Westland Distillery Peated 46% NV

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Serge Valentin (89)

Yes Westland even do peated. Most interestingly, they seem to be mashing a blend of heavily peated malt and unpeated malt, which sounds relatively smart as a way of adjusting the ‘peat levels’ in the spirit. But I believe they do more or less the same in Scotland, although they’d rather do that straight at the malting plants.

Colour: gold.

Nose: very very smart, because it’s delicate and subtle, much more so than what you can get when tasting some very young Scottish peaters. What’s even more amazing is that we’re relatively close to old-style Laphroaig, that is to say to the 10s from the 1970s, if that rings a bell. This is way less complex, obviously, but the profile is in the same vein, with plenty of soft tropical fruits and a delicate smoke, and even hints of camphory balm.

Mouth: I-am-impressed. It’s lacking ‘mingling’ and ‘polishing’, and you feel that the oak and the smoke, for example, are not quite tangoing to perfection yet, but other than that, this is a pretty marvellous soft tropical peater, with a smell of the 1960s on Islay in the air. They sure are onto something. Citrons, passion fruits, ashy smoke, even touches of salt… This is absolutely excellent.

Finish: medium, clean, zesty, ashy, smoky… And the aftertaste’s even a little bready.

Comments: unexpected. 24 months, they say. How many days in a month, in Seattle? 250?