Westward Stout Cask
I was facing westward, drinking Westward
My Drambuddie @dramblingman launched his DRAM1 explorers pack last spring.
Every season he will assemble an explorers pack, providing this awesome set of whiskies to restaurants, bars and other places, that are currently not offering a very nice set of whisky.
You know what I mean, those bars that have whisky on their menu, providing 2 different blends and a liquid they placed under whisky, but isn't.
In my opinion, a great idea and I hope this will give the Dutch hospitality business a chance to offer nice drams to their customers.
Being his drambuddy, he was so kind to send me some samples of his Spring Explorers Pack. This contained the Dingle la le bride and the Ferg & Harris Secret Speyside I reviewed earlier. But also some others, among them this one:
The Westward Stout Cask.
And I brought it with me on vacation. Drinking it on a beach in Normandy where the armies of William the Conquerer once left for England, facing westward in the setting sun.
The Westward Distillery is based in Portland, Oregon. Yes. The United States. The country where "whiskey" is being shotted by cowboys in movies and whisky is called Scotch. (Maybe I should do a blog about that difference sometimes.) But Westward makes a set of realy nice whiskies, and this Straight malt whiskey is something! Bottled for the WTF whisky festival in Utrecht, this unique whiskey also made me think "WTF!" while drinking it.
This NAS whiskey was bottles at 50% Vol (100% proof) and has a finish on ex-stout casks.
It is not colored and was not chill-filtered.
The color goes towards a warm brown golden orange, especially in the setting sun.
On the nose: Warm caramel over some fresh ice-cream. Dried orange peels and some peaches. Some sawdust and oak, mingled with red fruits like blueberries and cherries.
Taste: An almost creamy full flavor, covering the tongue as a spreading oil leak. The first notes are of honey glazed cashews and peach pie.
Followed by some bitter notes from the tannines going toward leather and dark oak. Ending in a faint sip of coffee.
The finish is soo long! I was waiting for it to finish so I could enjoy a second sip and it lasted so long I almost forgot to take a second sip!
Warm malty notes linger on the front of my palate and some more cane sugar notes in the middle. All paired with some dried fruitmix of apple, peaches and apricots.
What a dram. Truly a dram to get. And although bottled exclusively for the festival, you can still get it when I was writing this. I recommend trying it!