Review by: dustbunna
This year, Westland revamped their core from the old trio of American Oak, Peated, and Sherry Wood, to a new single bottling that mixes together all three of those styles. I picked up this bottle as they were clearing out those older stocks to make room for the new release, having enjoyed American Oak and wondering how the addition of peat would play with Westland’s flavor profile. Like all Westland’s releases, this has a mashbill of 100% malted barley. A portion of it is peated Scottish malted barley that they source from Baird’s Maltings in Inverness, and the remainder is Westland’s signature primary 5-malt blend; it’s unclear what the ratio of these two was, though Westland states the 5-malt percentage outweighed the peated malt.
Distillery: Westland.
Bottler: Distillery bottling.
Region: Pacific Northwest.
ABV: 46%.
Age: 3 years. Bottled in 2020.
Cask type: Vatting of new charred American oak and refill ex-Westland barrels.
Price: $70 USD.
Natural Color. Non-chill-filtered.
Bottle open across approx. 4 months, notes taken leisurely across that period. Bold notes taken beneath the shoulder, regular-formatted notes taken further into the bottle past the halfway point, italicized notes taken towards the heel.
Nose: fresh Rainier cherries, coffee, barley sugar, moss, gummy candies, petrichor.
Palate: more coffee, menthol in the background, strong floral notes, a bit of rubber in the background, more moss, ash, cherries come through following from the nose.
Finish: medium length ~ creamy, sweet smoke, still more coffee, cola, more rubber, a candy-sweet note on the tail end, smoke intensifies just a bit.
Conclusion: A nice variation on the standard Westland profile, and very clearly related to its old unpeated stablemate with coffee and fruit interplay throughout. (Rainier cherries, for anyone who hasn’t had them, have white flesh and are a bit brighter than standard cherries– they’re a memory I have from growing up in the Pacific Northwest.) I liked some things about this slightly more than the American Oak: the new oak influence seemed to have a bit less grip on the whisky here, and the Highland peat added some mossy nuance to the cherry-coffee core flavors. Decently enjoyable to sip on– I think it sits in the same score as American Oak for me, not quite nudging over to that point where I’d seek to replace this bottle directly (not that I could, with it having been discontinued), but I would seek out other Westlands in that price range exploring similar territory.
Final Score: 79.
Scoring Legend:
- 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
- 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
- 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
- 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
- 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
- 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
- 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
- 50-59: Save it for mixing.
- 0-49: Blech.
Malt Runners 