Taste Test: This Solid American Single Malt Dials in Its Smoke With Homegrown Peat

Jonah Flicker

2 March 2025 at 1:00 pm·4-min read

Welcome to Taste Test, where every week our critic Jonah Flicker explores the most buzzworthy and interesting whiskeys in the world. Check back each Sunday for his latest whiskey review.

If you’re tuned into the world of American whiskey, you’ve surely heard the news that American single malt is now a legally defined and recognized category. This is something that many distilleries have long awaited, especially considering that craft producers have been making this style of whiskey for decades. One of those is Westland, a Seattle distillery (now owned by Remy Cointreau) that experiments with elements of production to highlight the effects of terroir on flavor. The latest release is the third edition of its Solum American Single Malt, a smoky whiskey that uses peated barley from Washington instead of Scotland to hone in on a sense of place.

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Solum is part of Westland’s Outpost Range, which also includes Garryana (highlighting the use of a type of oak that is native to the Pacific Northwest) and Colere (which focuses on specific barley varietals). There are, of course, other smoky American whiskeys, but many of them use peated barley imported from Scotland while others rely on things like mesquite or cherrywood to smoke the grains. Solum, however, keeps things local. “Solum contains the most obvious connection to our Pacific Northwest region, while drawing a direct line to the lineage of single malt whiskey making,” said Westland master blender Shane Armstrong in a statement. “So far, the flavors trend toward the earthier end of peat, moss and sage, with lighter charred wood notes. This character contrasts the medicinal and overt wood smoke found in other peated whiskies.”

It’s no secret that peat from specific regions brings different flavors to a whiskey. In Scotland, for example, Islay peat is thought to imbue whisky with a different flavor than peat sourced from the Highlands. So why shouldn’t that be the case with peat from the PNW? Westland obviously thinks it is, so it sources the peat from a bog about two hours from Seattle. The distillery uses what it says is a more eco-conscious process by removing peat from below the waterline instead of draining the bog, something that it believes will ensure that there will be peat for whiskey making (and other things) in the future.

The new Solum edition was made from a mashbill of 100 percent Skagit Valley Malting peated malt, aged for at least 48 months in a combination of second-fill American oak (68 percent) and new American oak (32 percent), and bottled at 100 proof. Edition 3 is a year older than the previous release, and the bourbon barrels used in that one were swapped out with barrels previously used to age Westland single malt, something that Armstrong says brings out more oak and malt character. Indeed, this tastes nothing like a Scottish peated whisky. The smoke is relatively subtle but still present, and it’s a rubbery, savory flavor that is far from the iodine and seaweed notes you might pick up from Ardbeg or Lagavulin whiskies. There are rich chocolate notes, something that seems to pop up a lot in Westland’s whiskeys, along with flavors like ginger spice, baked apple, burnt caramel, and some ripe red berry.

There definitely seems to be something to the concept of using regional peat, and overall Westland has proven that it can make unique and flavorful whiskeys using local ingredients to highlight terroir. The bottom line is that this is a good whiskey, and while it might not be your everyday pour it certainly serves its purpose and offers proof of concept. Anyone who is interested in the American single malt category at large, or who is just curious to continue the discussion of terroir in whiskey, should give this new bottle a try.

Score: 86

100 Worth trading your first born for
95 – 99 In the Pantheon: A trophy for the cabinet
90 – 94 Great: An excited nod from friends when you pour them a dram
85 – 89 Very Good: Delicious enough to buy, but not quite special enough to chase on the secondary market
80 – 84 Good: More of your everyday drinker, solid and reliable
Below 80 It’s Alright: Honestly, we probably won’t waste your time and ours with this

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