Distillery

Westland whiskies

Westland is a distillery in Seattle, Washington State, a pioneer of American single malt whiskey. It makes its malts with different types of malted barley, including roasted malts like those used in beer, and matures them in new and used casks. Since 2016 it has belonged to the French group Rémy Cointreau, and it has become a benchmark for a category that keeps growing in the United States.

Founded
Owner
Rémy Cointreau
Origin
Other states, United States
In the catalogue
3 whiskies

History, style and where to startSee it on the world map

3 whiskies

Guide to Westland

History

Westland was born at the beginning of the 2010s with the ambition of making a malt with its own identity in the north-western United States, different from Scotch. Its founders were inspired by the area’s brewing culture and bet on blends of roasted malts and new American oak casks, something unusual in malt whisky. Over the years the distillery has also explored local peat and an oak native to the north-west, and has championed official recognition of American single malt as a category of its own. In 2016 it was bought by the Rémy Cointreau group.

House style

Westland’s malts are rich and full-bodied, with roasted cereal, cocoa, coffee, vanilla and fruit. New American oak gives them more sweetness and spice than a Scotch malt, and sherry casks or peat add dried fruit or smoke depending on the version. They are bottled at 46% ABV. It is a style very different from Scotch, close to dark beer.

Average flavour profile of its 3 whiskies in the catalogue

Sweet
3.0
Fresh fruit
2.2
Ripe and dried fruit
1.5
Floral and herbal
0.7
Cereal and malt
3.2
Vanilla and creamy
2.5
Oak
2.5
Spicy
2.2
Toasted
2.8
Smoky
1.0
Maritime
0.2
Body and intensity
3.0

Where to start

Start with Westland American Oak, the house’s benchmark malt. If you like sherried malts, try Sherry Wood, and if you are after smoke, Westland Peated. It is very interesting to compare them with a Scotch malt of the same style to see what new American oak brings. They are whiskies to drink neat, ideally slowly, and they surprise those who think malt can only be Scottish.

This text was generated and translated by AI and may contain errors. Founding year, owner and official website come partly from Wikidata.

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