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.