We know we’ve got a lot of Penderyn fans amongst our members, so it with great excitement we announce the AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVE – the aptly named (and beautifully packaged) Penderyn ‘The Headliner’.
Every so often – about once a year – Penderyn release a new addition to their ‘Icons of Wales’ series. The ‘Icons’ are special, limited edition Penderyn expressions – each one celebrating a person, milestone or event from Welsh history with international significance. Previous editions of ‘the Icons’ celebrate such diverse ‘Welsh-ness’ as Poetry (Dylan Thomas), incredible Rugby trys, even the American Declaration of Independence (due to the number of Welsh ties in the signatories).
Last year we were able to secure the only Australian allocation of the Penderyn ‘Rhiannon’ and this year, we’ve followed up with the 9th in the ‘Icons of Wales’ series – The Headliner. This whisky celebrates the only Welsh British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George (1863-1945). Lloyd George was a social reformer, became a symbol of the national reawakening of Wales, and created more headlines than any other 20th century statesman.
However, David Lloyd George’s most defining and famous legacy (for us whisky lovers, at least!) is that he his considered the saviour of the modern UK whisky industry. Which is even more remarkable in that he was an avowed teetotaller!
In 1915, responding to the ‘Shell Crisis’ facing Britain in the second year of WW1 (where it was expending ammunition much quicker than it was producing it) Lloyd George stated “Drink is doing more damage in the war than all the German submarines put together.” By this he meant that the amount of public drunkenness and drinking was significantly impacting the manufacturing efficiency of the UK as a whole.
And so, in 1915, in his role as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he rolled the ‘The Immature Spirits (Restriction) Act 1915’ into law. This act legislated for the first time that the alcohol must be matured in oak casks for a minimum of three years and one day. Lloyd George had hoped this act would shut the UK whisky industry down forever by eliminating it’s ability to sell young – or even un-aged spirit, which many producers had no qualms about doing to turn a fast quid.
The Act certainly worked at first, with many of the 130 operating distilleries in Scotland closing down shortly after it’s introduction. But there were also enough distilleries that had been focussing on quality and thus could trade through the act (ie. did have matured whisky in stock). Unfortunately for Lloyd George, rather quickly the reputation of ‘Scotch’ as a premium product (specifically because it was all aged in wood for at least 3 years) grew around the world and it wasn’t too long before many of those distilleries that had closed down, were purchased and opened again by investors and corporations with pockets deep enough to fund the ‘lean years’ as the new spirit matures.
Nose: Lovely summer stone fruits – cherries, plumbs and peaches with a hint of tart pineapple. But there’s more than just fruit here – jube lollies, floral jasmine wafts and a hint of petrichor there as well.
Palate: Crispy clean mouthfeel, with just a hint of pepper. The sweet notes on the nose don’t really carry through here as promised – it’s quite a dry affair actually. There is sweetness at first, don’t get me wrong – but it’s soon overtaken by sharp, crunchy fruit notes (think granny smith apple) backed with mild tannin-astringency.
Finish: Lovely fruitiness with a sugar-gum sweetness comes through at the end but is given some pleasant edges by the white pepper notes. Crisp and clean spirit with a nice tartness that just begs to go around again as your noseing the next one.
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