Penderyn Icons of Wales #10 – YMA O HYD

£40.00

(For the Wales World Cup group stages, if you buy both YMA O HYD, and PENDERYN MYTH 70cl from our Dragon Range, you can have 10% off! MYTH is available if you scroll down the page. Then use the code PENWC01 when you get to the cart.)

The 10th in Penderyn’s Icons Of Wales Edition whiskies is called YMA O HYD. This is a patriotic anthem, written by Dafydd Iwan, and has been adopted by the Red Wall (Welsh football supporters). This whisky was produced in partnership with FA Wales as their official whisky for the Wales campaign at the World Cup in 2022.

This 70cl bottle has an abv of 43% and is matured in American Rye Casks.

Tasting Notes

Nose: Fragrant, floral with baking spices, toffee, caramel, baked apples and pears.

Palate: Smooth with notes of sweet caramel, sultanas, baked apples with cinnamon; pepper & oak spices with a hint of ginger & cloves.

Finish: A caramel sweetness with herbal notes and peppery spices.

More Info

1958 was the last time Wales played in the World Cup, and one of the greatest footballers of all, Pele, scored the Brazil goal that knocked Wales out in the quarter-finals.

A long sixty-four years have passed since then, and despite near misses in 1978, 1986 and 1994, Wales have successfully qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2022.

The Red Wall of football fans passionately cheered the team through the qualifiers, bonding under the slogan – #TogetherStronger – and adopting YMA O HYD as their patriotic anthem, with its poetry and its epic chorus. The song was then adopted as a motivating anthem by the Wales players.

The song was written in 1981 by legendary folk singer, Dafydd Iwan. It reflects on the darkness that engulfed Wales after being a ‘whole nation’ under the Roman Emperor Macsen Wledig in 383AD. However, despite the melancholy, the metaphorical storms, the faint of heart and politicians, Wales will be here until the end of time and the Welsh language will live on.

The chorus rings out:

‘Ry’n ni yma o hyd/Er gwaetha pawb a phopeth/Ry’n ni yma o hyd’.

And translated into English:

‘We are still here/In spite of everyone and everything/We are still here’.

We are.

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