A single of our beloved Northwestern whiskey makers, Westland Distillery, is releasing its 2021 vintage of the award-winning Westland Garryana Edition. It’s time to get on the quirky bottle hunt yet again.
Garryana Edition 6 takes a slightly distinctive transform than earlier a long time: The 2021 release marries whiskey aged in brandy casks, sherry casks, and a 3rd group of casks built from the regional garryana oak species.
Garryana (or “Garry” as it’s sometimes termed) is a species of oak native to the Pacific Northwest. It’s a finicky grower and, from what the Westland Distillery team has indicated above the a long time, finding the suitable tree specimens for barrel making is a minimal like looking for truffles.
The wood is really worth the work, though—aging whiskey in barrels built of garryana adds a bit of nearby terroir. And above time, the wrestling whiskey develops outrageous flavors.
Garryana is a spicy wood, like cedar, that is simultaneously nutty, lending black walnut intonations in the whiskey produced with it. It’s not just a way to increase caramel and vanilla flavors, like the American white oak barrels bourbon is recognised for.
Edition 6 is a fantastic example of how to use it the right way. The brandy casks made use of this 12 months increase bright fruit flavors—big stone fruit notes that Westland Distillery calls apricot and we would contact pear. The sherry casks would commonly increase nutty, cooked fruit notes, but in this case muted PX sherry sharpens the flavors of roasted malt and molasses.
On the spectrum of “unique” in the whiskey globe, Garryana is in the vicinity of the excessive. And as you could possibly suspect, this whiskey has a cult subsequent, which grows on a yearly basis. That consists of its non-garryana merchandise as well Westland’s one cask releases are snapped up by the armfuls by lovers inside of driving distance of the distillery. And as much more whiskey drinkers develop into mindful, it’s only heading to get even worse.