Welsh will make a rare bit of whiskey

The Welsh are about to rival the Irish and Scots by distilling their own whiskey for the first time in more than a century.

The first batch of peat-flavoured malt will be produced next month by the Welsh Whiskey Company with the help of funding from the European Commission and the Welsh Assembly at a distillery in Penderyn, on the edge of the Brecon Beacons.

It claims to use a "revolutionary" single distillation still that will initially produce 25,000 cases of whiskey a year. It will also make whiskey liqueurs, including one blended with cream to rival Irish varieties.

The Welsh have also stolen a march by producing the first "organic" whiskey distilled from organically grown barley.

Whiskey distilling died out in Wales in 1894 and the last attempt to bring it back ended in embarrassment two years ago after Scotch distillers won a court battle to prevent Scottish blends being bottled in Wales and sold as "Welsh whisky".