Apr. 27: Drammers Washington DC with Devin Vilardi of Westland American Single Malt......
Fellow Drammers,
We’re excited to invite you to a special tasting of Westland American Single Malt whiskey in Washington DC on Wednesday, April 20th from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. Our guest speaker will be none other than our longtime friend and fellow Drammer Devin Vilardi, brand ambassador for Westland American Single Malt. If you’re not familiar with Westland, well honestly we’re a bit jealous — if only we could be exposed to these for the first time anew. But here’s the crash course — they only make American Single Malt, which is made from 100% malted barley (like a Scotch), but distilled and matured in Seattle where the distillery is located. They’ve never made a bourbon or a rye, on the logic that corn is not native to the Pacific Northwest, so what’s the point (makes sense to us!).
We’ve had the honor of welcoming Devin to our club in numerous forms online and in person over the years, including recent events in Boston in New York City, and we’ve put together a no-holds-barred lineup of great Westland expressions that amount to a master class crash course in this important distillery. Without further ado, check out our lineup, drumroll please….
Colere, Release #2. There is an active debate in the whisky world as to whether grain matters. Does one varietal of barley change the flavor? Some say no, that the differences are too minute and do not survive the harsh distillation process. But Exhibit A of the defense would undoubtedly be this release, and it is a major testament to Westland that they have invested the time and energy to prove it out. Each release of Colere explores a different rare grain varietal, and the resulting flavor differences are extraordinary. We’ve tried Colere release #1 in the past, but this release is hot off the presses and we are dying to try it.
Garryana, Release #5 and #6. Arguably even more ground-breaking is Westland’s work with a nearly unexplored type of wood - Garryana oak, native to the Pacific Northwest, albeit exceedingly rare. The rest of the whisky world has confined itself to American Oak, the 2 types of European oak (Quercus Robur and Sesile) and a small amount of the vaunted Minunara oak. Take away all the marketing, and virtually all whisky has been matured in one of those 4 types of oak. So the fact that Westland has pioneered maturing whisky in a new, 5th type of oak is an extraordinary and important accomplishment for whisky nerds. As it turns out, this oak is so flavorful, that they have to mute it to a certain extent. At a past Drammers event, we tried a single barrel fully matured in Garryana oak, and it was arguably overpowering. So for these special Garryana releases, they blend a mix of Garryana and conventional oak matured whiskies, and each release is different. Our club has tracked down a bottle of the long sold-out Garryana 5th release, and Devin has generously agreed to bring a bottle of their newest release #6, so we’ll be able to try them side-by-side.
Drammers-Exclusive Single Barrels #430 and #3240. As you can probably tell, our club has long been huge fans of this distillery. So when we decided in 2019 to launch our barrel pick program, Westland was one of our first choices. We selected 2 of the 9 single barrels they had set aside for release that year — one medium peated, one heavily peated. Technically, they were peated to the same level, but the resulting flavor tastes medium peated and heavily peated. The latter is especially unusual — other than their very limited annual peat week release, Westland has not leaned in to a heavily peated expression to define their whisky, making our Cask #3240 a particularly rare flexing of Westland’s muscles. Both are bottled at cask strength north of 60% abv.
Cask Exchange - Lucky Envelope Brewing. Westland has made it one of their trademarks to exchange barrels with celebrated breweries, resulting in American Single Malt experimental barrels that are only available for sale at the distillery in Seattle. Luckily, our club has a chapter in Seattle, and we make a habit of stopping by the distillery to stock up on these special experiments to save for special occasions like this tasting. So we’ll be opening one of them, a cask exchange release of whisky matured in a cask that formerly hold Lucky Envelope beer. It honestly has to be tasted to be believed, so we won’t say anything more other than to emphasize that unless you happen to visit the distillery in Seattle in the next month or so, you’ll likely never get another chance to taste it.
Coldfoot. Another experimental release and one of only 978 bottles released in partnership with Filson (which is appropriate seeing as our event will be at the Filson store in DC). There is a historical component to this whisky that we’ll get into at the tasting. But for now, suffice it to say that it is a peatier, bolder version of their whisky than they usually show. It’s certainly quite rare.
All 3 Core Range Releases. With all these extremely rare special releases, it’s easy to lose sight of the core range, but of course if you fall in love with these whiskies, these are what you’ll be going back to buy, so we’ll be trying all three. With all of their ground-breaking experimental ranges (Colere and Garryana are new, and a 3rd focusing on American peat is imminent), they’ve had to consolidate their core range a bit in the last couple years. We’ll be trying all 3 of their American Oak, featuring the signature roasted notes that come from the way they prepare their barley, along with the sherry wood and peated variants.
How about that for a lineup? And yes, if you’re counting, that is 10 expressions, and we make no promises that we won’t add bonus pours, ha. Definitely take an uber. But we will have pizza on hand to make sure nobody is drinking on an empty stomach. It’s not an understatement to say that a deep dive tasting opportunity like this, let alone with the Westland brand ambassasdor, doesn’t come along very often. We hope you can join us.
Cheers,
Charlie, Joe and Drammers Club