Westward Distillery, in Portland, Oregon continues to push the envelope in making American single malt whisk(e)y in a style that’s unshackled from some of the more traditional aspects or methods that define (and sometimes limit), say, Scotch whisky. The latest release from Westward to explore flavour further is the Westward Tempranillo Cask.
Whisky & Wisdom has written about Westward previously, and if you need a quick memory jog about the distillery’s story and philosophy, you might like to check out the first few paragraphs in our previous article here. The Westward Tempranillo Cask is the first release in a new range that’s been christened the Cascadia Creative Series.
The Cascadia Creative Series is a collaboration between the distillery and Dominio IV Wines, also located in Oregon. The series has been designed to highlight the provenance of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon and to celebrate the creativity of the local team at Dominio IV Wines, a nearby producer from the Williamette Valley. The valley, on the western side of the Cascade Range, is home to over 7,500 hectares of vineyards and over 500 wineries.
“New world” whisky/whiskey is advancing and expanding in many countries around the globe at the moment, and the category is particularly exciting and dynamic, given that most of the producers aren’t shackled by the rules and limitations that constrain, for example, the Scotch whisky distilleries. One country that has truly exploded as a new world producer is the USA, with a host of distilleries showcasing many different styles of whisk(e)y above and beyond the traditional bourbons and ryes of Kentucky. Westward is one such distillery.
When new businesses are founded and launched, there are numerous financial and business models that help get the product to market. There might be schemes to raise capital; funds assigned to support marketing and promotion; and then comes the down-and-dirty process of actually selling the goods. It’s obviously a very diverse and varied minefield to tread. If you’re wondering how to start a new whisky brand, or even how to start a new whisky distillery, the minefield is particularly tricky to navigate…
The whisky industry is an example of a sector where that diversity and variation is most evident: There are brands and businesses that go large scale and are backed by investors who put up millions of pounds/dollars, and there are – quite genuinely – “mums and dads” businesses that are launched off little more than sweat and elbow grease in combination with passion to create a craft, artisan product. And, in more recent times, there are distilleries that get established off the back of crowdfunding or barrel investment schemes – with mixed degrees of success.
William Grant and his wife. Were the challenges of establishing a whisky distillery and brand much different in 1887 to today?
A question often pondered is whether or not the process of getting a whisky business off the ground is easier or harder than it was in the past? There’s a multitude of different factors and considerations. William Grant, together with his family, spent over a year physically building Glenfiddich with his bare hands and started distilling on Christmas Day in 1887 to establish his own brand. In contrast, if you’re armed with a website, a social media account, and access to some spirit distilled at Cooley, it seems you can quite easily launch an Irish whiskey brand overnight – complete with an impressive backstory!
In the harder basket, distilleries setting up today have planning and environmental controls that their predecessors didn’t have to worry about. Council and municipal applications and approvals can take years to get through, and the days of casually discharging distillery effluent and by-products back into the river downstream are long behind us.
In the easier basket, as we’ve seen already, the internet and social media marketing means you can broadcast and promote your brand to a wider audience than ever for relatively little money. Online sales via your own website mean you don’t even have to fight anymore with wholesalers or distributors to get your product on to the shelves of retail liquor outlets. The days of Tommy Dewar hopping on a ship and spending months sailing around the globe to get sales are also well and truly behind us.
Let’s look at a few distilleries and brands from around the world that have forged very different steps in very different landscapes to see how the process unfolded….
