An Evening With… Penderyn

Last month, the Whisky Unplugged stars aligned as my favourite pub in Chester, The Brewery Tap, held a ticketed whisky tasting evening in the snug.

The Tap (as it is more commonly known) is an outstanding building with a fantastic history, dating back to medieval times. The main bar area is situated inside a former great hall with the huge original fireplace behind the bar. That long bar area has 8 casks and 6 kegs on regular rotation with a few staple taps available too, amongst a wide choice of bottles, cans, wines, ciders, spirits, and… more importantly for this post… whiskies.

The night came about after Matt, manager at The Tap, went for a tour and tasting at Penderyn’s second site in Llandudno earlier in the year. After enjoying the wares on offer, he wanted to host a tasting in The Tap. A few months on, and it’s happening. Our tickets included not just the whisky tasting itself but also a pint on arrival from any of the Spitting Feathers beers currently on (the brewery behind the pub), as well as a cheeky cheeseboard.

After a pint of Solstice and introductions made to our neighbouring tasters, our Penderyn rep for the evening, Richard Edwards, got things underway.

Each table was set up with Penderyn Glencairn glasses and water jugs, (sadly not to take home, despite the look on some of the punters’s faces) and a mini Penderyn tasting note brochure and pen (which were to take home).

The line-up for the night was the Penderyn Gold Range range of whiskies:

Having tasted each of the whiskies before (click on each link above for previous tasting notes – or search here for anything Penderyn-based), it was nice to go into a tasting and not be pre-occupied with taking notes, and just enjoy the whiskies side-by-side.

As a Penderyn Brand Ambassador, Rich knew his stuff. He quickly took us through the history of Penderyn and Welsh whisky, as well as the whisky making process. He gave us a load of insights that you can only ever really get from the brand themselves and the people who live it. I particularly enjoyed Rich regularly referring to their Faraday still in Penderyn as the “Rolls Royce of stills”.

Behind the 5 bottles of the Gold Range / Aur Cymru releases, my keen eye spotted a bottle of their Royal Welsh Whisky expression and a box of their Hiraeth release, both from their Icons of Wales series. Sadly, they were simply props for the talk – that was just greedy wishful thinking on my part anyway. The Royal Welsh bottle was used as a display of the last bottle of whisky produced in Wales before Penderyn started in 2000 (see my notes on the history and Royal Welsh whisky itself here) and the Hiraeth tube was used to safely transport the glass tubes of barley, grist, yeast, and water, i.e. the important stages/ingredients in the whisky making process.

The tasting did start with something that I had not tried before however: the Penderyn new make spirit. Having just a drop from a pipette (the stuff is rocket fuel, percentage-wise), it was noticeable however just how light, sweet, and fruity that base spirit was.

Whilst I didn’t take down proper notes per se, I did take notice of the following from tasting them side-by-side:

All have no age statement (though are essentially 3-4yo), no artificial colouring, and all are bottled at 46% ABV. That said that they do predominantly follow a similar pattern of production: the base spirit spends its initial time in an ex-Buffalo Trace bourbon barrel before it’s final few months in respective finishing cask, i.e. malmsy wine casks from Madeira for the Madeira, Oloroso Sherry for the Sherrywood, Burgundy Pinot Noir casks (which have gone through the STR process) for Rich Oak, Port pipes for the PortWood, and former peated Islay scotch whisky casks (which I think are Laphroaig casks) for the Peated.

Quick fire notes then:

Madeira: Pretty sweet off the bat, with toffee, vanilla, and nice fruity flavours (raisins and apples) present. Soft and light. Very easily drinkable.

Sherrywood: Noticeably bigger and fruitier flavours. Raisins and apples adding to a familiar body from the toffee and vanilla base. Still pretty light bodied, but definitely fuller flavours. The Sherry maybe adding more of a drying finish.

Rich Oak: Softer and creamier body with a similar profile again to the Madeira but with a definite emphasis on the oak flavour (hence the name really, rather than it going by a Pinot Noir / Red Wine title).

PortWood: A more robust body and definitely the fruitiest and richest tasting of the ones tasted so far. Red berries and chocolate flavours in addition to the similar notes from before.

Peated: Something entirely differently. Very light bodied, and – as always – a room-divider on the night. Very sweet smoke with apples and citrus on that slightly vanilla and fruity base.

My favourite on the night was the same as my favourite going in: PortWood. Richard did make remark about how some people may just say they prefer this one as it’s the most expensive of the range, but the price itself may just be because the port casks are more expensive to obtain. That said, the richer fruitier flavours do make it the most enjoyable to me. It was not unanimous though. In fact there were votes for each of them across the whole room. What I did discover though was a newfound respect for the flagship Madeira release though. My initial experiences with this were not so favourable, but a revisit may need to be in order. On the night here, it seemed really approachable and easy drinking, regardless of its age. It also always seems to be on offer in the UK supermarkets too (usually around £25 GBP when the deals are on). Some people on the night taking note and suggesting they’d be getting one soon. I imagine that if the tasting were in the distillery then a lot of money would have been spent. The same could be said for me but I actually went and bought a bottle of PortWood as a gift for my dad who attended with me – that being his favourite of the night too.

Overall, they really are all pretty enjoyable whiskies in their own right but especially so when getting to taste their flavours and differences side by side. It was a really well run tasting event and hats off to Richard being so informative and entertaining throughout and to Matt for arranging it and taking part too – and even taking orders from the bar from anyone interested! Top night.

Disclaimer: This was a ticketed event that I paid for as a regular punter. There’s no obligation to post anything and all notes are intended as an honest, fair, and independent review of the whisky and event – not a promotion. Please drink responsibly. Please drink wisely.