Westland has been one of the most compelling stories in American whiskey over the past decade — a Seattle-based distillery that looked not to Kentucky but to Scotland for its inspiration, and in doing so carved out something genuinely its own. Their Peated Single Malt American Single Malt Whiskey is, in many ways, the bottle that best captures that ambition. At 46% ABV and without an age statement, it asks you to judge it on character rather than numbers. I'm happy to report it earns that confidence.
What Westland is doing with peat in the Pacific Northwest deserves attention. This isn't an American distillery trying to copy Islay — it's a distillery using peat as one voice in a broader conversation about what American single malt can be. The whiskey is built on a mash bill of peated and unpeated malted barley, and that balance is the key to its personality. You're not getting a smoke bomb. You're getting something more considered, where the peat sits alongside the grain character rather than bulldozing it.
At 46%, bottled without chill filtration, there's an honesty to the presentation that I appreciate. Too many NAS releases hide behind heavy finishing or aggressive proofing. Westland lets the spirit speak, and it has something to say. The American oak influence is present but measured — this isn't a bourbon-adjacent sweetness play. It reads more like a young, confident malt whisky that happens to have been made three thousand miles from the nearest Scottish distillery.
Tasting Notes
I'll reserve detailed tasting notes for a future revisit with a fresh bottle, but the broad strokes are worth noting: expect the interplay between gentle smoke and cereal sweetness that defines this category, with enough weight and texture at 46% to reward patience in the glass. This is a whisky that changes meaningfully over twenty minutes, so don't rush it.
The Verdict
At £51.50, this sits in a competitive space. You could buy a decent Scotch single malt for similar money, and plenty of people will. But Westland's Peated offers something those bottles don't — a genuine point of difference. It's American craft whiskey that doesn't apologise for drawing on Old World traditions, but it doesn't simply imitate them either. The result is a whisky with real identity, and that counts for a great deal in a market drowning in me-too releases.
I'm giving this a 7.6 out of 10. It's a well-made, thoughtfully constructed single malt that delivers on its promise. It doesn't quite reach the complexity of the best peated Scotch malts at this price — the depth of flavour that comes with Scotland's longer maturation traditions is hard to replicate — but it's not trying to. Judged on its own terms, as an American single malt with a peated accent, it's a genuinely rewarding dram and one I'd happily recommend to anyone curious about where this category is headed.
Best Served
Neat, in a Glencairn, with a few drops of water after your first sip. The water opens up the middle register considerably and lets the peat integrate more fully with the malt sweetness. If you're in the mood for something longer, a Highball with good soda water and a twist of lemon works surprisingly well — the smoke gives it backbone that most Highball whiskies lack. But start neat. Always start neat.
