Review #478 - Westland Garryana Edition 4|1 (2019)
Part of Westland distillery's 'Native Oak Series,' this bottling of their annual Garryana release arrived in 2019. The focus in the Garryana series is generally on the oak used - each bottling contains at least a portion of spirit that was aged in Garryana, or Oregon White Oak, which tends to add more baking spice notes to the whisky.
Actually, there's quite a bit more to the cask regimen for this fourth release of Garryana. Both new Garryana oak casks and refill Garryana oak casks were used to mature the whisky; additionally, they used ex-rye casks, ex-bourbon casks, and Pedro Ximenez sherry hogsheads. The minimum aging time for these barrels was 3 years (44 months, to be specific), but there's a range of cask ages up to 5+ years involved. At the end of that maturation, Westland bottled this whisky at 50% ABV (100 proof).
Westland Garryana Edition 4|1 (2019)
USA - Single Malt
Current Locally Available Price: USD 145 (2025)
Age Statement: 3 Years
Strength: 50% ABV
Cask Makeup: Ex-bourbon, ex-rye, first fill Garryana oak, refill Garryana oak, and ex-Pedro Ximenez sherry hogsheads
Details: Not chill filtered, no color added; bottled 2019; 3,750 bottles
Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 1 time; bottle 20% fill level at time of review. Tasted in a nosing glass, rested 10-15 minutes
Nose: Strong cinnamon applesauce, or apple-cinnamon oatmeal; a nice spice kick, with nutmeg and oak. There is a noticeable red wine in the background, but it gets mostly covered by malt and chocolate. The oak grows stronger with time, but there's good balance.
Palate: The mouthfeel has a medium thickness; baking notes of cinnamon, cardamom, and vanilla start the palate. There's plenty of chocolatey malt, too, and it leans a bit sweet; fruit arrives later in the palate, specifically orange rind and tart cherry.
Finish: Super malty - chocolate malt balls, chalk, some milk chocolate, too. There's some syrupy red fruit like cooked cranberry in the aftertaste, and it's a medium length finish.
Final Note: Very tasty American single malt - a great mix of sweetness and spice, with a strong emphasis specifically on chocolate notes. The Garryana and rye casks did add some nice baking spice flavors, and the texture was decent at the 50% ABV bottling strength. We would be very curious to try this at cask strength - some of the other Garryana releases have indeed seen higher bottling strengths.
Value is just okay, though, because this is quite an expensive bottle of whisky. We have seen it in our area for about $145, but it isn't uncommon to see online pricing in the $150 to $170 range.
Our Average Rating: 8.3 / 10
In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.
Value Rating: 6.28
About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.
