Westland Sherry Wood

Westland Sherry Wood

Region: USA

ABV: 46.0%

Price: £65.90 

This is our first time covering Westland, so a brief primer is in order. Westland Distillery sits in Seattle’s industrial SoDo district. Founded in 2010 by Matt Hofmann and Emerson Lamb, it opened to the public in 2013 and has been part of Rémy Cointreau since early 2017.

Westland produces both peated and unpeated releases. All of the peated expressions use heavily peated malt sourced from Bairds Maltings in Inverness. The distillery mills on site with a roller mill, mashes a five-malt recipe (Washington Select Pale, Munich, Extra Special, Brown, and Pale Chocolate), and ferments with Belgian brewer’s yeast, typically for around 144 hours. The plant runs a 5,000 litre mash tun feeding five 10,000 litre washbacks, and distils on two Vendome copper pot stills: an approximately 7,560 litre wash still and a 5,670 litre spirit still.

Westland has always used standard casks, with no small-cask ageing. Most barrels come from Independent Stave Company. Maturation originally took place on Washington’s coast at Hoquiam and now also takes place in Skagit Valley (Burlington).

For today’s review, we have chosen the “Sherry Wood” release, which, as the name suggests, is matured in Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez sherry casks.

Nose

The nose opens with fudge, tangerines, figs, prunes, lime zest and baked apples. The alcohol prickle is minimal, but this is unsurprising given the strength. Going back we find tobacco, maraschino cherries, treacle, crème brûlée and a hint of liquorice. Pleasant, but hardly the most complex dram we’ve ever nosed.

Palate

The palate has chocolate orange, toffee apples and brown sugar to start. Lightly roasted espresso appears on the mid palate along with cherries, Manuka honey and red apples. The finish is medium length, mixing a little coffee bitterness with residual sweetness, bringing to mind coffee Revels and orange peel. The mouthfeel is a touch lacking and there is a late spike of spice at the very end of the finish.

Nose (with water)

The reduced nose brings red cola, oak, Big Red gum and Chinese five spice, trading away some of the sweeter fruit from before. There is still very little alcohol spice, but overall the nose feels more one dimensional now.

Palate (with water)

The reduced palate still has a sub par mouthfeel, though that final kick of spice is dialled back a bit. It’s turned a little more floral with a hint of flat Tizer, and like the nose it’s lost some of those fruitier notes.

Conclusion

There are some interesting flavours here and, despite the whisky’s youth, it does not show obviously on the nose or palate. That said, it is far from the most complex Westland we have tried, and the disappointing mouthfeel drags the score down a little. We are going with 6.5.

Score: 6.5/10

Value

This was never going to be able to compete with more pocket friendly Scotches that do not need importing to the UK, but it is competitively priced against other American single malts available here. If you’re interested in trying we have seen this in sales, and would suggest holding off for one.

• 10 - Perfection. One in a million
• 9 - Outstanding. Exceptional whisky.
• 8 - Great. Would seek this out.
• 7 - Good. Quality whisky.
• 6 - Above average. Happy to have a dram.
• 5 - Average. Drinkable whisky.
• 4 - Below average. Passable.
• 3 - Flawed. Noticeable negatives.
• 2 - Defective. Significant faults.
• 1 - Offensive. Pour it out.

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