Chocolate

Westland Sherry Wood

Westland Sherry Wood

Westland Distillery was founded in 2010 in Seattle by Matt Hofmann, and the Westland Sherry Wood is one of the three core offerings, along with the Peated and American Single Malt. Like those offerings, the Sherry Wood was moved to the distillery’s Heritage Collection in 2022 to make room for a new signature single malt expression. The base spirit of this whiskey is the same as the American Single Malt, fermented with Belgian Saison Brewer’s yeast, but then finished in ex-Pedo Ximénez and Oloroso sherry casks for an undisclosed amount of time. While there are supplies out on liquor store shelves and this single malt is still available for purchase via the distillery’s online store as of this review, there is no more being currently produced.

Branch & Barrel Plumwood

Branch & Barrel Plumwood

Branch & Barrel Distilling was founded in 2015 by friends Ryan Morgan, Scott Freund and Tom Sielaff after years of aging new make whiskey with different woods. One of them was wood from a plum tree, and was perhaps the one that finally pushed them into getting the distillery off the ground for real. The base spirit is a bourbon mash with high barley but some of their offerings are not aged in virgin oak barrels and thus do not meet the regulatory requirements to call it bourbon. The Branch & Barrel Plumwood is matured entirely in plum wood barrels and made in very small batches.

Tamdhu 15 Year

Tamdhu 15 Year

Tamdhu distillery was founded in 1896 in the Speyside village of Knockando, Scotland. Much of the next century passed without note, including some periods of dormancy related to war and supply shut off, and it wasn’t until the 1970s that more investments were made to increase production output. It is the last distillery in Scotland to use a Saladin box in production. Currently able to produce 4.5 million liters a year, most of the Tamdhu spirit is used in blended scotches like The Famous Grouse and Cutty Sark. However, some single malts do escape. This Tamdhu 15 is, like all their single malts, completely matured in ex-sherry casks.