Welsh Whiskey

Feb 17, 2012 Megan Eaves
Hungry Traveler

I love Wales. I love the food, the people, the fresh air. I've talked about the joys of Welsh food before here on the Hungry Traveler and I'm about to do it again.

That is because, last week, I had the fortune of visiting Southern Wales to attend a master class whisky tasting at Penderyn Distillery, the only whisky distillery in Wales. A glorious winter day sets me off on the short 2.5-hour train ride from London's Paddington Station to Newport, Wales, where I change for the short 20-minute journey onwards to my destination: Abergavenny (pronounced aber-guh-VEN-y). This small town sits on the cusp of the Brecon Beacon Mountains and, during the summer, it serves as a gateway to the national park for hikers, bikers and nature enthusiasts of all kinds. It is also a particularly interesting area for history buffs, as it is chock full of surprising anecdotes. During my visit, the local Abergavenny Museum is hosting an exhibition about the local British Resistance movement, which trained secret guerrilla soldiers to thwart a potential Nazi invasion of Britain during World War II, many of whom kept their identities secret even from their wives for decades to follow.

In addition to being a quaint little Welsh town, Abergavenny is also home to one of the best hotels in the country: the Angel Hotel, a place renowned for its award-winning high tea service and gourmet restaurant. After checking in at the charmingly rustic-but-boutiquey front desk, I wander around town and up to the impressive ruins of Abergavenny Castle (site of the Christmas Day Massacre in 1175) to work up an appetite for my 3pm tea service.

Time for Tea

Comfortably seated in the Wedgwood Room, a cozy event room currently serving as the restaurant while part of the hotel undergoes renovation, I am presented with an impressive list of teas that include everything from a simple "house" black tea to exotic fruit teas and Chinese green teas. I choose one enticingly named "Winter Flavours" - a dark, rich black tea with spicy overtones of cinnamon, plum and clover. It is served out of an Oriental-style black teapot into perfect British country porcelain teacups.

After a couple of minutes, the first round of treats arrives. One thing to note about traditional British high tea is that it's not just about the tea. In fact, it seems mostly to be an excuse to eat all manner of sweet and savory treats in the middle of the afternoon. The Angel's selection, which like everything in their restaurant, is made onsite from locally sourced ingredients, includes miniature sandwiches (the cucumber was a particular delight), cakes and pies all served on a three-tier platter. Instinctually, I dive into the sweets - a small eclair pops open into creamy goodness and a miniature berry crumble, still warm, virtually falls apart in my fingers. A tiny quiche offers incredible flavors for its small size, while the diminutive orange cream cake makes me instantly rethink my disdain for all things "orange" and "cream".

Whiskey Master Class

The following morning, a light snow is falling as we drive a short 40 minutes along the bottom of the Brecon Beacons to Penderyn (pronounced pen-DER-in). The small distillery opened in 2000, taking up the stead of the Welsh Whisky Co., which closed in the late 19th century with the onset of the temperance movement. Penderyn is the first (and now only) distillery in Wales to produce and sell whisky since then.

I take up a seat at a large oval table in a back room upstairs in the visitors center. The only other woman in the room is Gillian MacDonald, the head distiller here. The early-thirty-something is one of only a few women distillers making their way in the traditionally male-dominated whiskey industry and, she certainly holds her own with this crowd, which consists of a couple of local guys and an English bachelor party.

Though the usual distillery tours are available here at Penderyn, the draw of enrolling in one of these master classes is that you get to learn about the history and distilling process of whisky in-depth, as well as a proper tasting experience that includes learning to nose a number of scents and then identifying them in Penderyn's different brews. We also got a chance to go inside and get up close to Penderyn's still, which is unique in the world as the only single-pot whisky distiller. Though I could explain what that all means, a two-hour session in the master class will teach you WHILE you taste the whiskies it produces, so I'd highly recommend it.

At the end of our two hours, we've all become fast friends and Gillian brings us downstairs to Penderyn's in-house bar. Nothing is for sale here, so you have to sign up for one of the tours to get a splash of something. Because we're "VIPs", we get splashes of several somethings, including the Port Whisky (whisky aged in port casks) that Gillian has been talking up all morning (it's only available for sale on site at the distillery, to boot), as well as Penderyn's range of other alcoholic beverages, including gin and cream liqueur, which were created to sell during the first 3 years and 1 day that the distillery had to wait (by EU law) for their first batch to age in order for it to be sold as "whisky".

Abergavenny and Penderyn Distillery are only 3 hours from London by train, making it an easy trip to squeeze in to an overall visit to London or the UK. I even managed to squeeze in lunch and a delicious pint of locally brewed Brains ale during my homeward bound layover in Cardiff.

Trains depart from London Paddington Station regularly for Abergavenny and require a transfer in Newport. Return tickets shouldn’t cost more than about £40 round trip with advance purchase.

Double rooms at the stunning Angel Hotel go for upwards of £120 per night, including a 4-star breakfast, while the renowned afternoon tea costs £21 per person.

Penderyn Distillery’s visitor center is open daily from 9:30am to 4pm. Regular tours cost £6 and include two whisky tastings, while the master class I did costs £45 and includes a lovely gift (ours was a set of miniature samplers of each of Penderyn’s products: whisky, gin, cream liqueur and vodka).