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Welsh Whiskeys

No: 128
Operating Status: n/a

Gleaned from the Malts mailing list:

An article from Highland and Island Whisky Club Newsletter, summer 1982 notes Richard Lloyd Price's Welsh Whisky ad of 1896, with the following blast at the Irish and Scots competitors:

And Ireland and Scotia will both cease to boast
When Welsh "white eye" has got them both on toast
And this still-born idea will not perish still-born
When fame sounds Welsh Whisky's praise loud on the horn."

His distillery at Frangoch closed 2 years later. And if it stopped him writing poetry, then thank heavens for that! [ir 22/3.98]


Quite by coincidence, one of the lads at work gave me a minature of Swn Y Mor Welsh "whisky" last week. It was light, sweet, spirity and with a finish approximately 0.3 microseconds long. But recognisably Scotch! So I searched the net and came up with the following written in April this year.

"Some gloomier news now for employees at the local Whisky distillery, which also has a visitor centre which is very much on the Tourism map of Brecon. It was announced last week that the plant is closing with the loss of all jobs as the company is going into liquidation. There have been rumblings of things being far from welll at the plant for some time now, particularly since the high court hearing which found that the Swn Y Mor brand of whisky is not actually made in Wales, but in Scotland. All may not be lost, however, as the former owner of the business is being brought back to see whether a rescue package can be put together to save the business, or some parts of it, and at least some of the jobs." No doubt the Swn Y Mor distillery manager had been dabbling in poetry. [pw 22/3.98]


Here's another example of how confident the company was of the quality of the malt whisky from its Fron-goch distillery. Their very own 'tasting notes':

"..... the most wonderful whisky that ever drove the skeleton from the feast, or painted landscapes in the brain of man. It is the mingled souls of peat and barley, washed white within the rivers of the Treweryn. In it you will find the sunshine and shadow that chased each other over the billowy fields, the breath of June, the carol of the lark, the dew of night, the wealth of summer, the autumn's rich content, all golden with imprisoned light. Drink it, and you will hear the voice of men and maidens singing the "Harvest Home" mingled with the laughter of children. Drink it, and you will feel within your blood the startled dawns, the dreamy tawny dusks of perfect days. Drink it, and within your soul will burn the bardic fire of the Cymri, and their law-abiding earnestness."

Maybe we should ask Prince Charles permission to open his bottle and try for ourselves; it must have been mind-blowing stuff (;-) ... [ak 29/q3.98]

Search Dr. Do'g's index for the history of Welsh Whiskeys
There just might be some news about Welsh Whiskeys in The "Scotsman" newspaper