Review by: DemiTastes
I was ridiculously excited to get my hands on this release (and I remain ridiculously excited to see a release at some point which combines elements of Colere, Garryana, and Solum, but I digress). Solum was released in March 2023, but due to a conflict I missed the release party and only ended up buying a bottle of this a few months later, in May, at a event which previewed the then-upcoming release of Colere 3rd Edition (Review #75). This was one of those things that I was so excited for, and enjoyed so much, and wanted to keep sharing with people, that I couldn’t get past the hump of actually sitting down and doing tasting notes. Several attempts later I have finally forced myself to finish this review.
The “tradition” behind smoky whiskey is that some smoke would get into the kiln from whatever local fuel you’re burning to dry the barley (which happened to be peat in Scotland). This happened to impart a desirable flavor so measures weren’t necessarily taken to prevent this. One might extend this history to the idea that the best way to keep with tradition would be to use using local fuels like mesquite, hickory, and cherry wood to smoke barley for malts — and explorations into other sources of smoke such as mesquite have indeed yielded interesting results. Others feel that peat smoke in particular is the flavor that is most traditional and best suited to whiskey, and Scottish peat is taken as a foregone conclusion. However, there’s a third option: American Peat.
Up until relatively recently, when it came to peated American Single Malts, you generally either used Scottish-peat-malted barley or you didn’t make a smoky single malt. But what many people might not realize in the context of smoky whiskey is that United States also has quite a lot of peat bogs, which are either untouched for ecological reasons or impractical to develop for flavor, or used for purposes like gardening. With many successful examples of peated American Single Malt and the existence of American peat bogs, putting 2 and 2 together, “all” that remains is getting the peat and smoking the barley!
Though, there’s some important details: after all, not all peat bogs can be used, nor would they taste the same. Before you can make a whiskey, first you have to go about finding a peat bog, figuring out whether its smoke can impart a good flavor, finding someone to handle peat-smoking barley at scale, and figuring out whether the smoked malt, when aged, actually produces a palatable whiskey.
Westland Distillery partnered with Skagit Valley Malting to develop the only publicly-mineable peat bog in Washington State, located in the Shelton area on the south end of the Hood Canal, west of Seattle. Finding a malting house to handle peat smoke was no small ask either, so the partnership was pretty exclusive. In fact, the only other release to date of an American-peated single malt is Copperworks 042 which used the same Peated Skagit Valley Malt for that release. Skagit Valley Malting regrettably closed their doors earlier this year (discussion on Reddit) and both distilleries are seeking another malting house to partner with to provide Washington-peat-smoked malted barley for future use.
Let’s dig in on Solum, specifically:
Here are the specs of Solum Edition 1 from Westland’s Solum Page:
- CASK TYPES:
- Cooper’s Reserve New American Oak
- Cooper’s Select New American Oak
- First Fill ex-Bourbon
- MINIMUM MATURATION TIME: 41 Months
- GRAIN BILL: Skagit Valley Malting Peated Malt
- ABV: 50%
- TOTAL BOTTLED: 4,044
The back of the bottle reads:
Charting Peat
Peat is the essence of time, the history of earth itself, evidence of everything that lived in this place. Mysterious and brooding, dark and layered, it is perpetual life condensed. Set alight, that essence is transformed, that smoldering energy of thousands of years released in potent sinuous clouds.
Solum directly connects us to the primordial essence of the Pacific Northwest and explored its terroir through a rediscovery of the oldest style of whiskey.
The the Solum Edition 1 Product Page gives us this less-flowery description of the Solum product goals:
Our exploration of American peat began years ago, but Solum Edition 1 is the first time that work is ready to be shared. This limited annual bottling of fifteen casks is distilled entirely from American peated malt from our friends at Skagit Valley Malting. Matured in a combination of new and used oak casks, the resulting whiskey offers familiar peat notes alongside something entirely new, a marker leading us into the future of American peat.
I missed the release party of Solum Edition 1 because of a super early flight the next day, but I was able to taste this as part of the Outpost Range flight sampled at an /r/bourbon meetup at Westland Distillery on Friday, May 26th, 2023, and purchased a bottle of this whiskey to keep on my shelf and enjoy over time, with hopes of comparing it to many other Washington-peated releases to come, as well as other styles of smoked American Single Malt utilizing fuel sources other than traditional Scottish peat.
Distillery: Westland Distillery
Bottler: Westland Distillery
Region/Style: Washington / American Single Malt Whiskey
ABV: 50%
Age: 3 years (“41 months”)
Cask type: New American Oak & First Fill ex-Bourbon
Price: $149.99, or $183 after taxes in WA.
Color: 0.7 amber
Nose: Light background of woodland smoke, herb garden, and pine needles. Sweet and malty, faint pine, herbal, lightly spiced apple cider. Potpourri but light on the floral, hint of black pepper. Earthy and just a hint of smoke as of a campfire in a pine forest, or a distant smoldering pine branch.
Palate: Minimal burn, medium viscosity; this is a good proof for this expression. Excellent mouthfeel. Rich in flavor. Nicely sweet with pops of tartness and a zesty zing. Lemon candy, pear drops. Lemon zest. A backbone of earthiness and mild smoke with a hint of incense. A bit of mushroom. Hints of tea.
Finish: Long and lingering. A nice hug of warmth. A mild malty sweetness persists. Cardamom and fennel. Hints of green apple candy. Light smoke and smoldering pine needles. Hints of botanicals like you’d find in a craft bin: pepper, herbs, and green vegetation. Pop of lemon zest again. Sweet and pleasant all the way through. A note of herbal tea at the end. Lovely.
Conclusion: I knew I would love this for the specs as a peat lover and an American Single Malt geek. I wasn’t fully prepared for how great of a dram this would be in the glass. Westland’s price points are tough at times but this expression is well worth it in my opinion, not only for what it is, but also how it tastes. I’ve brought this out at tastings and parties and with family. These groups have wildly different taste in whiskey and the vast majority of people I’ve shared this with have named it their favorite. This bottle is disappearing far too quickly, but I can’t resist sharing it with people!
It is such a milestone in American Single Malt to see the development of American peat for peated American Single Malt Whiskey. I personally feel I must keep this on the shelf to refer back to as more and more American-peated expressions come to light.
Buy a bottle? Yes. 4/5 value. I’m going to buy another before they’re all gone! This milestone in American Single Malt is worth both displaying and tasting periodically as the category grows. And it’s tasty too.
Final Score: 93/100 – Incredible! A standout in its category and a favorite of mine.
(DemiTastes Review #80, ASMW #32)
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 
