Seattle’s Westland distillery has made major changes to their portfolio over the last few years, but the latest change represents a major milestone: for the first time in its history, the distillery has put an age statement on a bottle.
For the tenth edition of Westland Garryana American Single Malt, the distillery marked the major milestone by using only whiskey 10 years and older, to create Westland Garryana 10th Edition. The Garryana experiment started back in November of 2011. Back then, the vague charge was essentially to trial and error the way to a consensus on how to use barrels made of Garryana oak (a rare American species of white oak).
Quercus garryana grows in a narrow range of mountainous regions in the Pac Northwest. As a whiskey ingredient, it exhibits specific flavors — a “powerful spice” that spurs Westland to make Dune references when discussing it. For nearly 15 years, the Westland team has been seeing what happens with Garryana oak barrels, and each edition of Westland Garryana has attempted to “build” on the previous year’s accomplishments.
The first edition was released in 2015 — the keystone in a brand building a reputation for their focus on terroir. It paid attention to local grains, local maltings, and local wood for locally coopered barrels. That meant Northwestern farmers, and peat and wood from the Pacific Northwest.
The nine previous iterations of this whisky have all been blends. All have employed other cask types to balance out the bold flavor imparted on whiskey by barrels made from garryana oak. Previous releases have included bourbon casks, sherry casks — pretty much anything you can think of that’s considered “standard” in the whiskey making world. For Garryana 10-Year, the distillery pulled from some of the best-performing cask types to create a wholly new whiskey. First and second fill garryana casks were blended together along with ex-bourbon, ex-rum, and Pedro Ximénez sherry casks to create the final spirit.
The result is a warm and rich whiskey dominated by a range of spices — equal parts mulled wine and pastry. Walnuts, dried tea, toffee and jammy hints of lemon and strawberry flesh out a whiskey ringing with clove and praline. Dark chocolate looms in the background, but never really overshadows brighter flavors. It’s a complex whiskey that defies any pigeonholing of styles — in other words, it’s delicious. Only 4,608 bottles of this whiskey have been filled, and while Westland’s products have never had the deserved fly-off-the-shelves demand that other American whiskey brands have achieved, it’s likely the case that this year’s big age statement will turn additional heads.
With an MSRP of $150, it may be the best value for an American Single malt this year, and an unmissable bottle if you’ve been following the growth of American Single malt for the last decade. But even if you haven’t listed ASM as one of your favorite styles in the past, this bottle is a must-try — and a testament to exactly how much undiscovered potential still exists in grain, wood, and time.
G. Clay Whittaker is a Maxim contributor covering lifestyle, whiskey, cannabis and travel. His work has also appeared in Bon Appetit, Men’s Journal, Cigar Aficionado, Playboy and Esquire. Subscribe to his newsletter Drinks & Stuff for whiskey reviews and trends, perspectives on drinks, and stuff.
