Waking a sleeping GIANT

A slow drive along the North Wales Way, from the English border to Anglesey, reveals not only a land of incredible local food and castles, but a region that is slowly reimagining itself 

- David Atkinson

Angharad encouraged me to stick my nose deep into the barrel. 

"Go on," she smiled, "give it a good sniff. The Madeira wine one is my favourite." Somewhat fazed, I obliged and inhaled deeply while she talked the rest of the group through the process of using old bourbon and sherry casks to mature post-fermentation whisky.

"I was always a brandy girl, but I've come to appreciate the complexity of whisky," she told me as we headed to the tasting room for the end of our visit.

I had joined the distillery tour at Penderyn in Llandudno just days after Welsh whisky was awarded Protected Geographical Indication (UK GI) status - a recognition of its all-Welsh operation. It came as a revelation to me. After all, I'd visited North Wales many times before, first as a child and then later with my own children; in all that time, I'd enjoyed its castles, coastal walks and seaside breaks, but never its single malts before.

The all-female distillery team at Penderyn in Llandudno, along with the company's sister sites in Brecon and Swansea, will soon be producing up to 2.5m bottles of whisky each year, having recently beaten the Scottish and Irish to the plaudits at the Spirits Business World Whisky Awards. By the time I'd extracted my nose from the cask, I was already starting to see North Wales in a new light. But, then again, that was the idea all along.