taking a closer look at...
Once upon a time, not so very long ago, a farmer was propping up the bar in his local when the landlord asked him, " How would you like to go into business with me?"
The farmer, having sunk a fair few pints said "Yes".
As an afterthought he said,
"How much will it cost and when will I start making money?"
And the landlord said "A lot, and in about three years."
And that, very roughly, was part of the fairy- tale beginnings of
...the
Welsh Whisky Company.
Born out of the closure of Gwalia Wholesale, a licensed warehouse in Penderyn just inside the Brecon Beacons National Park, the collapse of a fully-equipped whiskey distribution factory near Brecon and the foresight and enthusiasm of a group of local businessmen and a farmer, the company is potentially one of the most exciting sales and tourism developments for Wales, let alone the Cynon Valley.

The Wales Tourist Board estimates that the company will bring into Wales an extra 15,000 visitors per year.

From left to right
Three of the directors of the Welsh Whisky Company:
Alan Collis, Steve Bird and Nick Clark
The company aims to target the upper end of the market with a top class product of quality and a unique angle on the Welsh gift market - authentic Welsh whisky.
Its pedigree is impeccable. It matures for three years in oak casks purchased from the Jack Daniels bourbon company of Kentucky, the grain is Maris Otter barley supplied by Brains Brewery in Cardiff, and as for the water - well, the water comes from the ground beneath the distillery itself.
Ideas for speciality spin-offs from the whisky include an organic honey with whisky, whisky liqueur chocolate and even whisky-flavoured ice-cream! There will be a blend of vodka and fruits of the forest called Dragon's Blood and a sumptuous cream liqueur called Merlin. Gin and vodka will be produced during the whisky's maturing period.
As well as the production of whisky, there will be a visitor centre from within which people will be able to view production. There will be a restaurant, gift shop, exhibition area and a Wales Tourist Board backed Tourist Information Centre. Groundwork Trust will be involved with the landscaping of the riverbanks, bridging the river and the creation of a picnic area. Sited close to the border of Cynon Valley and adjacent to the Arcway footpath which will link to the Taff Trail, the Welsh Whisky Company will provide an ideal focal point for the valley's tourism industry.
Work started earlier this year on the demolition of the Gwalia Warehouse and most of the old building material was crushed to form the hard core of the new building's two metre-foundations because the previous foundations were virtually non-existent. The ground was in extremely poor condition and yielded two and a half tonnes of stone that had to be removed prior to building work commencing; the river also had to be diverted.

To achieve genuine Welsh whisky a vital component is genuine Welsh water and W B and A D Morgan of Presteigne were employed to reach the parts that others could not!
Using a 380 millimetre bore to penetrate 80 - 100 metres deep, one of the most difficult parts of the operation has been where the bore has reached a layer of gravel and lost air pressure as the gravel slipped around evasively. In the meantime the bore operator had to stand by and literally take whatever was thrown at him!
When the drill hit rock, a grout backfill was inserted which went into the pores in the rock and created a sanitary seal. Eventually the water table was reached and linings were inserted. Then the pumping began, running two days continuously at first to clear out impurities. When whiskey production is in full swing, ten cubic metres an hour will be drawn off.
Part of the old Gwalia building still stands as a reception/storage area but it will be demolished to make way for the bonded warehouse which, at present, occupies the space where the visitor centre will allow visitors to see production at first hand.

Part of the bottling line of the Welsh Whisky Co.
The project director of the Welsh Whisky Company is engineer Nick Clark who is building the distillery and who directed the reconstruction of the amazingly complex pipework. Formerly a director of an engineering company in Harlow, this is Nick's first foray into distillery construction. His credentials are faultless, however; he likes nothing better than to relax with a wee - sorry, dwty - dram o'whisky!
A Clayton Steam Engine produces six bars of steam pressure within five minutes of starting up and it is the dry steam and vapour that is the secret of great whiskey as a finger dipped in a scoop from the spirit receiver will tell you!

The receiver stands adjacent to a warmly gleaming copper pot still which catches the impurities from the water vapour that circulates continuously between it and the receiver.

The maintenance of the distillery is minimal, with flexipipes and stainless steel everywhere. There are 30,000 bottles in the bonded warehouse at present and every bottle that comes in is washed not with water, the residue of which, left in the bottle, would affect the alcohol, but with a vodka solution! When peak production is reached there will be a maximum of 1500 bottles a day coming off the line in one shift.

To ensure that the legal aspect of the business is shipshape, the directors have appointed the retired Chief Customs Officer for Wales as the company's consultant.
Monitoring all stages of the distillation process is an EU-funded team from the University of Surrey led by chemical engineer Dr David Faraday, who is, incidentally, the great grandson four times removed of the famous Sir Michael Faraday.

The final say in the decision as to the optimum brew will belong to the Master Brewer, however, who has yet to have HER appointment confirmed!
Samples of the whisky have been sent to Scotland for 'nosing' by the world-renowned 'noser', Dr Jim Swan, who stated that the whisky produced by the Welsh Whisky Company has the potential 'to be among the sixteen best whiskies in the world'.

Arthur Davies, company secretary, said, " The process is right. It's now a matter of consistency. There's a honeyed element to the whiskey and with a little tweaking here and there, we can bring that mellowness out even more."

" We're not going to let this marvellous product go for nothing." said Nick Clark. It'll be on sale in the big supermarkets and we have contacts in Australia, Canada, Florida and Japan falling over themselves to be our agents.

By putting Wales very firmly on the whisky-producing map, the Welsh Whisky Company is assuring Cynon Valley its place as the capital.
For further details on Welsh Whisky click here.