Penderyn 12 Year Old "Ex-Ruby Port Finish" Single Cask (PT136) Welsh Whiskey

As the year winds down, many discuss their top whiskies, the ones to acquire, to share with loved ones while celebrating a new year. Alongside the favorites, however, are the regrettable bottom-shelf disappointments – those that were poured out, saved for blending, or shared with adventurous friends willing to endure for science and the community. Let's begin this countdown of 2021's regrettable spirits, from ten to one, steering clear of gifts for those you cherish and reserving them for those you don't. 10. Glenfarclas 30 Year Old: While the 25 was exceptional, the 30 presented an alluring aroma that drew me in, only to assault my palate with the bitter, sharp taste of fruit and a screeching finish. For over $500 a bottle, such a harsh experience is unacceptable. 9. Deanston 17 Year Old Organic 2002 PX Finish: This tasted like a mix of sweet and sour juice, used matches, and a cinnamon challenge. 8. Loki Icelandic Single Malt: This spirit is akin to a gag gift, like a box of jelly beans where some beans surprisingly taste of excrement, urine-soaked hay, and moldy fruit. It offered a slight redeeming quality in the finish, but it wasn't enough to compensate for the offensive smell and taste. 7. Mars Lucky Cat "Mint": How could a bottle featuring a cat and costing nearly $1000 disappoint? This one did, presenting as a homemade grapefruit and lemon sorbet, tainted with cat litter and cigarette ash from the ice cream maker. 6. Proper No. Twelve: Does the idea of condensed, liquid fighter sweat beating up your tongue appeal? That was my experience with the bottle a friend purchased. Numbers 5-3 are awarded to the creators at LAWS for producing whiskies reminiscent of uncleaned Prohibition-era bathtub spirits. These are the whiskies that embody the D.A.R.E. program's message; you should simply say "No." 5. LAWS Centennial Straight Wheat: This tasted like chamomile tea brewed with bitter fruit, a musty aroma, and Vegemite on stale, moldy bread salvaged from a dumpster. 4. LAWS Four Grain: Imagine boiling kettle water with the scent of freshly polished shoes, Apple Jacks, used bandages, and kitty litter. 3. LAWS San Luis Valley Rye: It's a diluted knockoff of lemon cleaner, mixed with pickle juice, and used to scrub the grime from basic training hallways where a cigarette was just discarded. 2. Pure Scot Blend: I'm uncertain if this was genuine whisky. A friend never confirmed if they were deceiving me with cheap vodka and caramel coloring, but that's the impression it gave. We've reached the most offensive spirit on the 2021 list. It goes to: 1. Penderyn 12 Year Old Ruby Cask: This tastes like Everclear mixed with jungle juice, baked in the Texas sun for a year in a cask. Purchase this overpriced ($160) bottle solely for self-defense against intruders, as a form of mace. Happy holidays, and let's see what 2022 brings to the naughty list. Cheers!

Aroma: strawberry, acrid botanicals, cherry, vanilla cream, damp lawn, apple, cooked sugar, sulfur, grains, allspice, with significant alcohol burn. Palate: strawberry seed, damp lawn, spearmint, acrid botanicals, grains, caramel, vanilla, green apple, tart wood, lemon peel, with a significant alcohol bite. The finish is medium-short, featuring bitter strawberry, tart citrus, and grainy wood notes. This marks the beginning of a few Penderyn reviews slated for the next several days. My hope is that subsequent offerings will be an improvement. The aroma is fruity, herbaceous, and drying. The influence of the port finish is quite pronounced. Prominent strawberry is accompanied by cherry, vanilla, and a trace of sulfur. The palate is intensely bright and sour. Flavors of tannic strawberry seeds, bitter botanicals, and pithy, grainy citrus are abundant. This expression is not good. It's notably bright and young, and the port finish is excessively applied. Furthermore, and this is unusual for me to state, it's likely bottled at too high a proof. Many thanks to a friend for gifting me their bottle. I plan to experiment with various levels of dilution, hoping to achieve a more pleasing result. A friend proposed compiling a list of the year's worst whiskies. I'm publishing this in 2022 but will present it as my final review of 2021, as it will be included. Here, without further delay, are the least enjoyable whiskies I sampled in 2021. For evident reasons, all flavored and unaged spirits have been excluded. 10. The Busker: Triple Cask Triple Smooth 9. Proper Twelve: Irish Whiskey 8. Kilbrin: Irish Whiskey 7. Penderyn: 12 Year Ruby Cask 6. Cutty Sark: Prohibition Edition 5. Grangestone: Rum Finish 4. Shieldaig: The Classic Blended 3. Glen Ness: Single Malt 2. Floki: Icelandic Single Malt 1. Glen Logie: Blended Malt I still have haunting memories of that Glen Logie. To put it mildly, it was a unique experience.

I have consistently enjoyed these expensive US single cask releases from Penderyn, which are priced high for their age but offer intense, rich flavors. I've purchased nearly all of them, with only one being just above average but still quite pleasant. I'm hoping this one, aged for 4 years in an ex-bourbon barrel then an ex-ruby port cask for 8 years and bottled at a significant 60.38%, will be the best release yet. The aroma is an aggressive wave of bitterness, starting with pomegranate seeds, bitter melon, grapefruit, and orange pith. A slight relief comes with vanilla cream, followed by herbal notes, light barrel spices, and a strong ethanol burn. The taste has a thin mouthfeel and continues the aromatic profile, best described as a torturous, truth-telling blend of bitter napalm. It begins with pomegranate seeds, bitter melon, grapefruit, and orange pith, offering some respite with vanilla cream, then herbs that become excessively bitter and spicy mid-palate. This lingers with a high ethanol burn, and the medium-length finish includes vanilla cupcake, bitter melon, sautéed radishes, pomegranate seeds, strong spice, and a mix of fruit peels. This whiskey assaults the senses, with the only exception being its ruby color. It tastes like an extreme fruit punch made with Everclear, fruit peels, and jalapeños, having been aged in a cask for 12 months under the intense Texas summer sun before serving. The cask choices must have been terrible if this was the best option; it might serve as the most expensive drain cleaner I've bought and is a rare instance prompting the use of my 'upchuck' scale reserved for rotgut. Given that this is a pricey bottle of swill, I'm awarding it 2 cash and 2 upchucking emojis to signify expensive rotgut. 💰🤮💰🤮

I had high hopes going into this, as I normally love port finished whiskies and I hadn't tried Welsh whisky before. The aroma was dominated by ethanol, and at first there was a weird sour note and a grain-forwardness that made it feel more like a single grain than a single malt. In short, it was drinkable, but a hot mess. I'll consider this a case of "I wish I'd read the reviews first." It was especially disappointing given the price.

Unmixed: Meh.