The effort to put a little taste of your place into a bottle is one that has gripped ‘new wave’ distilleries around the world in recent years. Keen to differentiate themselves from the flavors created by heritage industries like Scotch and bourbon, they often look to nature for a sense of identity. In the process, these new wave distilleries have pushed whiskey in new directions: flavors we didn’t know were possible are making their way into our glasses.
Naturally, this tastes different everywhere. Perhaps the most internationally known example of this comes from mizunara — the challenging Japanese oak that has become an international star in recent years. On a more craft level, Icelandic distillery Eimverk draws on the island’s only native tree, birch, to bring a sense of place to some of their Flóki whiskeys, too. But with the whole world using American white oak to age their whiskies, this route was initially less clear in the United States. When your wood is the standard — the reliable, solid workhorse of the global whiskey industry — the quest for the next big thing is an audacious and windy one. In recent years, it is one that has developed quietly yet confidently in the Pacific Northwest.
The forests of the Pacific Northwest are perhaps the most magical thing about the region. They are anything but quiet, with perpetually dripping and gushing water, subtly teeming with plant and animal life everywhere around you. Moss and ferns cling to paths and creep up towering trees. Walk half a mile, and the terrain can change completely from farmland to thick forest to, eventually, mountains. Capturing that in a whiskey was irresistible for the team at Seattle’s Westland — and set them on a mission to redefine our thoughts on oak maturation.
Westland was established in 2011, with the explicit aim of exploring the potential for making American single malt whiskey that proudly hailed from the Pacific Northwest. Since then, it has won awards for its sustainable practices and become a cornerstone of the Skagit Valley community near its rackhouse, as well as a firm favorite among mixologists in the region. Its projects have included using Washington peat for whiskey and work with its farmer neighbors to grow local barley. Perhaps most intriguingly, the team has given particular focus to developing a system to mature whiskey in Garry Oak casks.
Garry Oak (Quercus garryana) is the native oak of the Pacific Northwest, growing only from northern California to the southern parts of British Columbia. With gnarly, twisted branches and solid trunks, the tree takes more than 150 years to grow to maturity. Yet even in its homeland, the Garry Oak has been pushed out, starting in the mid-19th century. Prior to US settlement of the region, local tribes had carried out regular burnings, clearing out land for hunting. Garry Oak could withstand that, and even some forest fires, giving it an advantage over other trees. When that stopped, however, Douglas Fir moved in, taking up sunlight and space. Today, Garry Oak is estimated to retain only approximately five per cent of its original habitat.
For Westland, the story of locality and scarcity offered by its local oak was an irresistible path towards exploring regionality in its whiskey. Yet using an endangered tree to create casks little-known in the industry is far from simple. Finding a source of the wood presents issues: many remaining forests are protected; locals who don’t know of the value of the tree use it as firewood; and even what can be found needs drying for years. Unlike in Kentucky, where the established bourbon industry has a clear supply chain catering to each step of the process, the Pacific Northwest’s pioneer distillers have had to come up with each source and solution themselves.
The distillery gets some of its Garry Oak from Samuel and Norman Kropf, whose property lies near Halsey, a rural settlement halfway between Salem and Eugene, in Oregon. The team have also worked with Goby Walnut, near Salem, to turn some of that precious wood into casks. For Westland, supporting these communities is another key element to its approach. The oak isn’t easy to work with and requires specialist craftsmanship of a kind that’s under threat across the country. Of course, that also comes at a cost: American white oak barrels cost an average of $200, while the intense work to create a Garry Oak cask totals closer to $1,000.
The dream, though, is for Garry Oak to one day thrive as a species and become part of a well-oiled, craft supply chain in the region. Westland has worked closely with local land trust Forterra to plant hundreds of saplings in Washington, making a small yet notable move toward restoring the tree in its native heartland. The whiskey releases contribute to this, raising the profile of the tree as a key part of Westland’s identity is part of the plan. If whiskey drinkers gain a vested interest in the environments around their favorite distilleries, they will hopefully feel a responsibility to look after it. Of course, these trees won’t be mature until more than 150 years from now — the collaboration isn’t a quick fix or even a direct solution to the supply chain challenges, but neither is it envisioned to be.
Food and drink uniquely translate the natural world into flavor — an emotive process that links Westland drinkers with the trees. This is viewed with great excitement by the Westland team. “Our work means people interacting with the oak,” explains master distiller Tyler Pederson. He is passionate about the many different experiments Westland has awaiting release, all portraying different elements of its journey. For an oak that has long been overlooked, association with an intriguing whiskey series brings renewed attention. “We are telling its story — there is a great potential in that exchange to do good for the species as a whole.” That story has already gone beyond Westland and the United States, too — the experimental Irish distillery Method & Madness has used Garry Oak, and curiosity among consumers is global.
The resulting flavors that await them are surprising and exciting. Pederson is interested in the subtle yet inherent smokiness that Garry Oak casks lend whiskey, whatever the char and toast. It speaks of an inherent quality in the wood — one that is local to the Pacific Northwest, in stark contrast to the imported Scottish peated barley often used to bring smoke to American single malt releases. Spicy clove notes and molasses come through too, adding deeper notes than whiskey makers are used to from American white oak. All of this marries with high tannins, creating a drying, slightly puckering sensation across the tongue and gums that draws out the deeper, earthier notes in whiskey. Overall, it’s powerful wood. Currently, a careful effort is required when marrying casks to achieve balance — but over the years, the distillery team will move on from fresher wood to using poised and elegant third-fill casks.
In 2025, Westland celebrated its first age statement whiskey with a 10-year-old Garry Oak bottling. It marked a coming of age for the distillery and its ideology — bringing the Pacific Northwest to whiskey in a way that speaks to even the whiskey lovers who still want to see a number on their bottles. It also comes within a year of the ratification of American single malt whiskey as an official category. The release demonstrated the depth of knowledge the distillery team has gained over the past decade: made using second-fill Garry Oak casks, the 10 Years Old has a depth that points to an exciting future for the wood and casks already in circulation.
Sadly, much of the stock failed to reach the open market: a truck transporting most of the bottles to a distribution center in New Jersey disappeared. Next to no trace of the cargo was recovered. Much has been speculated about the fate of the bottles, and while the loss was a massive disappointment, Westland are keen to look forwards. With more than a decade’s worth of whiskey in Garry Oak and no plans to stop using the fascinating wood, future releases are ones to look out for. The scarcity of the wood is not something that can be solved anytime soon: the whiskey it makes will continue to be rare and will never become a mainstream part of the American spirits scene. But it’s well worth seeking out.
For me, Westland’s Garry Oak will always be the whiskey to epitomize the Pacific Northwest. Wherever I am in the world, it is a drink that transports me directly back to the forests and waterfalls of Washington, hiking trips with friends and the satisfied, sleepy evenings that follow.
