Penderyn Madeira Finish

Aur Cymru means as much as Welsh Gold, which obviously refers to the single malt from Wales that you will find inside the bottle. It is Penderyn’s entry level malt. Penderyn is currently the only distillery in Wales. The malt was finished in Madeira casks. This is a Portugese fortified wine that keeps quite long. Madeira, by the way, is Portuguese for wood. This is a NAS expression, but someone whispered in my ear that the malt matured for 5 to 6 years. The nose is quite light, fruity, but with a bittersweet smell of rotting oranges or overripe grapes. I even get some smoked meat. Underneath is a lot of tropical fruit in the guise of melon, mango and even some kiwi. Loads of freshly sawn wood as well. Touch of vanilla. After a few moments the smoked meat turns into praliné. But the sweet and sour notes dominate. It has a good body, but is also quite spicy and even a tad sharp (being so you, that is easily forgiven). The unpleasantness from the nose turns into quite a pleasant palate. Yes, this is quite good in fact. I am reminded a bit of Bushmills. A bit of pepper, some bitter oak, but mostly sweet fruit. Again the tropical variety. And oh so dangerously quaffable. From the second sip, this goes down like lemonade. The finish is not exactly long, but calling it short would be unfair. It remains bittersweet until the death, like an orange marmalade. The nose did not really convince me, but it is all good on the palate. More than good, in fact. I wonder what this would taste like after fifteen years of maturation.

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