By today, the chairman of a Penderyn Distillery should be in Ukraine after a 44-hour journey.

On Tuesday, August 13, Penderyn Distillery chairman Nigel Short left ‘our beautiful rainy Carmarthenshire’ to commence the long haul to Ukraine.

The journey included an overnight stay in Bristol, followed by a three-hour flight to Eastern Poland, a two-hour drive to the border and then a 13-hour overnight train journey to Kiev.

He has promised to do some blogging along the way.

At Bristol airport, he joked that the favourite part of the trip was the “Ryanair dash across the tarmac, beating off your fellow passengers. I’ve been in training for weeks for this, and all to get the best seat, and access to the cheesy Wotsits!”

“A lot of people have asked me why I’m going to Ukraine,” said Nigel. “The easy answer is that I’m going to support our importers there. They buy a lot of Penderyn Whisky from us. Obviously the Ukrainians love Penderyn. 

“The longer answer is more complicated and I think I’ll need to come back to that during the trip, but it’s certainly something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, even if it’s just some small show of solidarity.”

Penderyn Distillery is the home of Welsh Whisky and produces award-winning single malt whiskies from three distilleries. HQ is in the Brecon Beacons. A second distillery opened in Llandudno in 2021, and a third at Swansea Copperworks in June 2023.