Hello All,

The Mach 2016 meeting of the Grand Central Malt Whisky  Sept was held on Wednesday 30th March at our usual meeting place at TANK Bar and Restaurant 32 Turbot Street Brisbane.  We had a late minute withdrawal from Filip due to a family emergency, however he managed to leave the nights tibbles at the Bar.

The meeting got underway about 6.45pm.  The night was to be a Welsh event, with three different Penderyn Single Malt Welsh Whiskies.

We started with a Penderyn 41 Madeira Single Malt which had faint notes of raisins. However the nose belied the taste, it was soft and a bit non-entity initially with no noticeable after taste.  This changed to subdued notes of sweetness on later tasting after other tastes.

Second off the shelf was the  Penderyn Portwood Single Malt.  This had less nose that the Madeira but had a stronger taste with the port hint.  A port sweetness came through on subsequent samples.  Both the Madeira and Portwood came at 41% alcohol, which was not noticeable.

To round out the flight we had a Penderyn Madeira Single Malt which was packaged well and apart from different labelling appeared similar to the first taste, the nose being similar and the mouth feel being similar.  The difference was this sample was a 46% alcohol which gave  slight burn which soon disappeared.

The Welsh whiskies seem to owe more to their Irish cousins rather than their northern Scottish relatives.  They display a softness and subtlety of taste that is lost on most Islay and Highland followers.  They tend to be a little sweeter than most Scottish tastes. Interestingly they sell themselves as Welsh Whiskies to identify them from othes, similar to the Tasmanian whisky scene.

I claim that they are somewhat dangerous whiskies due to their soft subtle taste as it can become somewhat misleading and one could settle in front of the TV and have a few tibbles and then suddenly you find more than half a bottle has disappeared and you can’t get out of the chair to find the remote.  Cost wise, they were all under $100, and started at $85 for the Madeira 41.