Penderyn Distillery

Penderyn Distillery is the only distillery in Wales and the first to legally distil a whisky spirit in the country for more than 100 years.

Penderyn Distillery is one of the smallest distilleries in the world and one of the few remaining independent distilleries. It takes its name from the old Welsh village in which it is located and nestles in the foothills of the ancient Brecon Beacons mountain range.

Here we produce just one cask per day of the finest malted barley spirit, which, when matured, is recognised worldwide as one of the finest malt whiskies. The majority of our spirit goes into cask for ageing in our cellars. Minute quantities are diverted to craft our other award-winning products.

Each morning our unique copper pot still, designed by Dr David Faraday, a descendent of Sir Michael Faraday, is charged with the finest malted barley wash supplied by local brewers, Brains. As the steam heats the liquid it starts to bubble and the vapour rises into a copper column above the still. Eventually the spirit is piped to our spirit safe where it lands, literally drop by drop, over the course of the day.

The spirit is then filled into casks for maturation. We use the finest Buffalo Trace and Evan Williams bourbon casks for the first part of the maturation and we "finish" the whisky by transferring it into Madeira barriques from Portugal, that have previously held rich Madeira wine.

Each bottling of Penderyn is supervised by our Master Distiller, Dr Jim Swan. Suitable casks are selected for each monthly bottling by nosing and tasting each individual barrel for quality. Only once the whisky has been approved does bottling take place.

All distillation, maturation and (unusually) bottling are carried out on the company’s premises, enabling close quality control to be applied to all stages of the process.

As each bottle comes off the bottling line it is hand polished by the production staff before being packed in its individual and award winning black and gold packaging ready for distribution to our customers.

We have a small retail shop at the distillery which sells our full range of products as well as merchanise. We also have a visitor centre where you can:
• See an exhibition of the history of whisky making in Wales including the last genuine Welsh Whisky from Frongoch, near Bala N.Wales
• View the distillation process at Penderyn that was designed by Dr David Faraday, a descendant of famous physicist Sir Michael Faraday
• Have an opportunity to understand the use of water and wood in making whisky
• View of the bottling line and bottling process
• Relax in the tasting room and sample the spirits
• Visit our retail shop for purchase of Penderyn Spirits and merchandise.