Penderyn Grand Slam Edition 2008

Penderyn distillery was founded in the Brecon Beacons national park in 2000 as the first legal whisky distillery in Wales for over a century. Penderyn released their first Welsh single malt whisky in 2004, and the distillery also makes vodka, gin and the popular Merlyn cream liqueur. Unconstrained by Scotch whisky regulations, Penderyn have revelled in their admirable capacity for innovation, with the distillery’s all-female distillation team using unusual stills and embracing cask finishing. 

Penderyn started out using a single Faraday still, which is essentially a hybrid of pot and continuous stills made up of a single pot and two columns that converts wash to new make in a single run. A second Faraday still was added in 2013 and these were joined by a pair of traditional pot stills the following year, enabling the distillery to create and experiment with a variety of spirit types.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.