[MM-MALTS-L] Penderyn malt whisky

[Peter Wood]

Anybody know what to make of this stuff?  I 've just tasted my first bottle
of Welsh whisky. Brief comments : a gentle slurpable sweetie but lacks grip
- and what's the Madeira finish all about? Caramel toffee, vanilla,
floral-fruity notes and a tad of spice - possibly the only whisky I've
tasted where you cannot detect serious flavour changes between 46% as
bottled and 23% dilution. Ho-hum.

I went to the Penderyn site to wade through the inevitable ballyhoo, but I
have to admit I awarded them 8/10 for geological presentation. So the water
from under the distillery comes from aquifers in Mississippian
Carboniferous calcareous sediments (miself I'm more of a Pennsylvanian
Carboniferous man, having grown up on the S. Lancs coalfield, but any port
in a storm). So they, along with Glenmorangie, are probably the only
distilleries using seriously hard water (virtually all spring water is hard
to some extent - even the famed soft Glenlivet springs). Does it have an
impact on the final whisky? Sod all probably.

They distill in something that sounds like a high-tech Lomond still (how
many plates do they have in the stills at the factory not far south of Loch
Lomond? can they beat 5?) and collect at 92% abv. Sheesh - another 2.8% and
the stuff would not legally qualify as whisky when matured. I love this
statement "our spirit is virtually free from these chemical compounds
[which I interpret as meaning flavoursome congenerics] and this fact
becomes crucial during the cask ageing". Damn right the casks are crucial
Penderyn - without the casks this would be vodka or similar white trash.

But what the hell, they have a photo to show that Charlie Prince of Wales
loves the stuff, and Laphroaig have a photo to show that Charlie Lord of
the Isles loves the stuff, and if Kernow could get serious about whisky
distilling Charlie Duke of Cornwall would be in there like a robber's dog too.

Still, like I said, Penderyn is very slurpable till it starts to cloy.

Peter Wood