Penderyn - Icons of Wales No 13 - Bad Wolf

Penderyn Icons of Wales No.13 Bad Wolf is a 10 year old single malt Welsh whisky bottled at 46% ABV. It is the thirteenth release in Penderyn Distillery's Icons of Wales series and was created to mark ten years of Bad Wolf, the Cardiff based film and television production company behind Doctor Who, His Dark Materials and A Discovery of Witches. This bottling is notable as Penderyn's first ever 10 year old single malt to be released within the core limited edition Icons of Wales range.

Penderyn whisky is made by the Welsh Whisky Company, founded in 1998 after a group of friends in a Hirwaun pub decided to bring whisky distilling back to Wales after a gap of more than a century. The first spirit was produced at the Penderyn distillery, in the Brecon Beacons National Park, in September 2000, using water drawn from the site's own natural spring and a single distinctive copper pot still. Bad Wolf, the studio this bottling celebrates, was founded in Cardiff in 2015 and has since grown into one of the UK's best known independent production companies, bringing major international titles to screen from its Welsh base, which makes this a fitting pairing of two prominent modern Welsh exports.

This whisky has been fully matured in old Tawny Port pipes, casks that previously held port wine for around 60 years, which lends it a particularly rich and fruit driven character. On the nose there are delicate floral notes of orange blossom and rose petal, developing into fruitcake, fig jam, red berries and stewed dark fruit. The palate brings marzipan, bittersweet marmalade and sea salt caramel, with sweet and saline notes working together, before a finish of dried apricot and gentle spice.

Given its depth and sweetness, Bad Wolf is best enjoyed neat, in a nosing glass, to allow its Port cask influence and dried fruit character to come through fully. It suits a slow, after dinner pour, and pairs well with dark chocolate, fruit cake, or a mature cheese board, where its marmalade and caramel notes find natural echoes. As a limited edition with a 10 year age statement, it is also a whisky suited to collectors and to fans of Bad Wolf's screen work alike.

Combining Penderyn's Welsh single malt credentials with a decade of storytelling from Bad Wolf Studios, Icons of Wales No.13 Bad Wolf is a well matured, richly flavoured whisky with a genuine story behind its name.