Westland Garryana American Single Malt Whiskey pursues true provenance with the introduction of an entirely new species of oak to the world of whiskey. In our work, we create a record of the oak’s distinctive characteristics and reveal unique expressions of Pacific Northwest terroir. Edition 5 has a higher percentage of Garry Oak casks in the blend than any previous edition. Combining pale malt spirit with only peated spirit, it is also the simplest in construction. But that simplicity belies a depth of character that marries the unique flavours of each to create something altogether new.
Westland Distillery
Appearance
This American single malt is mid gold in colour, the swirl line on my stemmed tulip glass is very thick, and it drops a handfill of similarly thick legs.
Nose
Initial thoughts are that this dram has loads of red fruits on the nose, and a strawberry mivvi ice cream lolly. There is a hint of smoke coming through, with cocktail cherries, and a faint menthol aroma.
More time and a dustiness starts to come through, and at 50% ABV it noses higher. I have to juicy it does become juicier as time goes by, the smoke continues at the same strength.
Palate
Straight off the palate is nice and thick, and the palate is instantly spicy with a decent dollop of peat. Blimey it’s becoming spicier, lots of fruits in general, a bag of starburst sweets, cinnamon, spicy vanilla, black liquorice, syrup from a jar of cocktail cherries.
It’s as if the peat itself is spicy, they are so intertwined, and now we’ve got chocolate dipped strawberries, raisins, dark plums, and cough candy/aniseed.
Finish
The finish is long side of medium, and is a continuation of the bulk of the palate. It stays peaty and spicy and fruity until the end, with strawberry toffo’s, old school.
My thoughts
Westland are distillery iv’e had my eye on for a little while. The bottlings they produce have really interested me, and they’re available in the UK. I had the feeling that i may get on well with their whisky, and i do with this one. It is the only dram iv’e tasted from them, but what a dram it is. The palate is instantly everywhere, with loads going on, and it’s super viscous.
It’s not often i get a big surprise from a dram, this one caught me off guard. Even though it doesn’t come cheap, i’d definitely have a bottle, it’s a super find for me.
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