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Westland Distillery’s ambitious Garryana series relies on the limited supply of the very rare Quercus garryana, a species of white oak particular to the Pacific Northwest that imparts a distinctive flavor profile to single malt whiskey. With the September 8 release of Garryana 2018, Edition 3|1, Westland reveals how supply fluctuations can challenge the distilling team to evolve the series in new directions.
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, producing a complex integrated flavor profile. 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.”
Garryana Edition 3|1 2018 was bottled at 112 proof (56% ABV), and will is priced at $149.99 for a 750ml bottle. The yield this time is just 1,638 bottles.
