One of the problems with American single malt as a category is that nobody knows what it will be, one bottle or one distiller to the next. I tend to compare them to Scotch or Irish whiskies, given the barley base. Often, the American single malts suffer in that comparison. Westward seems to know what it is and what it wants to be, however, and more than holds its own. I wasn’t wrong back in 2019 when I circled Westward Whiskey on my Portland Distillery Row passport and decided I wanted to learn more. I still do. This cask-strength release is something distinctly itself – featuring maltiness, of course, but with a bourbon-like influence from the new charred oak barrels and a personality that comes from the Pacific Northwest brewer’s foundation underlying the distillation.rn
Editor’s Note: This whiskey was either bought as a sample by The Whiskey Wash or provided to us as a review sample by the party behind it. Per our editorial policies, this in no way influenced the outcome of this review.
Scott Bernard Nelson is a writer, actor, and whiskey reviewer based in Portland, Oregon. While currently working in higher education, he previously dedicated 22 years to journalism, covering impactful events such as 9/11 in Manhattan, crossing into Iraq with U.S. Marines, and contributing to The Boston Globe's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of abuse in the Catholic Church, which inspired the film "Spotlight." Since 2019, Scott has shared his insights as a whiskey reviewer for The Whiskey Wash.
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