Penderyn Peated

It’s been a minute, let’s see if I can remember how to do this… It has been my experience to date that whisky shown peat in the form of a barrel previously housing plated whisky can have mixed outcomes. Sometimes good, sometimes less so. Here the Welsh druids have taken their own Welsh malt and introduced ex-Laphroaig quarter casks. I am hopeful that the Welsh and the Scots can get along well here… N: Unexpectantly bright and fresh. The subtlest hint of Germoline underlies a waxy furniture polish, vanilla, crisp green apple, and maybe a lemon-pine type affair. The smoke arrives relatively late for me, and when it does its dry and slightly vegetal, like crunchy brown leaves smouldering on a bonfire. P: Delicate but laced with savoury biscuity-vanillin, crisp apple and an SSB wine like gooseberry, lemon rind. A briny-salty-smoke dance plays like a fleeting summer there is the invocation of smoking fish on a pebble coast. F: More delicacy, a wonderful perfumed florally driven crispness is the take away message here. Brilliantly delicate with a lovely balance between the sweet and crisp malt and the powerhouse laphroaig barrel. The barrel has done in incredibly good job of supporting and elevating the malt without becoming a monster like the liquid that once filled it. It could be that the Welsh are onto something and I’m keen to track down some more of these liquids. Distiller whisky tastes #302 [Pictured here with a chunk of blue schist from the Isle of Anglesey in Wales. This (not so blue looking) rock is from a high pressure remnant of a subduction zone. Around 550 million years ago a cold slab of basaltic oceanic crust was subjected and reached very high temperatures at comparatively low temperatures, only 300-500 degrees C for 14 km of depth. The result of this subduction; metamorphic rocks packed full of beautiful blue glaucophane] Penderyn running scores Madeira: 4/5 Peated: 4/5

NOSE Spirity vanilla, fruit, smoke, SweetTarts and minerality. The spirity character pops at first, followed by the peat and then doubles back to become very prominent as it opens. PALATE Spirity vanilla, fruit, smoke, SweetTarts and minerality with a bit of melon rind and banana taffy. It’s a tad more complex, but the Penderyn Peated Single Malt is still dominated by that spirity profile. FINISH Medium -> Spirity, vanilla and banana taffy fade to minerally smoke.

Heavy peat on the tongue like you'd expect, but with a sweet fruit counter to it, almost tangy. Like lemon or something citrus. It's more juicy than sour, and a super weird contrast to the peat. Pretty light body, very different from your usual deep smoky complexity from islay scotches. The more I drink it the more the lemon shines brighter than the peat. Definitely not my favorite, but quite unique.

★★★★ Fumé en douceur! Encore un produit très intéressant à découvrir. La tourbe fumée et subtilement perceptible dans une finale qui nous surprend et qui nous agrémente délicieusement. On est extrêmement loin des scotches des Islay qui nous frappent d'une fumée omniprésente. Ici, c'est tout en délicatesse que la magie opère. Une belle découverte encore une fois.

Initially smells like Creme Brulée and apple pie, delicious, lots of orange zest on closer inspection with faint ashy undertones. On the palate, it's surprisingly peppery, but at the same time there's cooling notes of eucalyptus, then brine and peat. The finish continues peaty but with some sweetness to it. Wales makes decent whisky after all, good on you!

The fruitiness reminds me of Green Spot but without the single pot still creaminess. When you learn where the peat comes from it makes perfect sense…it’s understated (more of a seasoning than a main ingredient). I don’t usually think of whiskey as being refreshing, but this is. Nice afternoon pick-me-up.