Tasting notes

nose

peach cobbler and brown-sugar crumble, apricot, blackberry bramble and leather

palate

fruit leather and blackberry preserves, lime soda, vanilla wafer and black tea

finish

grilled peach and lime soda linger, then baking spice and toasted oak take over

Mash bill

100% malted barley. Like every Westward single malt, it starts as a barley ale fermented with ale yeast, so the fruit and floral notes in this nine-year whiskey trace back to a brewer's wash. The bonded rules leave the grain alone; they govern how the spirit is made, stored and bottled.

Why it's craft

The Bottled-in-Bond label demands one distilling season, one distiller, one bonded warehouse, at least four years in barrel and exactly 100 proof; this edition spent nine years in Westward's barrels. Every step happens at the Portland distillery, from brewing the barley ale to pot distillation and aging in new oak through Oregon's warm summers and cool, wet winters. It is released only to members of Westward's whiskey club.