Tasting notes

nose

biscotti, caramel, stewed orchard fruit, fig jam, nutmeg and chocolate

palate

raisin and dark fruit, buttercream and honey, with strawberry and cherry

finish

long; blackberry and sweet licorice fade into hazelnut and chocolate caramel, ending on pipe tobacco

Mash bill

100% malted barley. Westward brews the barley into an ale with ale yeast and a slow, low-temperature fermentation before double distillation. The grain bill is the house standard; the orange and dried fruit in this release come from the casks.

Why it's craft

For its first Pedro Ximénez finish, Westward found casks that had held PX Naranja, a Spanish sweet wine matured with Seville orange peel, which brings citrus to the dried-fruit depth of PX. The single malt going into them is brewed as an ale, double distilled and aged in new American oak at the Portland distillery. It was released to Westward's whiskey club.