
September 30, 2016

Westland from the West

Westland. Good and great enough to deserve a whole wee session, instead of being part of yet another unlikely ‘all-American’ one.

Westland (54.4%, OB, for LMDW 60th Anniversary, USA, single malt, cask #397, 232 bottles, 2016)

Not too sure about the outturn. The first, but not the last whisky bottled for La Maison’s 60th Anniversary that we’ll try. Colour: gold. Nose: pretty amazing, you’d think you’re entering an old Chinese antique shop. Incense, burning fir wood, wax polish, thuja wood, leather, prune sauce, masala (yeah I know that’s not Chinese), raw chocolate… It really is amazing how they managed to build an unseen (well, un-nosed) style that never, ever screams ‘I’m too young’. Because this is young, obviously… With water: chalk and wood smoke, perhaps benzoin… Mouth (neat): I think I’ve never been so glad to taste this much new oak in any whisky. Fantastic spices, ginger, cloves, mint, liquorice, tobacco, those Chinese spices again (between caraway and fennel seeds, perhaps)… This ought to be unbalanced, and yet it’s not. With water: gets sweeter, with bitter and regular oranges, and perhaps a little tamarind. It’s crazy how it became fresher and almost ‘light’, in the best sense of that word. Finish: long, back to spices. Caraway and ginger in chocolate and tobacco. Lovely mentholated and smoky aftertaste. Up up up! Comments: so far from being some new whisky for hipsters, this has depth and style. It’s peated, but the peat is totally integrated. SGP:453 - 89 points.

Westland 25 mo (58%, OB, USA, single malt, cask #312, 288 bottles, 2014)

This one came from a first-fill PX sherry hogshead. Hit or miss in my book… Colour: gold. Nose: it’s got less oak than the new cask 317, and many more raisins, which was to be expected, I suppose. Now this feeling of coffee ‘enriched’ with brandy de Jerez works very well, much care has been put into this. Even if after five minutes, it just smells of… very old Pedro Ximenez. With water: oh, it goes towards oloroso! Walnut spirit aged in oak. Mouth (neat): frankly, I’m not too sure. This much pepper in this much PX and coffee make this little baby really extreme, and pretty un-whisky. It seems that they filled very few such casks, and I’m not sure that was a bad idea. With water: too many raisins for me. Finish: long, sweet, syrupy, a tad cloying. Coffee, sugar and schnapps. Comments: hurray, I found a Westland I didn’t like! The nose was interesting, but the palate was just too ‘invasive’ for me. SGP:741 - 72 points.

Westland 28 mo (54%, OB, USA, single malt, cask #242, 223 bottles, 2014)

This baby out of new American oak. Excuse me? Right, those were 18-month air-dried staves, #3 char. And as always, Belgian brewer’s yeast and long fermentation (144 hours). Colour: gold. Nose: all right! You would think this is twelve years old ex-bourbon Yamazaki, honest. After all, Japan isn’t that far from Seattle, is it? Custard, cakes, marmalade, earl grey tea, blond cigarettes, white chocolate, cedar wood. With water: vorsicht, a lot of saponification taking place, but after ten minutes, we find a lot of chocolate and, wait, Nutella? Mouth (neat): perfect. Pineapples and lemons, then white pepper and cinnamon, then custard and biscuits. The ones you eat with Champagne, we call them boudoirs (sponge fingers). With water: same-ish. Perhaps a tad more citrusy. Finish: long, clean, classic. Could have been artisan Glenmo as well. Comments: probably the least singular this far, but everything was pretty perfect. SGP:551 - 87 points.

Westland ‘Garryana Edition 1/1’ (56.2%, OB, USA, single malt, 2500 bottles, 2016)

A brand new larger batch, matured in garry oak, which is a native oak tree from the northwest of America. It is a long story, which you’d better read on the distillers’ own website (it’s very excellent, probably one of the best no-BS brand websites out there.) Colour: gold. Nose: extremely tight, compact, focussed, and perhaps even simple. But it’s a perfect simplicity (how many times have I already used the word perfect today?) Orange cake covered with cloves and cinnamon and drizzled with Jamaican rum. Yes. And they added pieces of bacon! (figuratively). With water: we’re going back towards traditional American oak. Mouth (neat): isn’t Garryana just another word for lemon tree? Because this is lemony, then more candied, on candied ginger, then oakier, with a drying side. Strong black tea. With water: sweeter, lighter, fresher, fruitier. But some green tannins keep roaring in the background. Finish: long, rather spicy, and pretty ‘green’. Liquorice wood. The aftertaste is rather drying again, and the bacon is back. Comments: the oak feels a little too much for me, so it loses a bunch of points in my book, but other than that, all the rest is, yeah, pretty perfect. SGP:551 - 82 points.

Check the index of all Americans I've tasted so far