Forbes I November 6, 2022
Joseph V Micallef I Contributor
I write about wines and spirits and the hidden corners of the world
A consequence of America’s craft distillery boom is the emergence of regional styles. While it’s premature to identify a definitive character, especially regarding each region’s whiskey expressions, we can identify a commonality, a shared DNA, apparent in many distillery offerings.
In the Pacific Northwest, that commonality includes a focus on being a farm-to-glass distillery, a proclivity for using locally grown grains, especially historic varieties, and local ingredients, from peat to casks made from the local Garry Oak (Quercus garryana).
According to Steve Hawley, President of the American Single Malt Whiskey Association, the region’s historic role as a hotbed of craft brewing has instilled a penchant for experimentation and a willingness to craft creative mash bills, as well as unusual maturation protocols. Adds Hawley, “that’s a primary reason why the northwest has been a center of American malt whiskey production.”
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The Washington Distillers Guild has 65 members and operates a Distillery Trail website with directions to each distillery and tips on local sights and activities. Roughly half the distilleries are inside the Seattle metro area, and the balance is all within a 75-mile radius of the city. That makes Seattle an ideal base to explore Washington’s various distilleries. See VisitSeattle for an exhaustive list of additional tourist sights and activities.
Washington has about 30 distilleries producing whiskey. Below is a brief overview of the more intriguing ones.
Tucked away on the edge of greater Seattle, Woodinville Whiskey Company is an American whiskey icon. Orlin Sorensen and Brett Carlile started the distillery in 2010. The late David Pickerell, a former Master Distiller at Maker’s Mark, mentored them. Woodinville is also home to around 100 wineries.
Although headquartered in Woodinville, its bottling facilities and rick houses are in Quincy, surrounded by the Omlin Family Farm fields, where their grain is grown.
The Woodinville Whisky Company
PHOTO, COURTESY WOODINVILLE WHISKEY CO/LVMH
The core range consists of Woodinville Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Woodinville Straight Rye Whiskey, and Woodinville Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Port Finished. All three whiskeys are bottled at 90-proof.
My personal favorite is the Port Finished Straight Bourbon Whiskey. Woodinville takes its fully matured 5-YO Bourbon and finishes it in a Ruby Port barrel for six months. The finish adds a viscous mouthfeel and flavors of candied cherry, dried dark fruit, and milk chocolate.
There is also a distillery exclusive Cask Strength Straight Bourbon. Per Orlin Sorensen, each year sees a distillery-exclusive new cask finished expression. Past bottlings include Oloroso, PX, and Moscatel Setubal finishes. A new ruby port cask finished, 100% rye whiskey expression is due this November.
Bainbridge Organic Distillers is on Bainbridge Island - just a 20-minute ferry ride from downtown Seattle.
Keith Barnes founded the distillery in 2009. It was among the first Washington distilleries to utilize Mizunara casks for whiskey maturation.
It also pioneered finishing its whiskey, typically for 8-10 months, in casks that previously held “island-produced” spirits. Combined with its Puget Sound location, where salt-laden marine air envelopes its maturing casks, its whiskey expressions offer a unique aroma and taste profile.
The company produces Battle Point Organic Wheat Whiskey, Two Islands Islay Cask Whiskey, Two Islands Hokkaido Mizunara Cask Whiskey, and Two Islands Barbados Rum Cask Whiskey.
According to Barnes, “Two Island cask finishes in the pipeline include a Madeira cask and a Stout cask.” Also coming is a Limited Edition, 100% rye grain whiskey.
Westland Distillery is an urban distillery founded by Matt Hofmann and Emerson Lamb in 2010. It’s just a few blocks west of the old Rainer Brewery - a familiar landmark as you enter Seattle on I-5 northbound. The distillery is one of the pioneers of American single malt.
Westland’s founders believe the Pacific Northwest is ideally suited for producing single malt whiskey since “Washington state contains two of the best barley growing regions in the world.”
Westland American Single Malt Whiskey
PHOTO, COURTESY WESTLAND DISTILLERY
The distillery’s whiskey range comprises its flagship Single Malt American Whiskey, the limited offering Colere (Edition 2), Garryana (Edition 6), and several peated and special bottlings.
The Colere series explores unique varieties of barley that have been selected for their flavor profile. Edition 2 features Talisman barley produced for Westland in the neighboring Skagit Valley.
Talisman is a two-row winter barley that is low in protein. Although the variety originated in Denmark, it’s widely used to produce traditional British ales.
The Garryana Edition 6 is a quintessential example of true northwest terroir. Garryana refers to Quercus garryana, commonly called Garry Oak. This variety of white oak is native to the northwest, ranging from western British Columbia to northern California.
According to Matt Hofmann, Westland’s Master Distiller:
American oak gives you roughly caramel, coconut, vanilla, and generic baking spices. Garry oak takes all those themes but turns them dark. Molasses instead of caramel, clove instead of generic baking spice. Instead of a vanillin phenolic note, we get barbecue sauce and smoke.
Copperworks Distilling Company, another urban distillery, is adjacent to the world-famous Pike Street Market.
Jason Parker and Micah Nutt, both experienced craft beer makers, founded the distillery in 2013. In 2018, the American Distilling Institute chose it Distillery of the Year.
All its spirits are crafted from a mash bill of malted barley.
Copperworks produces two single malt whiskey expressions: American Single Malt Whiskey and a Peated Cask American Single Malt Whiskey. Each release, typically drawn from a blend of six to eight barrels, features mash bills based on different barley varieties and varying maturation strategies.
The Single Malt Whiskey Release #45, the most recent, uses a barley variety called Fritz. Copperworks matured 94% of the whiskey for 36 months in newly charred American oak barrels. The balance spent 60 months in a Manzanilla Sherry cask.
The #44 release, on the other hand, consisted of four barrels distilled from Great Western Malting Pale Ale. Copperworks brewed three barrels from Baronesse barley, and one barrel consisted of a redistillation made up entirely of heads and tails.
The varied mash bills mean that each release is a different whiskey from its predecessor.
The peated whiskeys show a similar variation. Release #43, the most recent peated release, was matured for three years in a new, charred, American oak barrel and then for one year in a cask that previously held Ardbeg Single Malt Scotch Whisky.
The #42 release, on the other hand, was distilled from a variety of barley called Copeland. It was grown in the Skagit Valley and smoked using peat from a lakebed on the Olympic Peninsula.
Copperworks, American Single Malt Whiskey
According to Jason Parker:
Washington peat is softer and less aggressive. It manifests on the finish rather than on the nose and imparts dried floral, rosemary, sage, and herbal/maquis notes. It’s more reminiscent of brush/forest floor and cold smoke notes than the phenolic, mint, briny and fishy aromas you find on Islay.
Although Washington has extensive peat deposits, Parker notes that many aren’t exploitable since most are designated protected wetlands. He adds,
Our peat comes from an active lakebed, still covered by water, so the peat is younger and still has a lot of fresh organic material. The freshness plus our washing of the peat gives us a cleaner smoke when we burn it.
Another feature of Washington peat is the scarcity of sphagnum moss, unlike Islay peat, and the prevalence of Labrador Tea (Rhododendron groenlandicum). Moss imparts pronounced phenolic aromas when burned, while Labrador Tea adds pine and citrus notes.
OOLA Distillery heralds itself as the oldest Seattle distillery. Dave Braun and Troy Amdahl founded the distillery in 2010 in South Seattle, a few blocks east of Interstate 5.
Its whiskey range includes OOLA Waitsburg Bourbon at 94 proof and a cask strength version at 116.
The Discourse Series: Three Shores Whiskey is a blend of Highland Scotch, Canadian, and OOLA’s High Rye Whiskey. The three whiskeys are blended and aged for up to an additional year in American oak casks.
The Discourse Series, Discourse C Bourbon, on the other hand, is based on a mash bill of corn, rye, malted barley, and wheat. It undergoes six to eight years of aging before being finished for an additional year in used Cabernet Sauvignon barrels of French oak.
Fremont Mischief produces nine different whiskeys that utilize different mash bills and various distillation and maturation protocols. Mike Sherlock and Patti Bishop founded the distillery in 2009.
Among the more intriguing whiskies produced by Fremont Mischief is Purple Tibetan Ancient Grain Straight Rye Whiskey - a rye whiskey based on a mash bill of 80% Northern rye and 20% Purple Tibetan Karma barley. The distillery adds five pounds of toasted Purple Tibetan directly to the still before distillation.
Freemont Mischief's Storm Tossed Rye Whisky Range
Equally fascinating is Mischief Fremont’s Storm Tossed Rye Whiskey. Since 2013, the distillery has aged four identical rye whiskeys on crab boats in the Bering Sea. Surprisingly, notwithstanding its common DNA, the different combinations of wave action, temperature, barometric pressure, and stowage location produces notably different aroma and taste profiles.
Chambers Bay Distillery is in University Place, a suburb of Tacoma. Jeff Robinette and Alan Davis founded the distillery in 2012. They began producing whiskey in 2014.
The distillery makes three bourbons: Greenhorn, CBD Straight 3 YO+ Bourbon, and Captain’s Reserve Bottled-In-Bond, a distillery exclusive 5 YO Bourbon.
Chambers matures its whiskey in floating boat houses on Puget Sound, describing the process as “hydrokinetic.” The constant motion created by the wave and tidal movement accelerates the aging process by increasing the interaction of wood and spirit in the oak barrels. The combination of sea air and the charred oak create a distinctive salted caramel flavor in the whiskey.
Dry Fly Distilling, located in downtown Spokane, was founded by Don Poffenroth in 2007. It was Washington state’s first small distillery since Prohibition.
The distillery’s whiskey range includes a 4 YO Straight Bourbon 101, a 3 YO Straight Wheat Whiskey, in both 90 proof and a cask strength 120 proof, and a 3 YO Triticale Whiskey.
Triticale is a hybrid of wheat and rye developed in Scotland in the late 1880s.
Dry Fly also has a 3 YO Straight Wheat Whisky Port Barrel Finish, which spends an additional 9-12 months in a Port wine barrel, and a Straight Wheat Whiskey finished in a cask of Kettlehouse’s Cold Smoke Scotch Style Ale.
Particularly intriguing is O’Danaghers 5 YO American Hibernian Whisky - a unique take on traditional Irish pot still whiskey based on a mash bill of wheat, barley, malted barley, and oats. Alternatively, O’Danaghers 5 YO American Caledonian Whiskey is based on a mash bill of malted and unmalted barley.
Washington’s top whiskey producers offer a varied and innovative selection of craft whiskeys that genuinely reflect the region’s terroir and brewing traditions. Their concentration in and around Seattle makes them easy to visit and adds to the city’s other considerable charms - its outstanding tourist attractions and world-class restaurants. See you in Seattle!