Washington Coast With Westland

In early 2020, Westland Distillery and Porchlight went on a little trip down the Washington Coast to visit their cask storage and bring back a special whiskey. In addition to Westland's staples, the distillery experiments with a variety of casks in which they finish aging the whiskey and occasionally the distillery bestows the honor of choosing which upon a lucky outsider.

I've been lucky to collaborate with Westland throughout the years and we've all become buddies, so this overnight sounded like a great time from the start. For anyone familiar with Northwest coastal towns, you know they're an acquired taste. The water is almost always too cold to swim in, there's plenty of wind and in most months, a certain indescribable mood seems to meander down the coast from Washington through Oregon. They're not California beach towns, but they feel like home to a lot of us.

On our drive down we stopped for food, but we also stopped for photos when I spotted a sight out of the car window that I thought needed documenting. Once we made it to the rackhouse, we grabbed samples from a few different casks, roamed the facility, talked about the whiskies and then headed back to the house. In addition to snacks, board games and very classy conversation, we sat around the table for a tasting. Ultimately, my favorite was a whiskey finished in a marsala wine cask. That cask is now available via Westland for pickup or delivery right here (NOW SOLD OUT) and my photos from the trip are available right down there...

-Zack