Dragons | Whisky Lady

The host for our Bombay Malt and Cigar evening decided the whisky tasting theme would be “House of Dragons” with a rather clever mix of Wales and Taiwan. Represented by distilleries we’ve had more than an evening or two exploring – yet never together in this way.

Here’s what was selected for our celebration of Dragons:

Penderyn Hireath 46%
Kavalan Grand Reserve No. 1 Amontillado Sherry 40%
Kavalan Grand Reserve No. 2 Madeira & Port 40%

Up first was a limited-edition from Penderyn distillery in Wales. We’ve tasted several Penderyn expressions – including their Penderyn Dragon range – Legend, Myth, Celt 41%. So what did we think of their “Hireath”?

Penderyn Hireath (2021) 46% – Icon of Wales #8

Nose – Nice and juicy, lots of orange sherbet, a bit like an orange cream stick! Floral – predominantly jasmine, some balsa wood and pine, pink and white striped peppermint candy, overall light and fruity
Palate – Nice spice, warming, young, and wood forward
Finish – Light

Overall, it was pleasant, whilst not complex, not all whiskies need to be!

With the revisit, we found nibs candies, pineapple, and just very sweet.

Here’s what the folks at Penderyn have to say about this expression:

The 8th in our ‘Icons of Wales’ series was launched in December 2021 and commemorates the wonderful Welsh word, ‘Hiraeth’. Difficult to translate into English, some say ‘yearning’ or ‘homesickness’, but the BBC’s Roy Noble summed it up very nicely as: “a longing for your homeland, your heritage and your very being”.

This whisky is an ex-Bourbon cask finish and is bottled at 46% abv, and is the first time Penderyn have released a core range single malt using mainly spirit from the pot stills, which we introduced in 2014.

TASTING NOTES

Nose: Elegant and floral with light oak notes, vanilla, raisins, toffee apples, citrus peel and a hint of lime.
Taste: A delicate smooth single malt with honeyed fruits, vanilla, cinnamon spice and a hint of nutmeg.
Finish: Soft honey and vanilla notes fade to a malty finish.

It was a good start to our evening of dragons!

Next up was a travel retail pair from Taiwan’s Kavalan. In the past, we’ve explored their cask strength single cask Solist line, however, this time we went for the more commercially accessible range.

Kavalan Grand Reserve No. 1 Amontillado Sherry 40%

Nose – Stewed plum, quite Christmasy, lots of booze soaked raisins, sherry-forward with some tannins too
Palate – Very woody – almost too much.
Finish – Very dry, wood varnish, bitter
Water – It may seem strange to add a few drops of water to a whisky that is already at the lowest permitted ABV of 40%. However, it was so heavy that we had to try! And it helped a bit – subdued the raisins, enabled some apricots to come forward

We don’t normally comment on colour – however, this was such a remarkable dark ruby that it was worth noting, as it matched the intensity of flavours.

What do the official tasting notes say?

Rich notes of apricot jam, dried berries, and creamy caramel

I’d say yes to the dried berries, with water also the apricot jam, however, despite the sweetness, it wasn’t exactly creamy!

So what about the 2nd Grand Reserve?

Kavalan Grand Reserve No. 2 Madeira & Port 40%

Nose – Soaked alcohol prunes, green fruits like gooseberry, ground cherries, some sweet and some sour, sharp yet also honeyed, marzipaan, sugar-covered cherries, powdered sugar… that with water revealed some light maple syrup
Palate – Tart, cherry pits, woody, thin
Finish – Bitter, cigar
Water – It was missing something until we added water, then the Madeira and Port influences came forward

In many ways, it started out quite similar to the 1st Grand Reserve. However, with water, it was sweeter and more approachable.

Here are the official tasting notes: