Jewish Whisky Company Single Malt Whiskey (58.1%): I have today the Whisky Jewbilee Seattle 2016 Festival bottling on the desk. It is a single malt whiskey from Westland Distillery. Actually the whiskey is an iteration of the Whisky Jewbilee NYC 2015 Festival bottling which was a vatting of four Westland single malt single cask whiskeys using 100% Washington barley, 100% peated barley and Westland's five barley mash bill. At that time while they were bottling the NYC Festival whiskey they ended up filling a portion of the vat into a single first fill bourbon barrel and left it there for nine more months. After nine months the cask got bottled for Seattle Festival.
Color: Medium amber, orange blossom honey.
Nose: Honey, orange peel jam and gummi bears. Maraschino cherries, cranberry juice and polished furniture. Very distant sweet smoke and damp wool. Prunes, golden raisins and dry soil. Irish Spring soap bars and fresh linen. A few drops of water amplify all the things listed above especially the woolen aromas but don't add anything new necessarily. Oh, maybe some toasted wood.
Palate: A little hot at this abv. Milk chocolate, sour cherries and old leather jacket. Adding water works like a charm here: Quite peppery now... Tricolor peppercorns, crystallized ginger, orange marmalade and honey. Very satisfying mouth covering texture, chewy and viscous.
Finish: Long... Black pepper and ground ginger.
Overall: This is the most Scotch-like Westland whiskey I ever had... Perfect balance of spicy vs. sweet and pepper vs. honey. A warming and make-you-feel-good dram. I don't know if because it was gloomy and rainy in Los Angeles when I was tasting it but it definitely tasted good and kinda appropriate. You shouldn't be shy when adding water to this whiskey if you happen to have a bottle at home. It gets better and better with every drop... Well, now I regret that I don't have two bottles since I know this one won't last long. Kudos to Westland Distillery and Jewish Whisky Company...
Price: $85
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