With One Recipe But Many Styles American Single Malt Is In The Spotlight

Since 2012, Westland Distillery has plied its trade in Seattle’s SoDo neighborhood, named for its south of downtown location. It’s a former industrial part of town filled with warehouses and factories that have gradually given way to a new generation of distillers, brewers, restaurants, and retailers. Westland’s trendy urban feel stands in stark contrast to its whiskey creations, which lean toward a far different landscape—north in the Skagit Valley, where damp, spongy peat bogs proliferate and fields of tulips, cabbage, potatoes, and barley grow, then west to Washington’s forests of garryana oak. These are the places where you’ll find Westland’s inspiration for its whiskeys, which are part of a burgeoning style called American single malt.

But Westland’s whiskeys represent just one of many interpretations of the genre, as distillers around the country put their own stamp on this rapidly emerging style. The core unifying factor, of course, is a mashbill of 100% malted barley, the roots of which can be traced to single malt scotch. But American distillers have taken Scotland’s influence and created something entirely new.

“Initially we were very informed by Scotland— our engineer and mentor Harry Cockburn had also been the engineer at Bowmore, and had spent decades in the industry,” says Amanda Beckwith, lead blender at Virginia Distillery Co. in Lovingston, which opened its doors in 2011 and makes only single malt. “He designed the layout of our distillery so you can blink and pretend you’re in Scotland. But things took a distinctly American turn.”