Westland’s New Garryana is One of the Best American Single Malts

Last year, Seattle’s Westland Distillery made the news when nearly a million dollars worth of its whiskey was stolen in a truck heist. That included a large number of bottles of its annual Garryana American single malt, one of the best examples of the category and the oldest to date from the distillery with a 10-year age statement. Westland managed to move on from this, although the crime remains unsolved, and now it’s back with the 11th Garryana release, another 10-year-old whiskey that marks the first time this expression has been bottled at cask strength since the inaugural edition.

Westland was founded in 2010, and has been making some of the best American single malt in the Pacific Northwest—and indeed the entire country—over the past 16 years. The distillery uses many different barley varietals and cask types to distill and age its whiskey, but the annual Garryana series is based around the use of casks made from Quercus garryana oak, a tree that is native to the Pacific Northwest. Similar to Japanese mizunara, garryana has an irregular grain that can be tough to work with, but is prized for the unique flavors with which it imbues whiskey.

Like past releases, only a portion of the whiskey in the Garryana release was aged in the titular oak due to the intense flavors that result from this type of maturation. According to the distillery team, half of the barrels used for this release were ex-beer casks from local Seattle breweries; 40 percent were garryana wood; and 10 percent were ex-Cognac. “This is the most pronounced iteration of beer casks in Garryana yet, creating a new conversation between the spirit structure and its supporting cast of barrels,” said master blender Shane Armstrong in a statement. “It adds a brighter expression of herbs and fruit before descending into more spice-driven realms. In simple terms, Garryana 11 embraces the transition from light to dark. If you taste it alongside our Beer Cask Finish releases, you’ll recognize how those threads connect.”

As you take your first sip, notes of chocolate, dark-roasted espresso beans, and orange zest are most prominent, followed by cinnamon, black pepper, brown sugar, cardamom, and caramel notes. As mentioned before, this is also the first cask-strength Garryana release since the first edition (most of the other editions were bottled at 100 proof). That whiskey was bottled at 112.4 proof, while the 11th edition comes in slightly higher at 113.6 proof (56.8 percent ABV)—strong but not overpowering, yielding a bit of heat on the back of your palate and finish. Just 4,200 bottles are being released this year (SRP $150), starting at the annual Release Day which takes place at the distillery on November 11.