Penderyn 12 Year Old "Ex-Ruby Port Finish" Single Cask (PT136) Welsh Whiskey

Straight: Ehh

Had high hopes going into this, given that I normally love port finished whiskies, and I hadn't tried Welsh whisky before. The nose is dominated by ethanol, and at first there's a weird sour note and a grain forwardness that makes it feel more like a single grain than a single malt. In short, it's drinkable, but it's a hot mess. I'll chalk this down as "I wish I'd read the reviews first". Especially disappointing considering the price.

Nose - strawberry, bitter herbal notes, cherry, vanilla cream, wet grass, apple, prepared caramel, sulphur, cereal grain, allspice, moderate to high ethanol burn. Taste - strawberry seed, wet grass, spearmint, bitter herbal notes, cereal grain, caramel, vanilla, green apple, sour oak, lemon pith, moderate to high alcohol bite, finishing medium short with bitter strawberry, sour citrus, and grainy oak flavors. This begins a short series of Penderyn reviews I’ll be posting over the coming days. I’m hoping they’re all uphill from here on out. The nose is fruity, herbaceous, and drying. The port finish is very heavy-handed. Bright strawberry dominates with cherry, vanilla, and a hint of sulphur. The palate is extremely bright and sour. Tannic strawberry seeds, bitter herbal and pithy, grainy citrus flavors abound. This is not good. It’s seriously bright and youthful, and the port finish is way overdone. And I don’t usually say this, but it’s probably bottled at a higher proof than it should be. Many thanks to @pkingmartin for gifting me his bottle. I’m going to play around with various amounts of dilution. Maybe I can get this one dialed in correctly. @pkingmartin had the great idea to share a list of Bottom 10 whiskies of the year. I’m posting this in 2022, but let’s pretend it’s my last of 2021 because I’m going to include it. So without further ado, here are the worst whiskies I reviewed in 2021. For obvious reasons, I’ve removed all flavored and unaged whiskies from the list. 10. The Busker: Triple Cask Triple Smooth 9. Proper Twelve: Irish Whiskey 8. Kilbrin: Irish Whiskey 7. Penderyn: 12 Year Ruby Cask 6. Cutty Sark: Prohibition Edition 5. Grangestone: Rum Finish 4. Shieldaig: The Classic Blended 3. Glen Ness: Single Malt 2. Floki: Icelandic Single Malt 1. Glen Logie: Blended Malt I still have nightmares about that Glen Logie. It’s a singular experience to put it nicely.

Around this time, people like to talk about their best whiskies of the year. The ones to buy, remark about another year past and enjoy with family and friends to ring in the next year but just as there is a nice list, there is also a naughty list of those bottom shelf disgraces that you either poured down a drain, created an infinity bottle blend or managed to send samples of to unsuspecting/curious friends that were willing to damage their tongues for science and the community. So, let’s go ahead and kick off this shit-show countdown from 10 down to 1 on 2021’s naughty list to keep away from the ones you love and give to those you don’t. 10. Glenfarclas 30 years- The 25 was so incredible, but yet the 30 did a siren song on the nose that lured me into my doom before laying siege to my tongue with bitter pithy fruit banshee screams. At $500+ for a bottle, there shouldn’t be any banshees in the bottle. 9. Deanston 17-year old Organic 2002 PX finish- A cocktail made out of sweet and sour juices, spent matchsticks and a cinnamon challenge. 8. Loki Icelandic Single Malt- This is almost gag gift level whisky, where you give someone a bag of jelly beans, but they don’t realize that the flavors are actually dung, animal urine-soaked hay and moldy fruits. At least it had a bit of a redeeming finish, but not nearly enough to make up for the smell or taste. 7. Mars Lucky Cat “Mint”- How could a bottle with a picture of a cat and price tag at nearly $1k today betray you? Well, this one did and tasted more like a kitty litter covered homemade grapefruit and lemon sorbet that some cigarette ash fell into when running the ice cream machine. 6. Proper Number Twelve- Do you like sweaty little UFC fighters coming in liquid form to beat the hell out of your tongue? Because that’s what the bottle @ContemplativeFox bought tasted like to me. Number 5-3 goes to the people at LAWS that decided to give the customer a recreation of what uncleaned bathtub whiskey from the prohibition era tasted like. These are whiskies that fall into the D.A.R.E. program and you really should just say “No” to them. 5. LAWS Centennial Straight Wheat- A chamomile tea brewed with bitter pithy fruits, bowling alley funk, and eating vegemite on trash can salvaged stale and moldy whole wheat bread. 4. LAWS Four Grain- Kiddy pool pee water soup that has been boiling on the stove with freshly polished black dress shoes, Apple Jacks cereal, used bandages and kitty litter. 3. LAWS San Luis Valley Rye- Military select knockoff lemon pledge that has been slightly watered-down using pickle juice and used in getting the nasty funk off the hallways in basic training barracks that the First Sergeant just threw his cigarette into. 2. Pure Scot Blend- I’m still not sure if this was a real whisky or not. @ContemplativeFox never let me know if he was tricking me with bottom shelf vodka with a splash of caramel coloring, but that’s what this one tastes like. We are now down to the final and most heinous whiskey of the 2021 shit-list. This goes to none other than: 1. Penderyn 12-year Ruby Cask- This is exactly what Everclear jungle juice baking in the Texas sun in a cask for about 1 year would taste like. Buy this overpriced ($160) bottle only for protection to be used on burglars as a form of mace. Happy holidays everyone and we’ll see what 2022 brings us for the naughty list. Cheers!!!

I’ve been an avid fan of these Penderyn single cask US releases which are expensive for their age, but are worth it due to their intense rich flavors and have bought almost every one so far with only one being slightly above average but still rather enjoyable. So, here’s hoping this one that was aged in an ex-bourbon cask for 4 years before being transferred to an ex-ruby port cask for 8 years and bottled at a healthy 60.38% is the best release yet. On the nose, you’re assaulted by a bitter rampage that starts with pomegranate seeds, bitter melon, grapefruit and orange pith then comes some slight relief with vanilla cream before herbal notes along with light barrel spices and high ethanol burn. The taste is a thin mouthfeel and continuation of the nose that can only be described as a bitter napalm taste bud torture/truth telling formula starting with pomegranate seeds, bitter melon, grapefruit and orange pith then comes some slight relief of vanilla cream before herbal notes that turns extra bitter and spicy mid-palate that lingers with high ethanol burn finishing medium length with vanilla cupcake, bitter melon, sautéed radishes, pomegranate seeds, high spice and mélange of fruit pith. This whiskey is an assault on the senses, excluding only the visualization aspect of its ruby color that tastes like an everclear fruit punch with fruit peels and jalapeno peppers that aged in a cask for 12 months basking in the Texas summer sun before finally being served. The cask selections must have been exceptionally horrid if this was the best choice, as this might have a future as the most expensive Drano I’ve purchased and is a surprise occasion to pull out the upchuck scale reserved for swill. With this being an expensive bottle of swill, I’m going to be giving this 2 cash and 2 upchucking emojis to create the expensive swill indicator. 💰🤮💰🤮