Whisky: Penderyn Single Malt Dragon Range "Legend"

Country/Region: Wales

ABV: 43%

Cask: Bourbon Barrel, Madeira Hogshead

Nose: Tropical lychees, juicy peaches, mild spirit prickle, woody popsicle sticks, subtle spice.

Palate: Medium-bodied, fruit cocktail, apricots, buttery, concrete and garden soil, mango at the end.

Finish: Medium-length tropical fruits and butter.

Score: 5

Image: Summer Popsicles and Pavement

Narrative & Notes: A summer dram if ever I had one; the aroma was all tinned fruits and tropical popsicles with lychees and peaches in syrup, mango popsicles, and woody popsicle sticks. Subtle notes of butter, nutmeg, walnut shells, and sesame floated in the background. The palate closely matched the aroma with syrup tinned fruits, perhaps a tad less tropical, though with more butter and earthy-stone notes of wet sunbaked concrete and garden soil. The flavors left me daydreaming about summer popsicles and poolside adventures. Mango appeared at the end as the dram took one more fruity bow.

I was impressed with how much flavor was packed into this core Penderyn single malt. The flavors immediately brought to mind prior experiences with the distillery— be they stunningly fruity and long-lasting, or perhaps a tad overly sweet. The flavor profile was recognizable, and they all had an element of the syrupy, sticky liquid on the bottom of tinned peaches or a canned fruit cocktail.

Overall, this was a fruity and delightful malt from the Welsh outfit at Penderyn. It was not the most complex dram, and I wish the finish lasted a bit longer, but it was a solid sipper and precisely what you want from a distillery’s core release.