Brecon Beacons Tourism

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Penderyn Distillery

Penderyn Distillery opened its doors to visitors in June 2008 with the launch of its new visitors’ facilities. The distillery is the only one in Wales and the first to legally distil a whisky spirit in the country for more than 100 years. This is the first time that members of the public will be able to visit the distillery and experience the distilling and bottling process.

In our Visitor Centre you can:

• See an exhibition of the history of whisky making in Wales including the last genuine Welsh Whisky from Frongoch, near Bala N.Wales
• View the distillation process at Penderyn that was designed by Dr David Faraday, a descendant of famous physicist Sir Michael Faraday
• Have an opportunity to understand the use of water and wood in making whisky
• View of the bottling line and bottling process
• Relax in the tasting room and sample the spirits
• Visit our retail shop for purchase of Penderyn Spirits and merchandise.

Penderyn Distillery is one of the smallest distilleries in the world and one of the few remaining independent distilleries. It takes its name from the old Welsh village in which it is located and nestles in the foothills of the ancient Brecon Beacons mountain range.

Here we produce just one cask per day of the finest malted barley spirit, which, when matured, is recognised worldwide as one of the finest malt whiskies. The majority of our spirit goes into cask for ageing in our cellars. Minute quantities are diverted to craft our other award-winning products.

We distil our barley wash at Penderyn Distillery in our unique copper still which was designed by Dr David Faraday, a descendent of Sir Michael Faraday.

The spirit is then filled into casks for maturation. We use the finest Buffalo Trace and Evan Williams bourbon casks for the first part of the maturation and we "finish" the whisky by transferring it into Madeira barriques from Portugal, that have previously held rich Madeira wine.

Each bottling of Penderyn is supervised by our Master Distiller, Dr Jim Swan, and our Distiller, Gillian Howell. They select suitable casks for each monthly bottling by nosing and tasting each individual barrel for quality. Only once the whisky has been approved does bottling take place.

All distillation, maturation and (unusually) bottling are carried out on the company’s premises, enabling close quality control to be applied to all stages of the process.

As each bottle comes off the bottling line it is hand polished by the production staff before being packed in its individual and award winning black and gold packaging ready for distribution to our customers.

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