Welsh whisky

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The Welsh Whisky Company, which began producing whisky in Wales in 2000.

Welsh whisky (Welsh: Wisgi Cymreig; alternative forms: wysgi, chwisgi) is a distilled spirit made in Wales since the 4th century. Modern Welsh whisky has been produced by the Penderyn Distillery since 2000 in the village of Penderyn in South Wales, which has revived the tradition of whisky distilling in Wales after an absence of more than 100 years.

1 History of Welsh whisky
2 Modern Welsh whisky
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History of Welsh whisky

The first recorded instance of whisky produced in Wales dates back to the 4th century when a man known as Reaullt Hir of Bardsey Island, off the North Wales coast, produced a spirit known as “aqua-vitae”, or gwirod in the Welsh language. The last distillery in Wales closed in 1984, and no whisky has been distilled until 2001.

[edit] Modern Welsh whisky

The modern industry got off to a very bad start. [1]

In the 1990s, the Brecon Brewery Limited produced Swn Y Mor (or Sound of the Sea) which claimed to be a Welsh product containing a Welsh distilled grain spirit, but the source of the spirit was a mystery because at the time there was distillery in Wales.

The company then went through various changes. Firstly "Brecon Brewery Limited", then "Welsh Whisky Ltd." and then "Welsh Distillers Limited". The aim was to distill a single malt whisky on Welsh soil under the label Prince of Wales. However, as with Swn Y Mor the product was in fact a blend of Scotch whiskies and not Welsh distilled at all and this led to a prosecution by the Scotch Whisky Association. On top of this, three of the company's directors were successfully prosecuted for duty fraud of over £250,000. Daffyd Gittins, a former founding director of the companies was also independentally caught up in allegations of entanglement in narcotics and jailed at about the same time. However, Gittins had been serious in his intent to establish a true distillery for the company. He had successfully secured a considerable amount of EU aid for the development of a new still for the company with technical help from the University of Surrey.

In 2000, Penderyn Distillery started production of the Penderyn single malt welsh whisky in Wales using the same EU funded still secured from the collapse of the former company. The first bottles went on sale on 1 March 2004 , Saint David's Day. It is now sold throughout the world and has won numerous industry awards^{[verification needed]}.

[edit] See also

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