Tasting notes

nose

fig and raspberry jam, blackberry, mixed nuts and barrel char, with wet stone, old leather and a faint salinity

palate

cooked-down dark fruit, cherry, raspberry and strawberry over malt, with baking spice, red-wine fruit and a touch of earth

finish

concentrated; cranberry and fruit jams fade through citrus oil into pipe tobacco, cigar leaf and baking chocolate, drying on leather and light oak tannin

Mash bill

100% malted barley. It is Westward's standard all-malt wash, brewed with ale yeast and slow-fermented like a beer before double pot distillation. The dark fruit in this release comes from the Pinot Noir casks, not from the grain.

Why it's craft

This is the cask-strength version of Westward's Pinot Noir finish, mingled from more than 20 barrels that were given extra time before going into wine casks from the distillery's Willamette Valley neighbors. Westward brews, distills and ages the malt itself in Portland and released this bottling to its club for Oregon Wine Month. Since 2025 the company has been independently owned by Aqua Ardens, a group of its original investors.