Episode 549: August 22, 2015

Many American craft distillers produce single malt whiskies, but Seattle’s Westland Distillery is one of the few that only produces single malts. The distillery in Seattle’s SoDo neighborhood also produces one of the few peated American single malts, and while Westland is currently importing peated malt from Scotland, that’s about to change. The distillery has exclusive rights to one of the only harvestable peat bogs in the Pacific Northwest, and is working with Skagit Valley farmers and a local malting house to produce Washington-grown peated malt for distilling. We’ll visit the distillery — and the peat bog — on this week’s WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, Four Roses’ Jim Rutledge goes out with a bang, Bowmore goes to Japan for its latest cask finish, and we’ll go bottom-shelf in this week’s tasting notes.

Links: Westland Distillery | Four Roses | Bowmore | Fujikai | William Grant & Sons | Binny’s | Spec’s Liquors | BevMo | Total Wine & More | Gordon & MacPhail | Kingsbarns | Puni | Stoll & Wolfe  | Johnnie Walker | Trader Joe’s | Rebel Yell