A new expression from distillery and, indeed, a new country for my whisky collection tonight.

This is Penderyn Peated from the Penderyn distillery in Wales.

It’s unusual compared to Scotch in that the distillery don’t mill their own malt (let alone malt the barley as some scottish ‘stills do). Neither do they make their own wash, instead they buy it from the Brains brewery, ready to go straight into the wash still.

To make a peated malt would be impossible in this manner, obviously the barley isn’t germinated with peat to make the wash that becomes beer. Instead, the spirit (or clearac as we call it in Jockland) is matured in refill casks from Islay, where it takes on it’s peaty character.

I don’t know how long the spirit is matured for, I would guess not very long! The whisky has flavours of very young spirit, pear drops, very tart citrus fruit and green apples. It’s grassy with very dry smoke, floral and tart a bit like an old-school Bunnahabhain.

Remarkable, I really like it. Quite different to anything else I’ve tried, imagine a peated light lowland and you might get close.

Whether that makes it a 3 or 4 I haven’t quite decided yet… I’ll have a couple more and pass judgement later on.

Slàinte! (If anyone knows the welsh equivalent please let me know!)

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