American Single Malt whiskies are gaining more and more attention. Whether it’s Colorado’s Stranahan’s or Seattle’s Westland Distillery, distillers are working hard to make the category as popular as other single malts.
In its quest to express the unique terroir of the Pacific Northwest, Westland’s Garryana series relies on the limited supply of the very rare Quercus garryana, a species of white oak that imparts a distinctive flavor profile to single malt whiskey. With the Saturday release (September 8) of Garryana 2018, Edition 3|1, Westland shows how how supply fluctuations challenged them.
Unlike the previous two editions, which married ratios of full-term matured Garry oak casks to traditional oak casks, the limited supply of Garry oak forced Master Distiller Matt Hofmann and Blender Shane Armstrong to employ a series of vattings and casks finishes for this year’s edition. The resulting whiskey features component whiskies that are each matured in a combination of casks. With a mash bill of 5-malt, Washington Select and heavily peated, the whiskey was aged in Garry oak, New American oak, 1st fill ex-bourbon, 1st fill ex-Port and refill ex-Westland casks.
“Each year, we must begin with assessing what is available to us, and then be open to following a path that the cask and the whiskies reveal,” explains Hofmann. “Because we cannot rely on a formula, we must be inventive in the ways we work with the supply in order to end up with a whiskey we are proud of.”
Just 1,638 bottles of Garryana 3|1 will be available in limited distribution nationwide for $149.99.
