Westland Sherry Wood American Single Malt

Nose: Wonderfully balanced. The oloroso and px sherry casks are both playing together, alongside a classic honeyed toasted cereal grain character. Some candied lemon peel, raisins, and fig newtons. There's also a touch of icing in here. Suble herbal character is weaved in - more in the mint/thyme side of things. Palate: The character from the nose carries through quite well - the cask influence with raisins and toasted nuts is all there, but not cloying or overly phenolic. Vanilla, mint, citrus, and a touch of brown sugar. Orange peels come in, and a little smoke. Oak character, too, but not super dominant. Coats the whole palate, with plenty of mids and highs - low-end isn't the star of the show, but things don't necessarily feel "top-heavy". Oily, but medium-light mouthfeel. Finish: Banana bread with raisins and roasted walnuts. Fruit cake. Oak and vanilla then fill in some gaps. Icing with lemon zest, which we trail off with, along with sublte pops of phenol and thyme. Medium length. Other notes: For a finished product, this is really solid. Context is critical with this one - taken by itself, it's a solid finished single malt without any flaws. Perfectly enjoyable and fun to explore. But knowing this is an American product? Takes this to a whole different level. Westland has a reputation that is well earned, and I'm really excited to dive into more of their offerings. This is a good example of something that exercises restraint without being boring. While this won't join the "gotta have" club, it definitely makes me want to keep bottles from this label in my cabinet more often than not. Good stuff. Cheers!

A whiskey sample provided by dthom as part of the "Whiskey Transfer Program". This one kind of came out of left field and surprised me with how good it was. Nose: I've never smelled a whiskey that smells this heavily of bananas. Brown old bananas. Kind of liked dried banana chips. Also raisins and figs and dates. Heavy grain notes like corn flakes. With the sweet notes it's almost like frosted flakes. Taste: The banana is there but more subdued with dried fruits like cherries, figs, and raisins taking over at the front. Heavy caramelized sugars. Finish: Still sweet but the wood notes start to stand out. A long complex finish with oak, sandalwood, more dried fruit, and some spice. Heavily spiced with cloves and cinnamon standing out on the finish. Finishes very dry for such a sweet dram. Wow I was surprised how much I enjoyed this. Very complex and interesting.

First of all, this is very similar to Macallan, the same notes are there just in different amounts. I’d say this one is not as rich as Macallan but also noticeably smoother. The dark notes might be closer to coffee than nutty but as I mentioned overall very similar. For around $10 extra dollars for this one I’d say it’s worth it to support American small business and craft distilleries. Worth a try but might not change your life. I would try to find it to sample at a bar before you buy. Also its a plastic screw top instead of a cork. I needed vice grips to get the damn thing off each time.

The sherry comes through a bit on the nose as it's a bit sweeter and brighter than their oak dram. The palate evolves very nicely from the sweet sherry (very like the sherry finish scotchs) to a burnt oak and new leather that is really great. The finish is nice with more oak spice and dark notes and doesn't leave to quickly. This dram changes as I drink it and it's my favorite from Westland. Water deepens it for me and brings out louder, richer, and darker notes of wood and dark chocolate. This immediately went to the top of my favorites list and will maintain a spot in my cabinet.

Nose: feels a bit subdued, but there's definitely traditional fig and baked apples from the sherry cask. A bit of candy sweetness to the dark earthy aroma. At the edge of the glass more of the wood shines through. Palate: the sherry again clearly sets its prints with sweet dig and overly ripe brown apples. The sirup sweetness the follows, almost like brown sugar, accompanied with the classic Westland notes of chocolate and hazelnuts. Finish: mostles the sweetness, some wooden tannin and the dark coco and hazelnuts.

I think I love Sherry Wood more in my head than on my tongue. I’m revisiting my Westland bottles with a shard of ice and a fresh perspective. SW on ice stubbornly maintains its color until the 25th hour, but the nose absolutely blossoms into this rich landscape. The palate wants to open up as well but just barely doesn’t and it keeps that astringent finish that I’m too much of a baby to ignore. That said, nothing ventured, nothing gained... we’re back at the rating we started and I’m not mad at it.