Monday, February 08, 2010

Malt Mission 2010 #380


Penderyn Aur Cymru
Madeira Finish
Single Malt Welsh Whisky
46% abv
£35
$70 USD


Writing very quickly as I am off to New Orleans in an hour. Congratulations, Saints!

This bit of Welsh gold was first released in 2004 and comes from Wales' only single malt distillery. Founded in 1998, Penderyn began distilling in 2000 and was recently visited by our friends at Whisky for Everyone. Follow that link for some great distillery facts and insight that will not be repeated here.

Instead, let's quickly look at the packaging. Somewhere between a bottle of Glenrothes and a bottle of Drakkar Noir, Penderyn comes in unique and striking package with gold lettering against a black backdrop with a window display that, through a clear glass bottle, proudly reveals the natural colour of the spirit. On the side of my bottle is a stamp that reads "released Mar 09", a useful piece of info, I think.

I think it is worth mentioning that the box emphasizes its country of origin, has plenty of Welsh language on it, and on the bottle itself reads, "this malt whisky is rare and precious, handcrafted and Madeira finished," bringing to the fore how little of this stuff exists, how it was made, in what barrels matured, rather than lofty tasting notes or lofty terms like authentic, traditional, or age-old.

Enough. Thanks to Luke for the sample and thanks to Karen and Mark at Whisky For Everyone for lifting the burden of explaining the unique distillation process at Penderyn. Again visit their post for more info. Now, let's drink.

TASTING NOTES:

Dried apricots, pears, malt extract, vanilla, and toffee. A sweet, light, and appetising nose.

New-make barley sweetness, raisins, butterscotch, and a woody finish.

SUMMARY:

Bright, light, refreshing spirit with pleasant youthful elements that drive the flavours, rather than oak extractive flavours like most whiskies the world over. Shows great potential as a bar whisky that could be consumed in volume... not that I condone that, but if you're the type of person to order a round of Jamesons, you might as well make 'em Penderyns.

Malt Mission #376

Malt Mission #377

Malt Mission #378
Malt Mission #379

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Monday, February 01, 2010

Malt Mission 2010 #379

Tuthilltown Hudson tasting notes
Hudson Single Malt Whiskey
Tuthilltown Distillery
46% abv
$40 (USD)

There is some real, old-fashioned, hand-crafted, family-run whiskey-making going on in the Hudson Valley. If it has taken you until now to realise it then, brother, there is no time to waste. While other American distilleries are working hard to replicate the hand-crafted, small operation aesthetic, these guys are the real thing.

Tuthilltown distillery is the first New York distillery since prohibition. They make spirit from several different mash bills, use serveral differently sized barrels for maturation, use heat from distillation to warm the maturation warehouse via baseboard heaters, and their wash is distilled with the solids after fermentation for a fuller flavour. Although I have not yet been to the distillery, I look forward to doing so and escaping the urban hum... but then I learned that at Tuthilltown they expose the maturing casks to deep bass sounds on a nightly basis, what distiller Gable Erenzo calls "sonic aging." Deep, man. Deep.

But the admirable hippydom gets even more apparent when you start asking about source grains, energy, and water; at Tuthilltown they have aspriations to be completely off the power grid, they re-use their heated water for as many purposes as possible before safely filtering and returning it from whence it came, and they source much of their grains from within a 10-mile radius of the distillery.

This whiskey is single malt in that it is made up of 100% barley. But unlike its Scottish cousin, this whisk(e)y was matured for only 6-10months and in small, new American oak barrels. They are also in the middle of a recruitment drive on Facebook, so join!

Although I had dinner with Gable and Cathy Erenzo a couple weeks ago where we chatted about many of the above details about his family distillery, much of this post was borrowed from The Whisk(e)y Apostle. (Thank you, Matt)

TASTING NOTES:

Warm, gravy-textured aromas that are sweet, woody, and grainy. Red delicious apples, kimmel seeds, wet cardboard, mushrooms, carrot cake, tree sap, sourdough. Very interesting stuff.

Spicy fresh wood flavours, some sweetness, but mainly driven by earthy flavours. Grass, oak, root vegetables, candlewax, pumpernickel, fennel, new leather, malty beer-like chewiness.

SUMMARY:

This is no big city "outta my way, I am really important and in a fucking rush" whiskey, this stuff was made to be sipped, shared, and enjoyed among friends. Slowly. And maybe smuggled across borders in those adorable 375ml bottles.

Malt Mission #376
Malt Mission #377
Malt Mission #378
Malt Mission #380

Malt Mission HOME