Westward Whiskey Two Malts – 2023

WESTWARD WHISKEY TWO MALTS
Exclusive Westward Club Release (2023)

MASH BILL – 88% Pacific Northwest 2-row pale malt barley, 12% malted rye

PROOF – 90

AGE – NAS (distilled July 2018, bottled ???, released May 2023, so ~4+ years)

DISTILLERY – Westward Whiskey

PRICE – sample bottle (normally $100)

WORTH BUYING? – Had I, yes.

Uncorked and tasted in The Year of No Buying (The what? 🔗 here.)

I’m a big Westward fan. Let’s start there. The last bottle of theirs I posted notes on was their standard Cask Strength release, which prompted me to ask aloud, Can Westward do no wrong? From smoldering single barrels to lovely wine cask finished releases, Westward’s ability to squeeze the maximum flavor possible out of their malted barley mash is exceptional.

When I interviewed founder Christian Krogstad, a key moment of the distillery tour he took me on was how it began, with our tossing back a handful of raw barley grains. With their innate nutty, fruity flavors pervading my senses, we then tasted through the fermenting mash, the first and second distillation runs, and finally a flight of eight different Westward Single Malt variations. All along the way, I could track those barley flavors as they evolved from grain to bottled whiskey. Krogstad’s history with brewing and wine making, and the distillery’s Portland location that provides access to a range of used casks from Oregon’s prolific wine and craft brewing communities, means Krogstad and his team can use cask finishing processes to further highlight the natural range of barley flavors and aromas.

So when I received this sample bottle of a new Westward whiskey that mixes rye grain into its barley mash, being both a Westward and rye fan, needless to say I was quite excited.

To my great surprise, at uncorking I actually found the whiskey off-putting. This was a first in my many Westward experiences. The rye grain seemed to distract rather than add to the barley flavors. There was a metal water bucket edginess surrounding the familiar Westward barley—an odd note that I wouldn’t characterize as “funk,” that broad category of whiskey flavor notes known to be incongruously “off” yet not “off-putting,” variously described as musty, old, damp, dusty, vegetal, meaty…

But I have faith in Westward, so I set the bottle aside. The next night my experience of the whiskey was the same. 😔 But a full week later, that nose-scrunching metal bucket edge had backed off substantially, yielding a much softer effect without losing the subtle rye notes.

So here we are, one day after that latest and more promising tasting, a full nine days after uncorking, and four pours into the bottle. These brief notes were taken using a traditional Glencairn.

COLOR – particularly vibrant medium-oranges

NOSE – a very fresh quality overall, with fruity and nutty barley, fresh peach, a peach tea, faint coffee, some dusty oak, dry end-of-summer grasses, light bitter maltiness

TASTE – a darker version of the nose, with caramel toffee added to the mix, and in the end a plume of the sweet fruit notes caught up in a dust cloud of bitter malt

FINISH – baked peach, bitter malt, oak dust, cream, milk chocolate

OVERALL – Westward does it again!

Though at uncorking I worried I might not like it in the end, it’s come around. Or I have. That edgy, off-putting metal bucket business is gone. And the trademark Westward barley notes are complimented now by drier tea, oak, and grass notes. If I were to line up all my Westward Whiskey experiences in order of preference, this 2023 Two Malts release would be last in that line up. But that’s only by comparison. This is good whiskey.

The bitterness comes in most prominently in the finish. I’d prefer less of it. Given how much this bottle has evolved in just a little over a week, however, it could be with more time that edge softens even further.

I want to drink this in a forest in late spring. Or an unkept field thick with tall grasses and thistly wildflowers. A fresh water stream gurgling nearby and an old cabin wouldn’t be a bad thing. Westward has crafted a sweet and savory whiskey, with the spicy rye grain making its subtle but notable influence amidst their lovely barley. I wouldn’t have even guessed rye was involved had I not known!

This is the second Two Malt release Westward has created. The first also featured rye, at 10% of the mash bill rather than the current 12%. As an exclusive release for their club members, it’s not otherwise readily available. But if you make the trip to Portland, you may very well find extra bottles lingering in their shop. Or if in your region you spot some other variation they’ve released, that might well be worth a try. What this bottle reinforces for me is how dependable Westward whiskeys are. Some releases might just need a bit more time after uncorking to acclimate to breathing again.

Cheers!