It's here! In April, I wrote about an announcement by new Welsh distillers In the Welsh Wind. Their first whisky release is here, a 3 year old palo cortado release. You can see more about the distillery here, but now I can actually show you what the new whisky looks and tastes like!
Bottled at 48%, this first IWW whisky is a single malt aged in some kind of barrels (you would assume bourbon) before a finish in palo cortado. IWW holds a lot of promise as a single estate distillery, and also an innovator in Wales through their unique use of green barley (something normally only seen in Ireland, or with the Ed Gwenn in Brittany).
Tasting
On the nose, there's lemony citrus, meringue and whipped cream, a little straw. Once you hit the palate, the dram moves through a tangy sherry. It's different from other Palo Cortado cask whiskies that I've tried. The orange flavours are mustier, not as chocolatey as some others like Cley or Mosgaard. It's almost like German oak - maybe the PC cask used here was European oak, rather than more common PC-seasoned American oak.
The earthiness on the palate balances the sweetness of the nose very well. The sherry aromas have really transferred well from the cask for such a young whisky. When you go back to the nose afterwards, everything is even stronger. The citrus and grass aromas remind me of a Scottish Lowland malt, and the malty body of the spirit certainly seems more potent than a Penderyn. As the sherry fades away on the finish, there's a flavour I've only felt before when chewing raw malt grains.
The dram does have evidence of just how young the spirit is. There's the spicy sting in the nose of young whisky, a faint rubberiness when water is added, but neither ruins the experience at all. They are just reminders that this whiskey is short of its full potential.
Overall, this is a lovely start by IWW - a very good first limited release, especially compared to some distilleries who rush underaged spirit to market in their eagerness to just get something out there (*cough cough* Eden Mill *cough cough*). Yes, it is clearly young, but bottled at a good strength and already showing a strong underlying malt character, this IWW whisky is immediately promising.
No-one was planning 3 to be the perfect age for this whisky, so we just need to wait a little longer for it to hit its peak. Once it does, you should get on it. I'll certainly be keeping one eye on Ceredigion from now on!
Add comment
Comments