was once one of Ireland's leading whiskey brands under it ceased production in the 1930s.

The Quiet Man also won gold in this category, as well as silver for its 12-year-old single malt in and bronze for its sherry finish. Both were in the category for single malts under 12 years-old.

The Quiet Man is completing a purpose-designed distillery, the first in Derry for more than a century, and will begin distilling whiskey and other spirits later this year.

The World Whiskies Awards are the global awards selecting the very best in all internationally recognised styles of whiskies.

Presented by Whisky Magazine the World Whiskies Awards select, reward and promote the world's best whiskies to consumers and trade across the globe.

Each whisky is tasted in its relevant style and region to identify and select the category winners. Judges making up the World Whiskies Awards panel include leading journalists, specialist drinks retailers and industry experts. Category winners are tasted against each other to identify the 'Best' Whiskies in each Style per region.

The 'Best' whiskies in each region are then tasted against each other one last time to select the World's Best Whiskies in each of the categories. Judges at this stage include those in Round 1 and 2 to whom are added a panel of leading distillers and experts from the whisky industry.