Category: Westland

[50.0%・NAS・Bottled in 2016・Official Bottling・Limited Release]

Nose:

Banana essence and lemon crisp strung together by a buttery shortbread note; just a wee bit of iodine in the background which becomes more prominent as time passes.  Some slight traces of ashes and vaporised rubber tyres, but mostly there is a curious presence of bubble gum.

Palate & Finish:

A whole lot of banana cream, fully ripen banana mushed with a splash of maple syrup, lemon jam alongside more bubblegum-y flavours.  The earthiness and ashiness are entirely domesticated and only arrive on the scene following the initial burst of can pineapples and fruit jam, with some charcoal barbecue note and a hint of cocoa dust on the side.

Green apples and banana jam, rather short finish

Thoughts:

Quirky and fun, a tad artificial perhaps but I have come to realise that may be it actually is the distillery’s identity; I wonder if their stocks will retain some of these interesting qualities once they get older..

-Nicholas

P.S. Cheers Mr. Lawrence for lending out the bottle, it’s much appreciated.

[46.0%・NAS・Bottled in 2016・Official Bottling・General Release]

The gentlemen at Alba Whisky were kind to send over a trio of samples from the popular Westland Distillery, based in Seattle, U.S.A.

Westland is perhaps the poster boy with respect to the new narrative in whisky production, known for utilizing various barley and yeast strains, it’s certainly an innovative distillery that intrigues a lot of whisky fans.

The American Single Malt is Westland’s flagship expression, the grain bill includes five different types of malts and it’s a vatting from whiskey aged in three types of casks for a minimum of two years.

Nose:

A vague maltiness bringing about an earthy presence on the nose, light char drawing out notes of ripe pineapples and poached white peaches.

Palate & Finish:

It’s lemony on the palate, with notes of kiwi jam and sun-dried mango slices painting a rather attractive vibe. A heavier earthy tone sets in, with the introduction of digestive biscuits. It grows lighter with the surfacing grassy note and a wee feinty note towards the back end.

Thoughts:

Based on the dram, the outlook of the distillery does appear to be rather positive. For a two year old, the dram does seem to offer more. The guys at Westland are certainly onto something..

–Nicholas