Seattle’s Westland Distillery, one of the premier producers of American single malt, just celebrated a milestone with the release of the new 10-year-old version of its highly collectible Garryana whiskey. But in a turn of events that no one at the distillery could have foreseen, this almost didn’t happen—on July 31, a truckload of Westland whiskey worth almost $1 million, including nearly half of the Garryana bottles, was stolen.

Despite this (or possibly because of this), the distillery surpassed its previous one-day sales record from last year in less than an hour this past Saturday when the bottle officially launched at a party at the distillery, with a line of eager customers stretching around the building. In 2024, 375 were sold on launch day, and this year a total of 800 went to happy customers. This is not something that anyone at Westland will say, but there has been quite a bit of press and publicity surrounding the theft, which comes on the heels of a truckload of Santo Tequila being hijacked about a year ago. All of that has led to this already collectible whiskey getting a lot more attention, which could be considered a silver lining to the situation. Of course the Westland theft was a huge loss, and it is particularly distressing to the team given that this is the oldest Garryana release to date making the whiskey virtually irreplaceable. That being said, it seems like they are making the best of it.

The Garryana series is an annual release from Westland that focuses on the use of whiskey aged in Quercus garryana oak, a tree that is native to the Pacific Northwest. Like its Japanese cousin, mizunara, garryana is a gnarled tree that can be tough to work with and turn into barrels given its irregular grain. Still, it’s prized for the specific flavors it imparts to the whiskey, with a focus on notes of clove and molasses (it contains no vanillin, interestingly, according to the Westland team). On a recent visit to the distillery, I was able to try two component whiskeys that have gone into previous Garryana releases—one that spent five years in ex-bourbon barrels and five in garryana oak, and one that was aged solely in garryana. While both were very good (I particularly liked the one aged only in garryana), the intensity in flavor of these whiskeys makes it clear why they are used as components and not released on their own.

The new Garryana Tenth Edition was made from a few different barley varietals used at the distillery, specifically Five Malt, Washington Pale Malt, Copeland Pale Malt, 2-Row Distiller’s Pale Malt, and Pilsen Palt Malt, and it was fermented using the distillery’s signature Belgian saison brewer’s yeast. Then it was aged in a variety of casks—tempranillo wine, port, Pedro Ximenez sherry, ex-bourbon, Cooper’s Reserve, Cooper’s Select, and of course garryana oak (both first and second fill)—and bottled at 100 proof. This is an excellent whiskey, with balanced notes of spice, incense, citrus, dried fruit, maple, honey, oak, leather, and black pepper. The past couple of releases, while good, have been dominated by the sherry casks used in their maturation. This new edition, however, keeps the sherry influence to the background, which elevates the whiskey overall.

Originally, more than 7,800 bottles were supposed to be released this year, but of course that number was diminished after the theft of about 3,000 of those. Just over 4,600 bottles are being released instead (minus the 800 sold last weekend), each with a suggested retail price of $150. The stolen bottles have not been recovered yet, and there are many theories as to who did it and where they might be. Perhaps the thieves were expecting to get their hands on something a bit more mainstream, or even a container of high-end Cognac, given that Westland’s parent company is Remy Cointreau. Westland Garryana is a pretty specific bottle, and therefore one that might be harder to unload on the black market, but we will keep you posted on any developments to this story as it unfolds.