aber bit of this

All right, let's do a quick whisky post. Wife and one child are away and I've got a quiet evening at home so what better way to cap it off than by using writing a blog post as an excuse for a whopping slug of distilled spirit.

This particular distilled spirit is from the Aber Falls distillery, right here in God's own country, Wales, albeit about as far from my home city of Newport as you can get without being in an entirely different country, or perhaps the sea. The distillery is in Abergwyngregyn and takes its name from a waterfall a couple of miles to the north, in the foothills of the Carneddau range on the edge of Eryri/Snowdonia. I personally have no strong feelings, incidentally, about whether you say Eryri or Snowdonia, just as I have no strong feelings about whether you say Brecon Beacons or Bannau Brycheiniog, and I guarantee no-one else does either despite the many column inches of manufactroversy that have been expended on the matter. 

You'll recall, of course, our visit to the Penderyn distillery in the foothills of the Brecon Beacons (or Bannau Brycheiniog; again, take your pick) back in 2010 following my purchase and consumption of a bottle the previous year. The Penderyn distillery was founded in 2000; the Aber Falls distillery is quite a bit newer with production starting in 2018. 

Anyway, I acquired this bottle as part of a gratifying haul of whisky at Christmas and my birthday - I've got the extended family pretty well trained now and it's almost exclusively books and whisky, the occasional rogue pair of socks aside.

It's not dissimilar to the Penderyn, actually; pale, evidently quite young, slightly more sweet and mellow and biscuity and slightly less pungently magic marker-y. It's been a while since I've drunk any Penderyn but I think if my memory of that is accurate then I like this one better. For all my tedious enthusiasm for all things Welsh, though, if you were to ask me whether this competes with some of the Scotch whiskies in a similar price bracket like, say, the entry-level Highland Park or Johnnie Walker Black Label, I would have to say: no, not really.